Violence begets violence

[dArKeR]

It's been over two weeks now since the despicable bombings in London, and the authorities have had plenty of time to find out information about the perpetrators, as well as their motives for committing such an act. There has been a lot of media analysis -- background research, analysis of ethnic strife in modern Britain, and brainstorming of reasons as to why these four apparently normal young men would want to do such a terrible thing.
But up until now, I haven't seen many newspapers or columnists mention what the majority of Brits would probably consider the main reason these murders were committed -- Britain's role in Iraq and Afghanistan as the poodle of the US, and the deaths of thousands of innocent Muslims.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not unpatriotic. I'm British and I support our soldiers, and I know the British in Iraq are a hell of a lot more organized, responsible, friendly, and less trigger-happy than their coalition counterparts.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/07/29/2003265526

[PATRICK]

1. Sheep to the slaughter

Only part of our media problem is intentional propaganda. the instinctive herding into these incorrect mass responses is something we all share to some extent. Why defend your patriotism or how much better our occupying forces are than Saddam's army or the other coalition troops?

The naked truth and the toppling of of our easy institutionalized people and notions is something it almost takes a death in the family to dispel. Then, that hurts so much that the right words are equally hard to find and more painful.

Why feel unpatriotic because it is hard to "war" against violence when we are "under attack"? The strongest aspect of democratic patriotism is to overcome violence with law and crime control and deal with the roots of the problem.

The root of that weed is greed. No civil government or vital human service can survive when the bottom feeders of the money social order are our undisputed gods. No majority in any country wanted the Iraq War. All the upstairs rationale was a lie and much worse. The whole world has to be turned upside down to get rightside up- and without the circular degrading defeat of violence and playing the games designed at the top.

You might as well stay out of the patriotic chorus singing for the benefit of our fearless leaders(fearless because they don't have to care about what we think or choose) and concentrate on what matters.

We are becoming consumed in the melodramatic unfolding of our own entrapment while the scoundrels pat us on the head. The soldiers, the killed civilians, we are all victims and suckers seeking dignity and solidarity as we tear each other dutifully to pieces.

Laughter in hell for all our emotional misdirections, trying inexorably to make the victims complicit in the evil of the original crime and our inevitable self-destruction.

No wonder the avenue of religion is trying to be cut off as an alternative to imperfect human institutions gone mad.