State terror is terror

The US-led Terror War quickly devolved into exactly what I feared it would in my September 14, 2001 essay entitled Why? Examining the roots of the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the United States. At that time I wrote

Naturally, our first reaction is that we want those responsible punished. And they should be punished. But I have a great deal of fear that the U.S. will retaliate, blindly, with actions that would put us on the same disgusting moral level of terrorism of the hijackers. If we as a generous, free, peace-loving people, want justice, there should be justice, not just vengeance. This is no time for blind patriotism that could become the justification for the killing of innocents in the manner of the hijackers.

The jingoes and commissars who stake claim for an America-centered moralism – justifying infliction of unimaginable horror while covering American eyes with a sheet of propaganda – most certainly will accuse me of the crime of moral relativism. I reject the exisistance of such a crime. Instead I believe in the one lesson I remember from Lutheran Sunday school – The Golden Rule set forth by Jesus in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:12) – Treat others as I myself wish to be treated.

A fine blogger producing Past Peak: Cause for Alarm started me off on this post. Please see his post on this subject, referencing a fine New Statesman article by John Pilger.

From the West Bank and Gaza to Fallujah, the US and its allies are engaged in "systematic, murderous assault on civilian populations". Take a look at recent reporting from Fallujah, Iraq. The standard copy stamps an imprimatur of righteousness upon recent actions where the US has blown up homes from cowardly 1000-meter stances with aerial launched bombs, saying "intelligence" told them groups of "terrorists" were there. But when an honest journalist like Patrick Cockburn of the Independent investigates, the hospitals are found to be filled with shattered noncombatants, including many, many women and children.

Reality, America, reality. We better get back to it, witness our true effects on the world, and start trying to redeem our souls before we are lost for eternity. Rational, rapid withdrawl of our troops from Iraq would be a good start.