Well, well, well. Middle Eastern terorists bombed American civilians as an act of retribution for earlier so-called American cruelty to several Middle Eastern populations.
But we must also remember the American terrorism inherent in the bombing of many more buildings and greater massacre that occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We must remember the French terrorists who bombed a ship (Rainbow Warrior) in Auckland NZ. We must also remember all the terrorist attempts on the life of Fidel Castro (many). There are many other examples. At least in the WTC ruins, one lesson emerges. As with nuclear weapons, any debased political currency of any weapons of mass destruction invariably lead to what has been termed "MAD" - mutural assured destruction. Once the West develops weapons of mass destruction, it must recognise that all and any contestants will eventually obtain equivalents. As America unlaterally developed the nuclear threat, (to its great cost subsequently), America's unilateral sponsorship of injustice by other means into the Third World, has similarly been returned to America's great cost. The existance and deployment of nuclear weapons by America, UK and Israel, points to a likelihood that these countries will become targets of weapons of mass destruction in the future. After all throughout history all arms have only led to more arms. American civilians were bombed because America has bombed civilians and asserts that it was right to do so. Once we take an objective historical view, on scales properly balanced with the genocidal acts of terrorism by American regular and irregular forces, the WTC bombing (sans hysteria) is comparable to previous acts by capitalist, colonialist, and imperialist powers. For example, judged against Nagasaki, Hiroshima and the carpet bombing of Hamburg, the WTC was a relatively small event. Its real import was what it implies could happen in the future, and once you re-examine all the political, economic and justice stresses imposed on the Third World by globalised capitalism, it is clear that wealthy OECD or G8 people have good cause to be very worried. The only way out is to revamp world international political and economic relations and ensure that free trade can be regulated to guarantee the economic viability of all the world's economies, not just the wealth of the West. You abolish terrorism by allowing the Third World the right to feed, educate, medicate, house and clothe its people. If peoples do not have these rights they will turn to extremist ideologies which will invariably spawn terrorist splinters, which (combined with the rationality of Hiroshima and Hamburg) lead directly to the WTC bombing in other hands. In a sense the West bombs itself. As Marxists we must look at the underlying international political and economic realities. The non-Marxist left is working itself into a lather over supposed racism they think led to Moslem retaliation. Here there are real concerns. Is it just coincidence that as capitalism goes into crisis we get a huge militaristic beat-up. In a snall page 2 article in today's "The Australian" there is "a blunt warning" from Morgan Stanly that "the world is facing its worst recession since World War II". I think this is a much bigger issue than terrorism. Ever since WWII the world has been arranged to prop-up Western capitalism - but we are running out of new territories and populations to plunder. Additional economic viability for capitalism can be obtained by selling goods on credit but the Western consumer has been loaded up with so much debt there is no great hope for more in the future. Western unemployment has ratcheted-up continuously in all OECD ever since WWII. So what can capitalists do now? A huge bloody war of great national purpose, to obtain a better world and lebensraum, is one theme that always emerges at times like these. As Marx said, the final cause of all real crisis is the restricted power of workers to consume their own products (presumably at capitalist prices). This is the reality that is driving world politics today and, to the extent that the West has damaged the Third World to prop-up capitalism, the real cause of the WTC bombing. So lets focus less on the WTC bombing and more on the developing real crisis of capitalism developing like quicksand beneath our feet. Chris Warren , ___________________________________________________ The ALL NEW CS2000 from CompuServe Better! Faster! More Powerful! 250 FREE hours! Sign-on Now! http://www.compuserve.com/trycsrv/cs2000/webmail/ _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
