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Two peas in a pod

14 July 2005, 15:09

These kinds of thoughts are easily dismissed as delusional but they are important.

The fact that people are so shocked by the "profiles" of the bombers reveals how out of touch they are about the reality of the situation. Resorting to paranoia to explain this is just a more extreme measure of denial.

The emerging picture defies the stereotypic image of a fanatical sociopathic maniac who is out for blood. Why does it strike the writer as odd that the bombers cared for children or were fathers? Many US soldiers in Iraq who killed unarmed civilians in Falluja probably have kids too.

Westerners do not want to face the chilling truth of a calm and calculating underground movement like the Jews who planted bombs on German train tracks, and the French resistance. Didn’t the early Americans themselves slaughter the British in the hundreds with ambushes and bombs in their revolution?

Today, more than ever, we live in a multicultural world. People’s loyalties may transcend national and political boundaries. What are we to do? There are two responses. One is to react with more xenophobia and authoritarian control. But we can’t reverse the global community in all its diversity. The other is for all people to work together to solve the world’s problems without occupying other countries.

As long as there are arrogant, invading countries that occupy other people’s homes, there will be retaliatory acts. Some will call them terrorists, and others will call them resisters. Both are propaganda and lies. In contrast to the hatred they espouse for each other, they depend on each other for their existence. They need each other to perpetuate hate, fear, to justify war, social control and nationalism. Until we brand these as two faces of Janus, and reject both as part of the same murderous horde, we will continue to be manipulated and exploited in a costly game where neither side has our interests in mind.