Melville Cooke
'Everybody 'fraid to fly tru de bombing'
- Elephant Man
A BOMB, whether it is toted in a knapsack, dropped from an aeroplane or is an aeroplane, is a bomb. The death of civilians, especially, by a bomb, is atrocious, whether that bomb is delivered by foot or jet engine. Terrorism is terrorism, whether the people carrying out the act have uniforms and ranks or wear loose clothing.
Therefore, the deaths resulting from the bombings in London last Thursday and the deaths resulting from the planes flying into the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre in the U.S. in 2001 are no more or less significant than the deaths of the seven children and the husband of an Afghan woman in the early days of that invasion. And certainly not the death count of about 600 civilians killed in last April's much storied assault on Fallujah.
We are not speaking numbers, though, but shelters. And while it is especially unfortunate that a city which had massive anti-war protests should now have its own share of terror (which did not have a physical impact on those who have happily joined Bush in bombing Iraq since the first Gulf War until now), I immediately remembered the stories of Colonial (as opposed to the incorrect 'World') War 2 Britain, where the air raid alarms would sound and the stoic Brits would head off to the air raid bunkers.
It occurred to me that aggressor states in this modern rush to riches through drive towards domination that Columbus started have always been sheltered from retaliatory strikes, terming any successful response to their atrocities 'terrorism'.
And since true freedom of the press belongs to those who own one which is able to broadcast their interests worldwide, the roosting of the fowl is invariably disassociated from the building it first flapped away from.
The sheltering may be a physical barrier, such as the one that Israel is now building between itself and Palestine, which it hopes will stop suicide bombers from crossing its borders but will certainly not stop its jets from flying over. Or it may be through distance, which is why it came as such a shock to the US that the 9/11 incidents actually happened, as previously its distance across oceans had stopped wars from slamming home with full effect.
THE HARD WAY
The British, of course, learnt the hard way when the Irish Republican Army brought the chicken of slaughter and panic home to roost from Dublin and Belfast. And, as noted before, they had lots of experience from German raids. But this is a new set of bombers, it would appear.
It has always amazed me that aggressor nations and people distinguish between civilised and uncivilised
murder. Looking back at the westerns I enjoyed as a child, I can see that tendency in Louis L'Amour and writers of his ilk. They would have their characters dismiss people who fought with knives (Mexicans and 'Injuns') as savages, while gorifyng the man who was good with a gun.
No need to ask who had the guns, is there?
Similarly, a person who loads a car with explosives and then drives it into civilians is called a terrorist, while someone who steps into an aeroplane, flies it high in the sky and drops 500-pound bombs on civilians is lauded for doing his duty.
Has it occurred to anybody that if suicide bombers had planes they would not kill themselves so willingly? And has it occurred to anyone that just as Bushie declared if you are not with us you are against us, those whom he is leading the campaign of terror on are thinking that if you are with Bush we are against you.
There is very little shelter as (to put it melodramatically) the Empire, former, current and intended, strikes back. It is most unfortunate, though, that they strike back at people who are as much subjects, albeit maybe better placed, as themselves.
Speaking of shelters, watching television last week made me realise just how much I despise sufferers (who are very different from poor people, OK). There was this woman, complete with baby, saying 'we not even 'ave pampas. We want help'. So, did the baby not crap the day before Dennis? And what did that woman use for said crap?
And do not believe for a moment that the ranks of the sufferers include only the poor. Let us not forget the tourism interests who holler for every possible shelter for an industry that benefits, I believe, the tiny minority. More on that in the future.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
