I have refrained from writing anything about the recent bombings in London, partly because there's hardly anything new that one can say about it. On the one hand, I feel a sense of deep sympathy with the ordinary Brits who are suffering this atrocity, mostly with extraordinary calm and fortitude, because of the stupidity and guerrophilia of their leaders, just as I feel sympathy for Iraqis who have been victimized by the US/UK coalition because of their unelected leader. On the other hand, to equate the two in their suffering is to refuse to acknowledge two important differences in the Iraqi and the British situations. Firstly, at their last election the British people did have the choice of voting out the war criminal who is now their Prime Minister, and in fact even now have the option of impeaching him, and trying him and his cabinet for war crimes. But upholding international law is always less important than trying to "help" Africa to secure some dubious moral legitimacy by huckstering civilization, democracy and free markets . Secondly, the scale of violence in Iraq from the occupation forces alone (never mind from those resisting them) is far, far greater and far more sustained than four deadly bombs timed to explode together in the London transport system.
Mayor of London Ken Livingston pointed out in his response to the bombings, the atrocities did nothing to stop the rich and the powerful, and only killed and wounded ordinary Britons, including some Muslims. Yet these bombings, like the events of September 11 2001, will serve to inflame the worst forms of anti-Islamic fervour and xenophobia, not to unite the non-Muslim British with their Muslim compatriots to achieve a clearer understanding of the motivations for these acts of terrorism. One finds scarce mention in the media of British mosques and gurdwaras being firebombed. Nor would one find any mention of an atrocity of a scale similar to the London bombings if it happened in Baghdad or Fallujah or Kandahar - the loss of non-western lives is ALWAYS less significant than the loss of western lives in the western MSM, universal Enlightenment humanism notwithstanding.
So let us condemn these atrocities in London without reservation, as well as all those who abet these atrocities by their rhetoric as well as by their acts.
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