"International Terrorism" is a Contrived Threat

[bemildred]

---

The above distribution demonstrates that terrorism against US citizens is directly related to US intervention and occupation and has little to do with an alleged hatred for Americans, as such. Some of the above victims were involved in illegal or military activities. No U.S. citizen died in 2003 as a result of international terrorism in Europe, Africa, Australia and North America. In South America, only one U.S. citizen died from international terrorism (in Colombia). That person was a pilot of a plane owned by Southern Command.

Not only is international terrorism against U.S. citizens limited to locations were the United States is engaging in occupation or in supporting repressive practices.

The extent of the harm to U.S. citizens does not either warrant a "war on terrorism": In the same year as 35 U.S. citizens were killed for political reasons world-wide, 16,503 persons were murdered and 93,433 persons were raped in the U.S. alone (FBI statistics). This alone demonstrates that the motive for the "war on terrorism" is not the number of victims nor their identities.

International terrorism is contrived threat, a monumental deception carried out by governments and facilitated by mass media to justify aggression, occupation, intervention and the curtailment of human rights. This deception must be exposed as an attack by colluding governments on democracy, human rights. By permitting states to engage in gross human rights violations and aggression, the contrived threat of international terrorism may itself be considered as threat to international peace and security.

globalresearch

[indigobusiness]

1. Boogeyman du jour

for the war machine.

[HawkerHurricane]

3. Indeed.

More people die each year in auto accidents than died on 9/11. You are more likely to be murdered by a family member than a terrorist, much less a Muslim terrorist.
Is Osama Bin Laden our Goldman? (1984 character, I mean. The guy who 'betrayed' us and now wishes our death...)

[spanone]

22. How about 40,000 a year in auto accidents??? there's yer terrorism.

[HawkerHurricane]

26. Excuse me...

More people die every month in auto accidents than died on 9/11.

And the frightening thing is I have to drive to and from work 5 days a week...

[glitch]

37. Not to mention 30,000 deaths per year due to lowered Enviro standards

and increased pollution.
Too bad the people making money on pollution reduction and wise use of resources don't own the government. Now, if they owned the government like the polluters and the arms producers, well, you get the pic.

[knowbody0]

2. our disturbed reality

leaves a cold wind in my heart. to imagine the minds of the sheep and their righteous indignation toward the opposition here, while they absorb the victory spin and shit it out on all on earth.

[Name removed]

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[whosinpower]

5. Killing people is bad

I am reasonably certain we can agree on that. What happened on September 11 was bad.

How can you reconcile what has occured in Fallujah? People were killed there too. Men and boys(aged 13 and over) were REFUSED to be allowed to leave before the attack. Women, children and elderly were killed. We did that. Hospitals and clinics were attacked....by us. Aid was REFUSED access into Fallujah....by us.

And what is worse....far worse is the blinders that most Americans eagerly plaster upon their heads. Terrorism must be battled - to that we all agree.....but let me ask just one simple question, "Why would Paul Bremer write a decree that would enforce all grain produced in Iraq must be genetically modified and that the Iraqi farmers are NO LONGER ALLOWED TO KEEP PART OF THEIR CROPS FOR NEXT YEARS PLANTING?"

Funny - that doesn't smell like freedom and liberty to me.....sounds like something an empire would decree. So, just once, take the blinders off and see what your government is really doing while foisting the flag of fighting terrorism......

[Name removed]

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[whosinpower]

8. Oh I get it

If a terrorist kills an innocent person - that is abhorrent....but if a soldier carefully takes aim and blatently kills a child via sniper fire.....that is war - ok so that is just fine.

BULLSHIT. Terrorism is wrong - it is bad....but empire building war is just as evil...just as lacking in moral clarity - even moreso, because there are so many people who just refuse to see it for what it is - they are so blinded by patriotism and catchy phrases like freedom building democracy - when reality is far far from that.

See - the problem is that we are not fighting terrorism. We are fighting against an insurgency that wants us OCCUPIERS out. They will do whatever they can and have to to get us gone - and all the while, we will condemn every single action they take - call them terrorists - right or wrong - because we are the empire.

Why are Allawi's opponents (political opponents) being assassinated? You know - the guys that want to have elections and run against him...they are getting picked off one by one, assassination style.

And all the while, people like you refuse to acknowledge that we, the great golden US of A could or should ever be responsible for our actions or that there would ever be consequences to what we do in the world. For those who have no voice, or any other venue to address wrongdoings....for those, terrorism is the final option. I am not condoning it - but that is fact. Change that, and then we are fighting terrorism. But as of now, in Iraq....we are just building empire.

[Name removed]

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[BlueEyedSon]

17. Man, you are sure drinkin' the Kool-Aid.

[Name removed]

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[BlueEyedSon]

20. "I don't think you have any proof that has happened either."

