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CounterPunch
September
11, 2002
Remember the
Others Too!
9/11 One Year Later
by Jerre Skog
The patriotic arrangements for 9-11 are on a scale
probably never seen before. Millions in the USA and all over
the world will again see endless repeats of those ghastly moments
when planes piloted by criminal fanatics crashed into the towers.
There will be speeches and silent minutes and the 3000 dead will
be remembered and mourned and sympathy for their families will
flow generously. I too, as do a great number all over the globe,
mourn the deaths of the innocent people in those towers together
with the New Yorkers and other Americans.
But as we mourn, we shouldn't insult
the memory of victims of a heinous crime by using their deaths
to motivate more bloodshed. And we should above all be fair and
decent enough to recognize the other victims of criminal deeds,
greed, power madness or indifference, no less innocent and no
more deserving miserable suffering and death. Their deaths may
not be shown on our TV screens in endless repeats including slow-motion
and second by second development, but that doesn't mean that
their agony and suffering have been less. There is a world beyond
the scope of the TV cameras, as real as that being shown on our
screens, and much of what is still happening is even more terrible
because it goes on and on and on. Year after year, month after
month and week after week. Let's spend a few more silent moments
in the mourning of innocent victims
We ought to send some thoughts of sympathy
to the families of the 2000-4000 innocent Afghanis who lost their
lives due to American bombings, their deaths cheapened by being
labelled collateral damage, dismissed by War Minister Donald
Rumsfeld and their number ridiculously reduced by Pentagon spin
doctors.
We ought to mourn the 50.000 Iraqis who
died in the last 12 months due to the immoral and cynical sanctions
on Iraq, depriving the people of clean water and vital medicines.
Those men, women and children had no quarrel with us. They didn't
threaten anyone and they just wanted to live in what peace was
possible under a dictator forced on them by outside "interests".
Will the numbers increase in the US quest for oil, but blamed
on unproven threats?
We might let our thoughts go to the victims
of general Pinochet's terror state, spawned by a paranoid Kissinger
and willing CIA complices. 9-11 is a very appropriate date for
such thoughts. If the dead or disappeared number 2000 or 10.000
doesn't alter the guilt. The elected president Salvator Allende,
killed in the coup, is but one item on the bill of debt.
Perhaps the one million people in the
poor countries who have died from starvation since 9-11 last
year are worthy of some recognition. Their deaths could have
been avoided at the cost of a few aircraft carriers. As could
the 500.000 children who died from lack of clean water. We in
the rich world allow it to happen and to go on happening. Can
we have a little of the goodwill being extended by the mourners
of 9-11? Can we have some decisive action from the men who have
the power to send armies and fleets all over the world, the power
to order a massacre and the power to direct billions for the
building of machines of death? Can it be more difficult to distribute
food than to distribute missiles and bombs?
The millions upon millions in Africa,
many small children, who can look forward to certain death in
AIDS may merit some contemplation and assistance. The pharma
giants of the world do what they can to deny these people, many
already hit by famine, cheap medicine in the interest of their
profits.
The Vietnam war was a long time ago,
and the only ones who have learnt from is seems to be the US
military, now careful to keep all true reporting away from their
chosen battlefields. But the destruction and poisoning of Vietnamese
forests and farm land still take its toll and the memory of 2
million dead is still fresh in memory. At least in Asia! May
we let some thoughts go to those 2 million and the 60.000 American
soldiers who were sent there to die by cynical politicians. Better
still, make the small amend of finally paying the damages as
promised and let one who took part in the slaughter, secretary
of state Colin Powell, hand over the check.
We can, while we spend this time in mourning,
include in our prayers and thoughts all the other victims of
power politics, oil interests, greed and other desires that drive
states, corporations and individuals to devaluate human lives
and cause suffering and death too great to fathom. May the victims
all over the world, too many to count, be remembered.
On a day like 9-11 it's very easy to
fall victim to the lower instinct for revenge. Such instincts
are natural but neither civilized nor constructive. We know that
the directly involved, the immediate perpetrators, were killed
with their victims. The planners are mostly still walking free
and they ought to get arrested. Fine, let the police handle it
like civilized society ought to do. But let's not send military
or bombers to every country inhabitated by moslems with "links"
to one or other real or imagined enemy. The only logical lesson
we can learn from the atrocity is that we have to create a world
where starvation, deprivation and desperation don't create people
willing to take the lives of innocent people. Did the world's
mightiest armed forces stop it from happening? Could FBI, CIA,
NSA or any other powerful agency prevent it? Now draw the right
conclusions!
The first step we, in countries where
the leaders still can be chosen by the popular vote, have to
take to avoid further wanton destruction is to use that power
more wisely. No more must we let people lead us whose immediate,
and often only, reaction to problems is to rely on deadly force.
People who solve their problems by reaching for the gun belong
in Hollywood B-movies and not in the White House. The ones who
see public office as a way to riches and power should for the
sake of the people have neither. We have to have leaders, men
and (a lot more) women, who have the stature, wisdom and integrity
to see where the real problems are and deal with them on the
basis of justice and honesty and decency.
In these globalized times we can't have
people at the helm who only see to the interests of the wealthy,
the mighty or their own little circle. It's not even enough if
they see to the interests of the majority of the nation. They
have to see to the interest of humanity as a whole. That's the
only way to avoid a repeat of what happened in <N.Y.C>.
in September 2001. Let's get rid of humanity's greedy destroyers
and move forward to a more decent world. A world for us all,
whatever colour or belief. Let's start now!
That's the most meaningful tribute we
can give to the memory of the poeple who died in those two towers.
And a worthy one at that.
Jerre Skog
is a Swedish writer, musician and alternative observer living
in Germany since 1999. More articles, political and satirical
can be found on: Jerre´s Thinktank www.skog.de
Comments are welcome at: jerre@skog.de
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September
7 / 8, 2002
Bill Christison
A
Year Later: It's Happening Here
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Tenth Crusade
Susan Davis
Mr. Ashcroft's
Neighborhood
Bruce Jackson
When
War Came Home
David Krieger
Looking
Back on September 11
Mike Leon
Bush and War
Peter Linebaugh
Levellers
and 9/11
William McDougal
September 11 One Year On:
That's Entertainment!
Riad Z. Abdelkarim
and Jason Erb
How American Muslims Really Responded
to 9/11
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The Trouble
with Normal
Tom Stephens
Rise Up...Dump Bush
September
6, 2002
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Stolen
Trust
Gale Norton, Indians and the Case of the Missing $10 Billion
September
5, 2002
Ben Tripp
Jesus vs.
George the Second
William Hughes
McKinney's
Defeat:
Undue Meddling
Gavin Keeney
Beaux
Reves, Citoyens!
Wayne Saunders
War
Begins; Nobody Notices
Irit Katriel
Drunk
with Power:
Israeli Chief of Staff Calls Palestinians a "Cancerous Demographic
Threat"
Gary Leupp
Who's Afraid
of Iraq?
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
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Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
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Read
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Whiteout:
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Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
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