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July 09, 2005
The state of the world today.
I’ve had a couple of days to think about Thursday’s attacks. Mainly I have been trying to get in the minds of the killers and I don’t mean that I am refusing to try and understand how anyone could be so evil. That is the easy way out, to dismiss them as ‘sick’ or ‘brainwashed’ I can’t help thinking that to go to that much organisation, to risk one’s own life (whether it was a suicide bomber or not) there must be something more to it. What is it that makes people feel so desperate that they feel that violence and murder of innocents is the only way forward? And before we distance ourselves entirely from this sentiment, there is plenty of scope for the argument that Bush and Blair are working on the same lines with their ‘War on Terror.’
What upsets me is that there will be retaliation. There is now an excuse for Bush and Blair to step up their war and to invade any country that they tell us may be ‘harbouring terrorists.’ What is worse is that back down here on the ground we are already hearing stories of Muslims receiving death threats. Something tells me that now we have been attacked on our own soil that the numbers for the anti-war marches will start to dwindle because the threat of terrorism is now so much closer to home. Yet just as the commuters defiantly got back on those trains yesterday I will stand defiant in my stance against the occupation of Iraq, not because I think we should be giving in to terrorism but because we need to start facing the fact that we should never have been there in the first place.
I predict that from now on there will be a great turn around. If Tony Blair continues to handle this situation with what is generally viewed as dignity and defiance with just a little bit of vulnerability thrown in for good measure (I could hear the twang of the country’s heart strings as his voice cracked slightly in that first speech on Thursday) then I think he will be remembered for how 'well' he handled these attacks, rather than for the ducking, diving and fiddling that backed us into this corner in the first place.
So in consequence of Thursday’s attacks I see Britain’s support for the war rocketing, I see an increased backing of Tony Blair and I see it as an excuse for an endless stream of racist attacks both verbally and physically and for all the repercussions that will ensue.
In short I fear that the world just became a whole lot darker.
Posted by purple elephant at July 9, 2005 10:02 AM