Do you suggest that sniper fire is the only way to kill an innocent? That "precision" munitions are as selective as a sniper's bullet? Or would you also question weather we have dropped bombs on, and killed, any person who is an "innocent"?

Yes, what we are doing in Iraq is much worse. We are the good guys, remember? Bound by the rule of law as embodied in the Geneva Convention and its quaint concepts of proportionality, military objectives and noncombatants. How many thousands have died because of illegally targeted infrastructure such as water and electricity? There are over 100,000 dead by our actions in Iraq by some estimates ( http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/29/iraq.deaths/ ).

Your other comments don't deserve a response. Your ad hominem tactic of discrediting the messenger rather than the message is right out of the right wing playbook.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Eloriel]

29. Truman --

It apparently escaped your notice that the article cited and the State Department link IN the article are for 2003, nor for 2001 (September 11, 2001 was the WTC attack).

IOW: your hysteria is all for naught. You might do well to actually look at the article and the State Dept. site -- or not.

[Truman01]

30. It didn't escape my notice n/t

[Truman01]

47. I owe you guys an apology.............

At first I was surprised that the mods deleted my posts so I asked what the deal was. In one of my posts I got in a big way of writing and I referred to (sarcasticly) "your terrorist" brothers. I agree with the moderators, that was out of line. They didn't ask me to post this, but I apologize for my post.

TC

[bemildred]

10. Yeah, they are. They are exactly the same.

Both are war. That is what war is. OBL is at war with us.
That is why he is an "enemy combatant", and would get shipped
to Gitmo with no rights. You seem to think war is a tea party
that can be relied on to stay away from your neighborhood. Well,
guess what?

[BlueEyedSon]

18. When the poor make war on the rich it is called "terrorism";

when the rich commit acts of terror upon the poor it is called "war".

Got it?

[bemildred]

21. Oh, I get sooooo confuused.

Let's see, when poor people commit violence on the rich, then it's "war".
When rich people commit acts of violence on poor people, then it's "terrorism".

No, no, no!. Dammit! Well, I'll get it one of these days. I just need
to drink more KoolAid(tm).

[truth2power]

11. What???

"The people who went to work in the WTC's that day were not doing anything to anyone."

Uh....ok...and the women and children who lived in Fallujah deserved to be blown to smithereens by our bombs? What was their crime???

This just makes me sick! If Americans die, we should mourn unto the tenth generation, but anyone, anywhere else in the world, is expendable. They don't feel or think or have dreams or love their children. Enough!!!

Reflect on this:

Naomi Klein, writing about the attacks of 9/11:

"But instead of backing up and filling this gap--of information, of analysis, of understanding--we hear instead a chorus: this came out of nowhere, it is inexplicable, it has not past; 'they' hate us; they want to take away our democracies, our liberties, our stuff. Instead of asking why the attacks happened, our television networks simply play them over again.

Just when americans most need information about the outside world--and their country's complicated and troubling place in it--they are only getting themselves reflected back, over and over and over: Americans weeping, Americans recovering, Americans cheering, Americans praying. A media house of mirrors, when what we all need are more windows on the world.p.171 (emphasis added)

--"The Brutal Calculus of Suffering: When some lives seem to count more than others. In: "Fences and Windows"

[spanone]

23. The Citizens of Fallujah who go to work everyday aren't doing anything

to anybody and they HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 911

[hangloose]

31. Dear Truman

For a guy who uses a peace sign as his logo on this blog you don't speak like a peacenik. War is wrong, war must be the absolute last resort. I suspect based on your writing you feel "we" (since this tragedy is being committed in our name) are justified in invading Iraq and that the collateral damage being inflicted on the population is a matter of the "need" to win the peace. Do you actually believe that Iraq had WMD or that Saddam had a hand in 911 or that he was a threat to the US? Come-on man !!

Wake up bud, this is about oil and control of the middle east its not about 911 (although it was contrived to be), democracy or freedom.

You seem intelligent so why be obtuse on Iraq.

[Truman01]

32. I'm not defending Iraq....

You certainly have a point about Iraq. It was a war that we were duped into, I imagine that we will eventually end up with undercover control of the oil fields and that was the reason for it.

I still have a problem trying to act like International terrorism is somehow a figment of our imagination, something that we deserve, or something we shouldn't be upset about.

My post was that WTC did happen and that international terrorism exists. Everyone else brought in Iraq to somehow justify WTC. So, to your point, I'm not for Iraq, I do think it is an unjust war, but I'm not ready to condemn the innocent troops as "terrorists" just because I don't like the war. The troops are doing what they were sent to do, and I think they are doing it as well as they can. It's kind of a hate the war but not the troops sort of thing.

Osama and his ilk are terrorist, without excuse. Bushco are the same. The troops aren't sniping little kids for the fun of it. That's where I draw the line.

