So here I sit at
the office this morning. More
doom and gloom in the papers, on the news. All over the television sets, the newspapers are pictures of the events going on in
New York, half a world away from where I sit in
Melbourne. The media has gone crazy, there's a morbid obsession with getting more information about the events of that day. TV "special events" about the "
WAR on America", blurbs about the bravery of the passengers aboard various flights... Does it all begin to make sense if I read another article about it, see more footage, more images?
Amidst all that, the shocking pictures of the smoking remains of the World Trade Center, people digging, cleaning up. Americans weeping for their lost citizens. The grief on the faces of the people.
I am forced to wonder how the world would feel if we were presented with images of the innocent citizens targeted by US aggression weeping for their lost dead, displaying their grief at the loss of their people... Would that make people think twice? Outrage at the people dancing for joy at the news of the WTC destruction... Will these outraged people dance for joy at news of the destruction of the homeland of the supposed perpetrators?
In three thousand odd years of "civilization" we don't appear to have learned that there are no good wars. I often wonder if we deserve to be the dominant species on this planet.
And I'm scared. Scared that the enormous wrath of the USA will not find an outlet, will find nobody truly responsible. What then, do we just blow up the entire Middle East? Are my fellow Australians to be dragged into a war on innocent countries because the USA believes they are "strongly linked" to terrorism? Isn't that called circumstantial evidence?