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9/11, I hope for the last time
Sorry to be going on about this, but the topic is really bothering me.
You see, I can't accept that it is somehow disrespectful to the people who died on 9/11 to note that their deaths are being exploited in a power-grab, and to justify torture. It bothers me that so many people insist on interpreting any comment about 9/11 and torture as somehow belittling or mocking those who died.
If anything, the claim that the discussion of torture somehow insults 9/11 victims is itself an utter exploitation of their deaths. Because it assumes that they chose to die in order to make torture an acceptable part of American policy - or that somehow, their deaths justified torture and made it a good thing. In which case, they'd hardly be the sort of people worth mourning - and as that isn't true, it's a grotesque insult to their memories. One which is all too often being made by their own relatives!
If anyone I loved had died in 9/11, I damned well would object like hell to their memory being used to shut up anyone who objected to the torture policies - policies which have been explicitly justified by the deaths on 9/11.
This is taking all decency, all logic, and standing them on their head. And huge numbers of Americans swallow it, hook, line, and sinker.
It bothers the hell out of me.
You see, I can't accept that it is somehow disrespectful to the people who died on 9/11 to note that their deaths are being exploited in a power-grab, and to justify torture. It bothers me that so many people insist on interpreting any comment about 9/11 and torture as somehow belittling or mocking those who died.
If anything, the claim that the discussion of torture somehow insults 9/11 victims is itself an utter exploitation of their deaths. Because it assumes that they chose to die in order to make torture an acceptable part of American policy - or that somehow, their deaths justified torture and made it a good thing. In which case, they'd hardly be the sort of people worth mourning - and as that isn't true, it's a grotesque insult to their memories. One which is all too often being made by their own relatives!
If anyone I loved had died in 9/11, I damned well would object like hell to their memory being used to shut up anyone who objected to the torture policies - policies which have been explicitly justified by the deaths on 9/11.
This is taking all decency, all logic, and standing them on their head. And huge numbers of Americans swallow it, hook, line, and sinker.
It bothers the hell out of me.
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Here, have some current ones.
http://www.concern.net/index.php
If anyone wants to have hysterics about disasters and people suffering and dying, that's some where you can actually do something useful. Though looking at the current list, I find it vaguely ironic that we have 4.6 million people starving due to drought, and another 3 million or so starving due to floods. Moving water from India to Ethiopia would seem to be a logical, if impractical, response.
Just looked up a few random terrorist attacks on Wikipedia: I had to look them up, I don't generally remember them even when they were personal near-misses.
15 June 1996, bomb in the main shopping centre of Manchester. Biggest one in Britain since the end of the Blitz, apparently, and most of the city centre had to be rebuilt. They lit a candle on the tenth anniversary.
21st December, 1988, some gang of nutters dropped a Boeing 747 on top of a small Scottish village, doing no good at all to passengers or village. The guy currently doing time for murder as a result is going for appeal (again), and will have his case heard, because getting justice right is important.
12th October 1984, a bomb in a Brighton hotel had a very good try at wiping out the British government. The conference planned for the next day went ahead (minus the members who were now dead or in hospital).
17th December 1983, car bomb aimed at Harrods, during the busiest part of the Xmas shopping period. (This is the one I vaguely remember, due to it being a near-miss. Guess where I was Xmas shopping that day?)
Bit more recent, 7th July 2005, multiple bombs in London's public transport system during rush hour. Another near miss, and a lot of emails flying around as those of my friends likely to have been using the system checked up on each other. Far more hysterics from American friends than from those actually involved. Again, I only vaguely remember it, and then mainly as a nuisance in terms of transport delays. I was using the system again as normal a few days later.
Still, there has been one case of a major bomb attack on British soil where we've gone to long-term hysterical extremes that even the USA can't rival. 5th November, 1605, Guy Fawkes and friends tried (and failed) to blow up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening. Over 400 years later, and we still burn effigies of him on the anniversary!
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