We no longer wish to hear the voice of these bomber's violence. But listen

bigtree

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Fri Jul-15-05 12:16 PM
Original message

We no longer wish to hear the voice of these bomber's violence. But listen

Edited on Fri Jul-15-05 12:52 PM by bigtree

please, if you will:

London Bombers' Anger Over the War in Iraq Likely Drove Them to Suicide Attacks, Friends Say

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=941268&page=3

LEEDS, England Jul 15, 2005 � Shahzad Tanweer, the 22-year-old son of a Pakistani-born affluent businessman, turned to Islam, the religion of his birth, a few years ago. The transformation was gradual, but then his relentless reading of the Quran and daily prayers became almost an obsession, his friends told The Associated Press. He became withdrawn and increasingly angry over the war in Iraq, according to those who knew him best.

The U.S.-led war was what likely drove him to blow himself up on a subway train last week, said his friends.

You have to wonder about these young men- studious, educated, athletic, ambitious, motivated men. What would their reaction have been to a less arrogant approach by Bush and Blair toward Iraq? The goal of Bush and Blair was to intimidate actors in that region with the massive display of military power. Less concern was given by the two leaders to the after-effects of such a heavy-handed invasion and the likely resulting resistance to an occupation.

We rightly condemn these British bombers for their barbarous slaughter of innocents, as well as anyone who aided them in their attack. Violence as a means of political expression or for anything other than legitimate defense should be condemned.

But these men did not act out of a vacuum filled with their own unattributable hatred, or evil, as Bush and Blair like to brand all violent acts against the U.S. and our agents. These men were reportedly angered by a war of opportunity against a country which had nothing to do, at all, with the participants and perpetrators of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The invasion of Iraq was calculated to, as Blair said a week before the London bombings, "draw a line in the sand". It was meant to send a message of 'shock and awe' throughout the world to bolster the weak images of Bush and Blair following the devastating attacks in New York. Here at home, we were led by the hand through the niceties of the administration's pre-war justifications.

Saddam was an evil-doer and madman bent on our destruction, we were told. The Iraqis, Bush warned, were enemies who had "no regard for conventions of war or rules of morality."

"The regime has a history of reckless aggression in the Middle East," President Bush counseled. "It has a deep hatred of America and our friends and it has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of al-Qaeda. But Osama Bin Laden, the ringleader of the 9-11 attacks, was not in Iraq. The rebel leader, in fact shunned and denounced the leadership of Saddam Hussein as a betrayal of fundamental Islam. The terrorist group, al-Qaeda, did not have a foothold in Iraq before Bush and Blair invaded. They do now. There are now daily attacks on our soldiers and Iraqi citizens by an Iraqi resistance - possibly aided by some outside terror network. This didn't happen in a vacuum either.

Yesterday, an Islamic scholar got life in prison for encouraging followers to fight U.S. soldiers. (He) was accused of telling a group of young Muslim men just days after the attack that an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and nonbelievers was at hand and that Muslims were obligated to engage in holy war. He told the group that defense of the Taliban was a requirement and that U.S. troops were a legitimate target, according to court testimony.

There was another U.S. citizen who also encouraged attacks on our troops: "There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is 'bring them on'," Bush told reporters in the White House Roosevelt Room in July 2003.

It was Bush with his blustering who, by inviting attacks on our soldiers in Iraq, fueled the groundswell of resistance to our occupation and encouraged would-be attackers to cross the border into Iraq to challenge our troops, mindless of the effect his taunting would have on the behavior of those who might be inclined to actively oppose his bloody military expansionism into the Middle East.

Bush apparently believed that those who would violently oppose the U.S. would cower from our overwhelming military offensive in Iraq. Yet, each offensive has had the effect of encouraging more resistance. The random exercise of our military strength and destructive power will not serve as a deterrent to these rouge, radical terrorist organizations who claim no permanent base of operations. The wanton, collateral bombing and killing has undoubtedly alienated any fringe of moderates who might have joined in a unified effort of regime change which respects our own democratic values of justice and due process.

Our oppressive posture has pushed the citizens of these sovereign nations to a forced expression of their nationalism in defense of basic prerogatives of liberty and self-determination, which our false authority disregards as threats to our consolidation of power. It has also, apparently, pushed sympathizers within our Western refuges to violent reprisals. They end their own troubled lives attempting to blow up as many others as they can along with them.

Innocent lives are lost in their attacks. Their morality is lost with the commission of their desperate act. We no longer wish to hear the voice of these bomber's violence.

We can remember a time when most of the world community stood in solidarity with us as we grappled with the mindless aggression of 9-11. They cheered us and followed all the way to Afghanistan as we pursued bin Laden. They averted their gaze as we obliterated men, women, and children in Afghanistan who we claimed belonged to the Taliban, who we punished for associating with the 9-11 bombers. They turned their backs as we installed our puppet there. They lost interest as we lost the target of our hunt.

But the world's ears pricked up as Bush and Blair began their bleating about Saddam. They listened as Bush claimed to have no designs on Iraq, just on their hapless leader, Saddam, the evil one. And many declined to do anything else but watch in quiet fear for their own sovereign nations as we flexed our military muscles. And as we proceeded with our indiscriminate bombings, our search and destroy missions, and shootings of innocent civilians by our misguided, defensive soldiers, they were either to be emasculated; accept our imperialism and resign themselves to our dominance in silence, or resist.

"Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation, brought about by the punishment of those in power, inflicted by those who had no power at all?" Patrick Henry spoke those words June 5, 1788, in the Virginia Convention, called to ratify the Constitution of the United States:

"A standing army we shall have, also, to execute the execrable commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them? Will you order them to be punished? Who shall obey these orders? Will your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment? In what situation are we to be? The clause before you gives a power of direct taxation, unbounded and unlimited--an exclusive power of legislation, in all cases whatsoever, for ten miles square, and over all places purchased for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, etc. What resistance could be made? The attempt would be madness. You will find all the strength of this country in the hands of your enemies; their garrisons will naturally be the strongest places in the country."

We occupy Iraq and Afghanistan with our military, yet, Bush and Blair claim that we have freed these once sovereign nations. Until they themselves relinquish that military control over these Arab states there will continue to be those who violently resist.

"We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization and for the religious faiths they practice." Bush remarked in a speech before he invaded. "We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people."

Those of us who abhor and resist violence need to find a way to convince Bush to get on with it before the more desperate among us try to force his hand with more violence of their own.