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----- Original Message ----- From: "M G G Pillai" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "SK" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Sangkancil" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 12:11 PM Subject: [sangkancil] [MGG] The Bali bombing: The world held to ransom > A few nights ago, at a diplomatic reception, three European > diplomats were livid I would suggest, as I did in an earlier > piece, there might be more to the Bali bombings than meets the > eye, that it could be a cynical Washington attempt to get both > Indonesia and Australia on firmly on its side in this egregious > war on terror. They focussed their complaint on the carnage, and > how could I dare say Washington would do it. I said there is > still doubt about the fourth plane that crashed in the > Pennyslyvania fields was deliberately shot down as its target was > the White House. In statecraft, such cynical moves are not only > common but necessary. Just look at President Bush's demand that > President Saddam Hussein be overthrown. When self-interest is > all that matters, what is a few hundred, or even a thousand, > lives lost? In Vietnam, it was nearer 60,000. Those involved in > that do not shed a tear as the families of the dead. Many still > think what they did was right. > > There is a worldwide conspiracy, backed by the United > States, to link, still without evidence, Al Qaeda and its > tentacles for the bombing. Within hours of the blast, President > Bush was clear in his mind it was the Al Qaeda network. And > others fell in line. But the Australian prime minister, Mr John > Howard, waffled his way through a BBC interview when pressed on > it. There is as yet no beep from the Australian foreign > minister, Mr Alexander Downer, on the challenge the Jemaah > Islamiyah leader and alleged Al Qaeda operative, Mr Abu Bakar > Bashir, to repeat his allegations to his face. Nothing in the > news these days would deviate from this official line. It is the > single-minded demonising whom it wants demonised. But is that > proof it did what the world says it did? > > All we have so far is this demonising belief in Washington, > Singapore, Canberra that it is JI and Al Qaeda that did it. It > fits in with the official view of Islam as an enemy. So it is > not challenged. For Islam replaces the Communist as the ogre of > the day. Unfortunately, when battle lines are drawn on such > simplistics basis as if you are not with us, you are against us, > a lot of people would, and do, get hurt. In the Bali bombings, > other factors could well be at work. Osama, Al Qaeda and JI > could have done it; so could the nationalist Indonesian angry at > Australian meddling in East Timor in the runup to its > independence from Indonesia; the armed forces in an attempt to > provide the conditions of utter chaos which only they could > resolve; internal religious conflicts; to destabilise the > government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri; an extension of > the religious conflicts that have emerged in Indonesia in recent > times; a deliberate Machivellian act by the US government -- not > necessarily officially but through one of its agencies, like the > CIA -- to warn Indonesia of the dangers of waffling in the face > of a threat Washington insists she faces, with the side product > of getting the Australian peoples mad and angry enough to agree > with what their prime minister, Mr John Howards, as Washington's > sergeant major in this war on terror. > > No one asks why the Bali bombings happened. But all are > quick to link it with the global enemy of choice: Osama and his > ubiquitous Al Qaeda. But people are arrested today for their > involvement with Osama bin Laden and his network at a time when > they were bankrolled by Washington and the CIA. As recently as > 1999, the State Department, in a Congressional hearing, described > the Taliban not as fundamentalist Muslims but as conservative > Muslims it could deal with. Yet two years later they had to be > destroyed as Washington perfected its 'regime change' model. In > the 1980s, the US backed Osama bin Laden and his fundamentalist > crusade so they could be unleashed on the Russians in > Afghanistan. When he and his organisation turned their > fundamentalism on the US, they became the ultimate evil. But as > you sow, so you reap. Suddenly, the officially-encouraged > activities that led many a Malaysian Muslim to cavort with the > Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan at the time when Washington > approved it, to detention under the Internal Security Act when > they became the enemy. As others elsewhere in the region. > > The deaths are tragic. So many lives wasted for no purpose. > But so the thousands when the US bombed Afghanistan, and the > hundreds of thousands of Iraqis under UN sanctions. No one sheds > a tear for them. They are subhuman, it seems, but not the > citizens of the backers of the war on terror. Death and > destruction by any side -- the United States and the terrorists > -- must be condemned. But when one side indiscriminately bombs > innocents, so would the other. So this breast-beating at the > carnage in Bali counts for nothing when it is not reflected in > breast-beating in Afghanistan or Iraq. Or are lives on your side > more valuable than on the other? Or is one life from the > developed world equal to a thousand from the developing world? > > But what we do not have so far is the motive. When it is Al > Qaeda and its links that must be condemned, there is no need for > one. The ready made enemy is at hand, so why bother about what > happened. All it did, though, is to get the Muslims united as > never before. They are as rabidly united as the Christians were > when they went to do battle for Christianity against the Muslims > in the Crusades. > > But there are other possibilities. The strongest -- and > which got the diplomats terribly upset -- is that Washington > could have deliberately orchestrated the carnage. The Gulf of > Tonkin resolution which brought the US into Vietnam turned out, > as the Pentagon Papers showed, was based on a lie; as the claim > by the 15-year-old daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador that she > saw Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait removing respirators from newly born > babies. But it was enough reason for Congress, in anger, to act. > By the time it was found out, the action had begun, and it > became moot. > > What makes it difficult to assess all this is the deliberate > lying, the half-truths, the public relations spiel about the > demonic nature of the enemy, the insiduous propaganda in the > runup to a war, compounded by the speed with which the story must > come out. One does not have hindsight in advance. One trusts > one's instincts. When working in Indochina as a journalist in > the 1960s, I had the instinctive feeling that the US would become > a cropper. I was derided for it at the time, and called the same > epithets as I am now -- Commie lover and all that -- but ten > years later it did. As I believe in this war on terror. And > this not from a fanatical Muslim, but a mild-mannered Hindu! > > M.G.G. Pillai > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > URL:www.mggpillai.com > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ( Melanggan ? 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