Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last night condemned the "evil people" who carried out the (Egypt) bombings. He said: "It is another terrorist atrocity which has taken at least 75 lives of all nationalities and of all religions, including many Muslims. It shows that the fight against this terrorism is international."
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15773060%26method=full%26siteid=106694%26headline=blitz%2don%2dthe%2dinnocents%2d%2dripped%2dapart-name_page.htmlIs Bush evil? Blair? I would say so in a heartbeat if asked, but I'd have to pause a bit afterward to wonder if it is in fact so. Are the bombers evil?
So many of the origins of the concept of evil, in many different parts of the world, have their roots in religion. References to good and evil are found in both of the religions of Islam and Christianity.
But, what our English speaking (Christian) leaders fail to see when they catalog the atrocities and horrible killings of their countryfolk is the mirrored atrocity and horror of their own rampage through Iraq and Afghanistan (Iraq was invaded, as Tony Blair said days before the first London bombing, to 'draw the line in the sand' as a reprisal for the attacks of 9-11).
Now there have been large explosions in Egypt. As Straw says, there are multitudes of nationalities among the dead and injured. We don't know why the bombers attacked, though they will likely explain their vile act (if they still live). We can't discern the truth behind the bomber's complaint (if it is offered) from our distance, but we do know where the violence has occurred. The violence that falls between the U.S. and Britain and the Middle East has been directed from all sides against each other. That is a fact that will not change with time or further action, abstaining or continuing to attack.
There can be no justification, no combatant can hold themselves blameless because of where we perceive the violence to have begun. That is because the animosity and grudges between us have spread to areas that are far removed from the original attack on 9-11, whose violence led Bush and Blair to cast an infinite web of militarism in pursuit of their 'war on terror'.
If we care in the U.S. or Britain to listen to the voices from many of the citizens from the rest of the world we would not escape the angry expressions of blame and anguish that place the moniker of 'evil' at the feet of Bush and Blair without hesitation. It would seem that evil is seen as the source of an aggression done against you, but not often do we think of ourselves as evil for the harm we do to others. All sides, except for, I suppose, the originator of Bush's 'mandate' to conquer, bin Laden, fancy themselves on the defensive. It alleviates blame, it soothes guilt, it absolves responsibility, if only in the mind of the aggressor.
Yet, I think that if there is an evil, it must exist outside of us all, manipulating our own fear, clouding our judgment with hate and recrimination at the perceived source our losses, driving us to more violence like some miasmic parasite, consuming us as it feeds off of our collective acrimony.
It will take more than a few martyrs to provide an example of sanity between all of us that would lead to the understanding expressed in the Christian bible as 'violence begets violence'. But, we must find a way to step back and let just, peaceful actions distinguish us from those who would attack us. That has to begin with the ones among us who project their fears in the most destructive way, our leaders.
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