Friday, July 08, 2005
So this is the end of a long day.
Maybe it’ll feel scarier tomorrow. Should I be more affected than I am? What is it now, 35 people dead? Out of the millions travelling on the tube it’s not very much. Out of the people travelling on that train at that time, it’s enormous.
This is horrific, make no mistake. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people’s lives have changed. Their child or husband or sister is maimed, injured, dead. That happens all the time, of course, but it was in a batch today. And it didn’t need to happen.
It’s tempting to blame Britain and America for this. If only we hadn’t (whatever) then this force of nature would not have been released. This denies the agency of the terrorists. Their choice to murder was not determined by our government’s actions. They had as much free will as anyone else; and they must be condemned. This has nothing to do with the Iraq war, or Afghanistan. The “reason” for the massacre of dancing Australian backpackers in Bali: that their country had colluded in the liberation of East Timor. They had protected the people who had, per capita, suffered the worst genocidal campaign in history. Australia had thus provoked this slaughter. You hand over foreign policy to jihadists; or you do what you think is right.
Why must Islamic terrorists be the only party given the benefit of the doubt of the just reaction? Surely the invasion of Afghanistan must be understood in the context of the attack on the World Trade Centre? And that must be understood in the context of US foreign policy. And that must be understood in the context of the Cold War. And that must be understood in the context of Lenin’s mother. And her mother. And so on. It’s never ending.
Either everything just is, and London deaths by terrorism are worth no more than “insurgent” deaths in Iraq (but of course, no less), or there is a moral difference. And if you must, if you really must, my ideas of universal human rights, indeed of rights and wrongs, are culturally created. Fine. But they’re worth the same as those of any Islamist nihilist. At least give me that.
But here we are. It could have been worse. I can’t have been the only person who thought that this was inevitable – two years ago, when I worked in the City I would breathe a relieved sigh whenever I left Bank tube station – but was relieved that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. What can we do?
Same as we ever did.
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Maybe it’ll feel scarier tomorrow. Should I be more affected than I am? What is it now, 35 people dead? Out of the millions travelling on the tube it’s not very much. Out of the people travelling on that train at that time, it’s enormous.
This is horrific, make no mistake. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people’s lives have changed. Their child or husband or sister is maimed, injured, dead. That happens all the time, of course, but it was in a batch today. And it didn’t need to happen.
It’s tempting to blame Britain and America for this. If only we hadn’t (whatever) then this force of nature would not have been released. This denies the agency of the terrorists. Their choice to murder was not determined by our government’s actions. They had as much free will as anyone else; and they must be condemned. This has nothing to do with the Iraq war, or Afghanistan. The “reason” for the massacre of dancing Australian backpackers in Bali: that their country had colluded in the liberation of East Timor. They had protected the people who had, per capita, suffered the worst genocidal campaign in history. Australia had thus provoked this slaughter. You hand over foreign policy to jihadists; or you do what you think is right.
Why must Islamic terrorists be the only party given the benefit of the doubt of the just reaction? Surely the invasion of Afghanistan must be understood in the context of the attack on the World Trade Centre? And that must be understood in the context of US foreign policy. And that must be understood in the context of the Cold War. And that must be understood in the context of Lenin’s mother. And her mother. And so on. It’s never ending.
Either everything just is, and London deaths by terrorism are worth no more than “insurgent” deaths in Iraq (but of course, no less), or there is a moral difference. And if you must, if you really must, my ideas of universal human rights, indeed of rights and wrongs, are culturally created. Fine. But they’re worth the same as those of any Islamist nihilist. At least give me that.
But here we are. It could have been worse. I can’t have been the only person who thought that this was inevitable – two years ago, when I worked in the City I would breathe a relieved sigh whenever I left Bank tube station – but was relieved that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. What can we do?
Same as we ever did.
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