[hangloose]

34. Yes we do walk a find line in War.

The dilemma has always been how we fight to win in conflict,without losing our humanity. Often this is impossible. War dehumanizes the opposition, it has to, otherwise how do you take a nice kid of 18 years brought up in a loving family and order him to kill.

Collateral casualties are unavoidable in urban warfare and by choosing to engage in street to street battle we are escalating the possibility of civilian death. Using smart weapons are one answer to reduce US casualties but have a opposite effect when used in Iraqi cities. I don't care how smart a weapon is when you direct a 500 bomb on a building in a high density urban area the radius of impact (400 meters) lays waste to more than the target.

So war is hell no matter how careful you may be in executing the action. War is to be avoided, those who advocate the use of force to resolve a political matter should be made to participate on the ground with the troops.

And one more thing, the graphic nature of war should be shown to the American public in video and pictures and sound. If our media would get some balls the American public would turn for this conflict very quickly.

[Djinn]

38. the thing is

the folks that carried out the attacks on the WTC (if that was OBL et al) also beleive they are at war with US imperialist infidels - the rhetorical garbage they used to justify killing innocent people is as bogus as "we're in a war" when used to justify the deaths of Iraqi civilians.

Or are all Iraqi's the enemy?

[indigobusiness]

7. whosinpower has it right.

We were no more justified in going into Iraq than the atrocities commited on 911.

[hangloose]

12. Osama is a red herring , we will be chasing him forever, since

he is a fabrication of the government. He may be real, or was real at some point in time, but now, the person we see on the video's is a substitute created to keep the terror myth alive and real for every American. The whole deal would be pathetic if it wasn't for the shear bravado and gravity of the current situation.

The real terrorist are living in the white house and working on capital hill.

[Name removed]

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[bemildred]

14. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

You need to become better aquainted with the history of your government.
The US has a long and well-documented history of colonialist and racist
violence at home, in Latin America, and in Asia, and we are now
branching out into the Middle East. Would you belittle citizens of
the USSR that were working to stop it's oppressive policies?

[Truman01]

33. I like the line about denile.....

And no I wouldn't belittle anyone. I hope you don't think that is what I am doing here. As I said we can agree to disagree. That's what a free people do without calling each other names. Wouldn't you agree?

[bemildred]

35. You seemed to be implying he is a loon, Sir.

If I was mistaken about that, I do apologize.

[Truman01]

39. Nope, I was saying I like the line n/t

[bemildred]

42. I was referring to post #13 Sir, the one with the tinfoilhat

and reference to "mind control rays", not post #33. I had
thought that was obvious, but now I see that I was assuming
too much.

[Name removed]

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[bemildred]

45. Post #14 is my reply to post #13. (Hello?)

You appear not to have read post #12 in it's entirety, or else not
to have understood it fully. He does not deny that OBL is real. He
says that real or not, OBL is now being used by the US governemnt for
propaganda purposes, that is that the media version of OBL is a
fabrication.

[Truman01]

46. Now that you draw a picture in crayon for me........

I do see your point. I shall go now with my head humbly bowed to my punishment.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Bridget Burke]

41. So, we should agree with you that it's OK to kill in Iraq....

Because of 9/11?

Of course, it's really hard to follow your argument since so much of your stuff has been deleted. Guess you've just been too agreeable.

Thanks for lecturing us about civility.

[Name removed]

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[Carl Brennan]

15. Must answer question: Who was behind 9/11. Before

going off blowing up the world. Since Al Qaeda, the suspected perps, are a CIA asset then the first thing we should do is look at it as an inside job.

[PATRICK]

16. The continued Bush relationship to nukes

namely new proliferation(what we want) and failure to control loose nukes(no money or pressure) is a constant terror threat greater than the hands into which such things may fall and the ravenous temptation our neocons WANT to experience should some incident somewhere give them justification for showing our stuff to a target of our choice.

Consistent with their worsening of global climate change while regressing and nearly every other danger or necessity know to man, no terrorist could hope to compete.

But speaking of competition, the Chinese, devoid of "religious" moral hypocrisy and democratic pretensions have a more innate focus and skill to really win their war for capital if not against it.

Nut groups will thrive in the midst of war and crisis. The distracting pretext of a war on terrorism is itself productive of terrorism- even were it focused on the people responsible which it is assuredly not.

The same ole shit of past hegemony and empire wars is not sustainable in the new age. Nothing is without intelligence, morality and the common good. War is literally a dead end street getting shorter all the time.

[gordianot]

28. Oklahoma City and WTC.

When they started to find links with domestic terrorism Oklahoma City there is a disinterest in pursuing those links especially when there were hints of Saudi involvement. Read the defense attorney's Stephen Jones book a portrait in frustration.

If the American public is not given occasional lessons in terrorism they may forget and stray away from Republican political agendas.