Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 22:57:51 +0100
From: Jan Straathof <janstr-AT-chan.nl>
Subject: <fwd> Chomsky, Fisk


On the Bombings
by Noam Chomsky

The terrorist attacks were major atrocities. In scale they may not reach the
level of many others, for example, Clinton's bombing of the Sudan with no
credible
pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and killing unknown
numbers
of people (no one knows, because the US blocked an inquiry at the UN and no
one cares to pursue it). Not to speak of much worse cases, which easily come
to mind. But that this was a horrendous crime is not in doubt. The primary
victims,
as usual, were working people: janitors, secretaries, firemen, etc. It is
likely
to prove to be a crushing blow to Palestinians and other poor and oppressed
people. It is also likely to lead to harsh security controls, with many
possible
ramifications for undermining civil liberties and internal freedom.

The events reveal, dramatically, the foolishness of the project of "missile
defense." As has been obvious all along, and pointed out repeatedly by
strategic
analysts, if anyone wants to cause immense damage in the US, including weapons
of mass destruction, they are highly unlikely to launch a missile attack, thus
guaranteeing their immediate destruction. There are innumerable easier ways
that are basically unstoppable. But today's events will, very likely, be
exploited
to increase the pressure to develop these systems and put them into place.
"Defense"
is a thin cover for plans for militarization of space, and with good PR, even
the flimsiest arguments will carry some weight among a frightened public.

In short, the crime is a gift to the hard jingoist right, those who hope to
use force to control their domains. That is even putting aside the likely US
actions, and what they will trigger -- possibly more attacks like this one,
or worse. The prospects ahead are even more ominous than they appeared to be
before the latest atrocities.

As to how to react, we have a choice. We can express justified horror; we can
seek to understand what may have led to the crimes, which means making an
effort
to enter the minds of the likely perpetrators. If we choose the latter course,
we can do no better, I think, than to listen to the words of Robert Fisk, whose
direct knowledge and insight into affairs of the region is unmatched after many
years of distinguished reporting. Describing "The wickedness and awesome
cruelty
of a crushed and humiliated people," he writes that "this is not the war of
democracy versus terror that the world will be asked to believe in the coming
days. It is also about American missiles smashing into Palestinian homes and
US helicopters firing missiles into a Lebanese ambulance in 1996 and American
shells crashing into a village called Qana and about a Lebanese militia - paid
and uniformed by America's Israeli ally - hacking and raping and murdering
their
way through refugee camps." And much more. Again, we have a choice: we may try
to understand, or refuse to do so, contributing to the likelihood that much
worse lies ahead.

Noam Chomsky
http://www.zmag.org/chomnote.htm

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--------------

Terror in America

The wickedness and awesome cruelty of a crushed and humiliated people
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=93623

By Robert Fisk

12 September 2001

So it has come to this. The entire modern history of the Middle East
- the collapse of the Ottoman empire, the Balfour declaration,
Lawrence of Arabia's lies, the Arab revolt, the foundation of the
state of Israel, four Arab-Israeli wars and the 34 years of Israel's
brutal occupation of Arab land - all erased within hours as those who
claim to represent a crushed, humiliated population struck back with
the wickedness and awesome cruelty of a doomed people. Is it fair -
is it moral - to write this so soon, without proof, when the last act
of barbarism, in Oklahoma, turned out to be the work of home-grown
Americans? I fear it is. America is at war and, unless I am mistaken,
many thousands more are now scheduled to die in the Middle East,
perhaps in America too. Some of us warned of "the explosion to
come''. But we never dreamt this nightmare.

And yes, Osama bin Laden comes to mind, his money, his theology, his
frightening dedication to destroy American power. I have sat in front
of bin Laden as he described how his men helped to destroy the
Russian army in Afghanistan and thus the Soviet Union. Their
boundless confidence allowed them to declare war on America. But this
is not the war of democracy versus terror that the world will be
asked to believe in the coming days. It is also about American
missiles smashing into Palestinian homes and US helicopters firing
missiles into a Lebanese ambulance in 1996 and American shells
crashing into a village called Qana and about a Lebanese militia -
paid and uniformed by America's Israeli ally - hacking and raping and
murdering their way through refugee camps.

No, there is no doubting the utter, indescribable evil of what has
happened in the United States. That Palestinians could celebrate the
massacre of 20,000, perhaps 35,000 innocent people is not only a
symbol of their despair but of their political immaturity, of their
failure to grasp what they had always been accusing their Israeli
enemies of doing: acting disproportionately. All the years of
rhetoric, all the promises to strike at the heart of America, to cut
off the head of "the American snake'' we took for empty threats. How
could a backward, conservative, undemocratic and corrupt group of
regimes and small, violent organisations fulfil such preposterous
promises? Now we know.

And in the hours that followed yesterday's annihilation, I began to
remember those other extraordinary assaults upon the US and its
allies, miniature now by comparison with yesterday's casualties. Did
not the suicide bombers who killed 241 American servicemen and 100
French paratroops in Beirut on 23 October 1983, time their attacks
with unthinkable precision?

There were just seven seconds between the Marine bombing and the
destruction of the French three miles away. Then there were the
attacks on US bases in Saudi Arabia, and last year's attempt - almost
successful it now turns out - to sink the USS Cole in Aden. And then
how easy was our failure to recognise the new weapon of the Middle
East which neither Americans nor any other Westerners could equal:
the despair-driven, desperate suicide bomber.

And there will be, inevitably, and quite immorally, an attempt to
obscure the historical wrongs and the injustices that lie behind
yesterday's firestorms. We will be told about "mindless terrorism'',
the "mindless" bit being essential if we are not to realise how hated
America has become in the land of the birth of three great religions.

Ask an Arab how he responds to 20,000 or 30,000 innocent deaths and
he or she will respond as decent people should, that it is an
unspeakable crime. But they will ask why we did not use such words
about the sanctions that have destroyed the lives of perhaps half a
million children in Iraq, why we did not rage about the 17,500
civilians killed in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. And those
basic reasons why the Middle East caught fire last September - the
Israeli occupation of Arab land, the dispossession of Palestinians,
the bombardments and state-sponsored executions ... all these must be
obscured lest they provide the smallest fractional reason for
yesterday's mass savagery.

No, Israel was not to blame - though we can be sure that Saddam
Hussein and the other grotesque dictators will claim so - but the
malign influence of history and our share in its burden must surely
stand in the dark with the suicide bombers. Our broken promises,
perhaps even our destruction of the Ottoman Empire, led inevitably to
this tragedy. America has bankrolled Israel's wars for so many years
that it believed this would be cost-free. No longer so. But, of
course, the US will want to strike back against "world terror'', and
last night's bombardment of Kabul may have been the opening salvo.
Indeed, who could ever point the finger at Americans now for using
that pejorative and sometimes racist word "terrorism''?

Eight years ago, I helped to make a television series that tried to
explain why so many Muslims had come to hate the West. Last night, I
remembered some of those Muslims in that film, their families burnt
by American-made bombs and weapons. They talked about how no one
would help them but God. Theology versus technology, the suicide
bomber against the nuclear power. Now we have learnt what this means.




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