Adam your article is excellent. Respect!
I'm currently travelling in Asia, the only TV coverage we get is the Cancer News Network declaring "America's New War" - read "America's New Justification for vast military expenditure and bombing more innocent people".
How many innocent people must die to justify a few madman's obseessions with death and destructin, while tightening their grip on the planet in the pursuit of geopolitical imperialism?
Bin Laden IS a nut who has orchestrated mass murder, as are all our leaders.
I remember when Libya was "justifyably" bombed in the 80s by the US, and there were many innocents who died. Many of the planes were mustered for the attack from Laken Heath Airbase in England. After this the compassionate US Air Force printed up stickers with a photo of an F-111 with LIBYA - Laken Heath Is Bombing Your Ass. I see no more wisdom coming out of Bush's mouth at the moment, nor do expect to see any more enlightened views in the future.
As for not worrying about what goes on outside your own borders, well the problem here is that the USA thinks it owns the world, so it has no borders, only the right to bomb who it wants without any problems. In fact under the Monroe Doctrine, the US has the constitutional right to invade and attack any nation it wants to, just because it wants to. But it is the decades of these actions that have brought the pigeons home to roost.
We all have a part to play. Apathy or gung-ho flag waving, queing up to die for patriotic ideals, are equally as bad in their effect of not changing the situation, by not offering anything constructive. Action is not ticking a box on election day, or backing your country to the hilt, no matter what the consequences are. We need to constructively dismantle the military and state apparatuses that continue this macabre state of affairs.
As an article by a Czech anarchist group on the WOMBLES website states: "No innocent civillians ever deserve to die for, or because of, their country." To right. However, it will only be the blood of innocent men, women and children that stains the streets, while the terrorit/state-terrorist leaders live in comfort and safety, watching the development of a new military infrastructure as a new cold war against Islam is born.
It's interesting that American's don't seem to care about their publically-funded war going on in Colombia. One person is displaced every two minutes, while fourteen people are killed or fall victim to politcal violence everyday. Most of this is carried out by the UAC United Civillian Denfnce Group of Colombia. headed by the facistic Carlos Castano. These right-wing death squads were originally funded and trained by the CIA (no surprise there), a process concieved by the Golden Boy of US politics, JFK. Plan Colombia, the US War on Drugs which is more about building a Pacific-to-Carribean Canal, expropriating land for AL Gore's family firm Oxy Petroleum, and destroying all social movements. Clinton waived the constitutional responsibility to ensure Colombia respected human rights, because of the threat that drugs pose on American society. Then-Secretary of State, Madeline Allbright said that the AUC - which ties people to trees and chainsaws them to pieces, disembowels pregnant mothers, forces children to play football with their loved ones freshly decapitated heads, to name a fgew of its tactics - could not be termed a terrorist group as it had never attacked US soil, as such it could even recieve funding from Washington.
Sorry if this is a tangent, but i think it's just one, of many, examples of how the US carries out foreign policy, to hell with anyone else.
By the way, if you want to see some really scaring, plus some intelligent postings in this subject. Check out the Terrorist Attack on America section at
http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com
Love and rage, mr whippy.
