Well, today was the anniversary of September the 11th. I vowed not to turn on the TV because I knew all I would find would be all WTC, all the time. Yes, it’s a tragedy and an inexcusable crime what happened at the World Trade Center, but ten times more Iraqis and Afghanis have died since then, and no one on TV gives a hoot. And CNN and the US gov’t just won’t let go of it, they’re trying to keep the emotion fresh. They keep reopening the same wound just so they can use the perpetual fear and anger to justify continuing the war (pick either one, Afghanistan or Iraq).

I’m reminded of one sentence I saw written in the corner of a Bizarro comic. The focus of the one-panel cartoon had nothing to do with war, but one of the cartoon characters was wearing a t-shirt that said, “They need your fear.” Smart guy, that Dan Piraro.

I wonder, how long will they continue to dredge up the terror and hatred that the WTC created? How much longer will they use it as carte blanche to retaliate on the Muslim world? If the undying attention paid to the Holocaust (Holo-kitsch) is any example, then fifty years later we’ll still be getting coverage of Sept. 11 like it was yesterday. Yes, the Holocaust was a human tragedy, an example of simply evil and unjustifiable malice towards innocent people, but it doesn’t justify what’s going on in Israel. Every time someone points the finger towards Israel for human-rights abuses, extra-judicial killings, political assassinations and their dodgy (at best) claim to someone else’s land, they point a finger back fifty years ago to the Holocaust and go, “But look what happened to us!”

Well yeah, the Holocaust was horrible. No one should have to go through such evil, but the only lesson that we seem to have learned from this is that it is better to give than it is to receive. In order to prevent another Holocaust from ever happening, it’s important to herd Palestinians into slums that could easily be called ghettos and prison camps that differ only slightly from concentration camps. You could say that at least they’re not shoving them into gas-chambers, but that’s just one method of killing. There are other ways, like preventing seriously ill people from reaching hospitals and just letting them die on their own, or firing rocket launchers into traffic to pass execution on people without a trial, or running down refugees with tanks, or just firing into groups of civilians as usual. Occasionally you could pick off pedestrians and school-children with a sniper rifle. Gas is boring anyway.

Pro-Israeli Jews (and there are anti-Israeli Jews, in case you’re wondering. They’re good people) will continue to use what happened to them over fifty years ago so we’re shocked/guilted/horrified into letting them do whatever they deem necessary to prevent something like that from ever happening again. And here is where we’ve come full circle. To prevent crime they are committing crime. They prevent killing they are killing. To prevent oppression they are oppressing, and they have succeeded in doing this for so long because they keep the emotions raw. That’s what the US is trying to do, keeping us all in a state of anger so that they can continue to act (seemingly) out of anger. The US is always in ‘crisis’ mode, and that way they can continue to take (seemingly) spur of the moment, aggressive action. They’re always retaliating.

-grrr-

“Every soul with taste of death. You will be paid on the Day of Resurrection only that which you have fairly earned. Whoever is removed from the Fire and is made to enter Paradise, he is indeed triumphant. The life of this world is but the comfort of illusion.” – The Holy Qur’an, 3:185

-sigh-

And verily in remembering Allah do hearts find rest.

posted by Abez @ 9/11/2003 09:20:00 PM