anto's Journal: We have nothing to Fear but Fear its self

Is there anyone alive who truly belives the world underwent a massive change on the morning of the 11th of September?

Before I get you all ranting & raving & shouting me down - let me start by saying the senseless slaying of thouands of lives by religious fundalmentalists was one of the more horrific events that has occured in my lifetime.

Now I have gotten that out. Let me try and gently & honestly express my oppinion. I believe the attack on the US was born out of a generation brought up without hope for the future, versed in religious fundalmentalism & taught that the US is the world bully pushing all the small countires around as it pleases. Lets forget the first two & jump right on into the US..

For as long as I can remember the US has used underhanded & undemocratic processes to influence other countires around to their world view, they have killed citizens of other countries (outside of the 'legal' avenue of declared warfare) they have replaced democratically elected officials with dictators, worse still in my mind they have trained, funded & supported militant fundamentalist groups in order to help attack a common enemy.

The amazing string of US trained & supplied military dictators is scary, what it even scarier is that the citiznes of the US (and the government) seem to be suprised when the saddams, & the osmas of this world only play the US position as long as it suits them. Generally these people don't pretend to be loving & nice.. The US is supporting them because they will fight iran to the dealth, because russia will *never* win in afghanistan until every last man is dead or dying. The same reason they are such an attractive front line army for the US is the same reasons they are not to be relied on to continue to support US policy in the future.

About 50 years ago (long before my time) the US decided that in order to protect the lives of its armed forces they would end the lives of a large number of innocent civilians in Japan. More than 50,000 men, women & children were wiped from the face of the planet in an instant, with no recourse of argument or chance of surender. The US decided that in order to uphold its position (which I actually agree with) they would contemplate a *horrific* act (which I don't support) knowing full well the effect it would have on innocent civilians. Can we then critise the Talibhan government for learning from history & deciding that the only way to end US attacks throught the Middle East (and US lead control of the same) was to once again make a single horrific attack against the very people that make up the populus of the US?

And what of the US lead response, they admit that this was a terrorist attack & then in the same breath declare war on the entirity of the afghanastani (is that the correct form?) people in the same breath. The people the war on terror will kill is not high powered generals, or even people planning the next attack (of which there is sure to be one) but the innocents who have no choice but to stay and fight for their homes - as far as they know the US is an all dominating force that is coming in to kill them all.

Now back to my original premis: Has the world really changed? Is the mass murder of civilians a new occurance? Obviously not! Is a fundamantalist supported by a rich state turning on that state a new occurance? Obviously not! Is the use of terror tactics in an undeclared war a new occurance? If you look to the UK terrorist bombings have been occuring for years now (with obvious effect) so that too is obviously not a new occurance.

As far as I can tell the thing that has changed is the citizens of the US may have had the first look at how the rest of the world views them. They have experienced the same terror parents everywhere have when they don't know if there is going to be a safe place for their children to grow up away from violence.

Would the world not be a better place if rather than bombing afghanstan the money was instead put into doing away with poverty in the third world? If a part of the money funding the 'war on terror' was put towards ensuring the majority of the worlds children had the chance at at least a primary school if not a high school education. But no, the Middle east is rich in oil, a drug the US craves like no other, so an unstable middle east directly hits the entire US in the pocket. While I am happy to admit the US has done some genuine good in the region, Clinton managed to get Israel & Palestine to actually sit at the same table & talk, something that bush seems to have thrown away in his rush to declare 1/2 the world an axis of terror, I would much rather see them invest billions of dollars into education & healthcare (where they certinly don't lead the world) rather than the *amazing* amount spent on 'defence' (even when that defence is offensive)

Please keep in mind this is a *messy* brain dump & until I tidy it up probably reads wrong.