Ending Terrorism

By Robert Thompson
Nov 25, 2007, 16:13
AxisOfLogic

All decent folk throughout the world wish to put an end to terrorism, and we have to examine our consciences most carefully and honestly to consider how this can be done.

When we look to see who are active terrorists it rapidly becomes apparent that they tend to come from the ranks of supporters of one of many kinds of tyrant (or of a candidate for tyranny), every single one of whom wishes to impose or strengthen his or her totalitarian rule on all others.

The great British author, Eric Arthur Blair (who used the pen-name of George Orwell), wrote with deep perspicacity about the methods by which tyrants cling to their rule, and their tendency to use words to convey the opposite of their original meanings as a method of imposing or reinforcing their grip on power by thus hiding the truth.

We see this in our own time when the current President of the USA refers to his "War on Terra" (to describe systematic oppression, and I suspect that nobody in his entourage has ever dared to tell him that Terra is the Latin for Earth) and uses the words "Freedom" and "Democracy" to mean respectively "Servitude" and "Tyranny". In this he is merely following in the path of many of his predecessors, including in recent times both Ronald Wilson Reagan and William Jefferson Clinton. These are three examples of men for whom lying (which is in essence a form of contempt for all other human beings) has expanded from being the foundation of their distorted way of thought into becoming their whole way of life.

It remains however essential for all of us to find some way of ending terrorism, and part of the problem arises from the ease with which those setting up or running terrorist networks find new recruits.

In the case of state (or quasi-state) terrorism, this is done by "moulding" the education system, and having docile and utterly servile media doing whatever the ruler wishes them to publish, and this is very much the way in which the Neocon-Zionist rulers in the USA manage to make vast numbers of the people under their rule believe absolute nonsense. They managed to make many ordinary people, in the USA and elsewhere, believe that Saddam Hussein Takriti was behind the actions of his Wahabi enemies (whom the media have lumped together under the highly convenient name of al-Qaeda) when the latter attacked symbols of the power of the USA. They managed further, for some considerable time, to hide from the public in the USA the nature of the terrorist atrocities being committed by the invading Zionist storm troopers in Palestine and in neighbouring countries, and by troops from the USA in Iraq, even though the rest of the world has and had for some time been fully aware of these horrors.

The only way to break the hold of these evil, but extraordinarily brilliant, experts in propaganda is to give as many people as possible as much truthful information as possible, and there is no excuse for trying to simplify facts to the extent that they become untruthful. Lies, to be most effective, are simple, direct and uncluttered, but life is such that the truth, even if its essence is simple, is commonly more difficult to explain and often messy. People have to be taught this honestly, and not allowed to wallow in ignorance for the lack of anyone willing to explain. The fact that any truth is convoluted does not necessarily mean that it is impossible to explain, and we must not fall into the trap of telling half-truths because we underestimate our listeners' ability to understand awkward details and seeming inconsistencies.

Such modern terrorism as is committed by Islamists, those classified by the servile media as al-Qaeda, has arisen mainly as a result of the invasion and occupation of Palestine which accelerated from 1947 onwards, and more recently the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, where genuine causes seeking justice for the oppressed (many but not all of them followers of Islam) have been used by cunning power seekers to inflame hatred and a desire for revenge amongst dissatisfied persons whose weak understanding of Islam and of the Qur'an has been "moulded" to bring out the worst aspects of their personalities. In this, they are following in the footsteps of the ill-educated people in the USA who have been led to believe that Christianity requires them to kill and torture others in order to force them to join them in their servitude. In both cases, the sacred texts are used with careful selectivity to destroy their obvious clear original sense. Other violences arise from similar misuse of ancient religious texts and traditions, as where Zionists teach Jews that they are entitled to steal from, persecute, torture and kill the indigenous people of Palestine, or where certain Hindus in India believe that they are justified in burning trains full of passengers because the latter are Muslim. In both of these great traditions, the decent and the honest are shouted down by the raucous trouble makers, who see this as a way of seizing power and/or wealth, very often both.

If we are going to win the fight against terrorism, and it is a fight in people's minds more than on any battlefield or in any war, we have all got to admit the wrongs committed by our own countries and peoples against others and also do what we can to help the victims. This is particularly true of what is conveniently referred to as the "West" when we take stock of the wrongs done to those who were in the past weak and unable to resist. If we do not, those who were formerly feeble will build up their strength to seek revenge, and in the meantime many individuals will do whatever they can, however desperate it may seem, to make their perceived persecutors suffer. One of the most striking examples of this has been the number of young men whose despair has led them to be willing to commit murders by deliberately ending their own lives, the so-called "suicide bombers".

Unless a dialogue is engaged with the oppressed of the world, such horrors will continue, and it would be helpful if the people of every single "western" country could persuade their respective rulers to treat the victims of former and present persecution with respect and understanding. In today's world, the urgency is such that this should start immediately and simultaneously in the obvious parts of the world, Latin America, Africa and the Near and Middle East, but it should not end there. If mankind is to survive, we must all do whatever we can to bring understanding and compassion to bear among all the rulers of the world, but it is bound to be a long hard road to achieve success.

Terrorism can be ended, but not by brute force, since this merely reinforces the feelings of resentment which breed a desire for revenge. None of the measures announced by such criminal rulers as Mr George W. Bush, Mr Ehud Olmert and Mr James Gordon Brown (or by their representatives) will ever do more than recruit more to resist their greed and insensitivity. In other words, there is no point in papering over the cracks, the walls of the house have to be repaired properly.

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