DEAR News Of The Area,
WHILE the Western World pauses to remember the shock and horror of 9/11 a quarter of a century ago, and the names of the approximately 3000 people who died on that fateful day are solemnly read out, I wonder if the most important questions are perhaps still not being asked – nor answered.
The answer to the question ‘why?’ was always evident. OsamaBin Laden had made it clear years before that al Qaeda would avenge US military and political meddling in the Middle East, including support for an aggressive Israel and the blood of the many tens of thousands of martyrs.
Sadly, the US and Allied response was always going to be an over-reaction. It is estimated that over 4 million people have died as a direct and indirect result from the US-led wars which have followed in the Middle East in the 25 years since.
The estimated financial cost is somewhere in the trillions.
I wonder if Bin Laden and his mob ever reflected on the disaster they had unleashed?
One cannot help but draw parallels with the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, and Israel’s massively disproportionate response. The 72,000-plus official Palestinian death toll will pale in significance when every vanished Palestinian is finally accounted for, if ever.
When one considers the even more widespread destruction of Gazan infrastructure and the environmental toxicity, there will also be the inevitable widespread suffering and death from related diseases into the decades ahead.
It is estimated that over 9000 Americans have died since 9/11 from related respiratory and cancer illnesses due to toxic exposure at the time.
Every day we hear our political masters refer to ‘Deterrence theory’ to justify our fear-led war-mongering and the subsequent transfer of public billions to our weapons of mass destruction, as if war is something which happens elsewhere in a distant place which we are isolated from.
Surely at a time like this, when we are pre-occupied with restricting the mass migration of millions – victims from our war-involved legacy – and we pause ever so briefly to reflect on a shocking history, the biggest question which we need to ask and answer is ‘How can we continue this madness?’
Regards,
Dave Wood,
Boambee East.
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