Terrorism

Countering Terrorism

(Written immediately after the terrorist attack on London)

September 11^th. A few years and a few million lives later, it is now July 7^th. The date has changed. The stage has changed. But the actors have not. In between, it has been more violence, genocide and blood shed. Though the name is different - Countering Terrorism. They are hitting today, because you hit them yesterday, because they hit you the day before and the story goes on and on. “An eye for an eye will only lead to making the whole world blind”. Sounds familiar? Not Richard Attenborough. It was Mahatma Gandhi’s warning about a century back (Richard marketed – not spread - it globally).

Violent terrorist activities cannot be controlled by more violence. Counter-terrorism [trying to terrorize the terrorists] cannot counter terrorism. And the head count - terrorist killed 5000 plus and demolished 2 buildings on Sept 11^th and the US counter attack killed as many as 2 million (mostly) innocents in Afghanistan and Iraq and ransacked 2 countries. History shows that the number of people killed by the Europeans (British in particular) and the others of European origin (US in particular) as an ethnic group is several folds more (may be more than 10 millions) than those killed by all other ethnic groups put together (may not even be a hundred thousands). The figures include the genocide of natives committed by the Europeans (British, Spanish, French and Dutch) in America and Australia, the genocide by US in Japan (dropping of Atom bomb even after the war was actually over, only to test the atom bomb), the genocide by US in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, as against the insignificant numbers killed by others in acts of terrorism. In fact all those killed in the many wars after the II world war, also have to go to the account of US, as all these wars were in fact fought by the US by proxy (not just on one side, often it was on both sides) and the sole purpose of all these wars was to dispose the piles of arms stocked up there before the expiry date and not to route out terrorism or install/ instil democracy or establish Dharma.

They said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The very phrase ‘Weapons of mass destruction’ is a US invention (coinage). The few weapons of mass destruction ever deployed have all come from the US armoury. The atom bombs dropped on Japan, the chemical and biological agents used in Vietnam and probably recently in Iraq and Afghanistan have all been developed and deployed only by the US. The number of such WMDs stock pilled by the US is several fold more than those pilled up by all other countries (including the allies of US) and terrorists (assuming they have some) put together. The idea of WMDs in Iraq is now known to be a cold bluff. All these lead to the basic question ‘who are the real terrorists? Is it the few disgruntled elements hiding in the Afghan caves or the ones who are claiming to guard the world from terror? Is the most dreaded terrorist ‘Bin laden’ or ‘Presidents of US’ and their allies?

The list of WMDs don’t stop with Nuclear, biological and chemical bombs. They are in fact less harmful as they are rarely deployed, though having the potential to annihilate all farms of life on earth. The 2 other major WMDs which are killing slowly but surely a huge population, are the ‘Cola soft drinks’ and the ‘Cell phones’. I call them the ‘liquid grenade’ and the ‘electronic grenade’. The cola being consumed by millions every day, is not only not having any nutritive value, it is an acid and addictive (even if it does not contain pesticides) rendering a whole generation prone to early extinction. The cell phones are again slowly but surely leading the users and the nonusers (passive) together to cancers and other ailments. It will be no surprise if the humanity stands mutated or even mutilated because of the millions of electro magnetic waves emanating from the ‘electronic grenade’ criss-crossing the human bodies in all frequencies and amplitudes. These WMDs are also the inventions of US as is the CFC.

It should be realised that terrorism is only a reaction to some injustice (action) done to some people over years. No amount of ‘Arming’ can be an adequate safeguard against terror. Only stopping ‘Harming’ others can reduce the proneness to terror attack. England should realise that the Sun has set long back on its empire. It is not British empire or Great Briton, not even Britton anymore. It is just a small island of England (no Ireland even). They were the perpetrators of injustice for centuries and they have been already shown their place thanks mainly to Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha. US should now stop playing ‘Big brother’ and give up its hegemony over the rest of the world and imperialistic intensions. US should first disarm and start caring for the poorer people. This will change the terrorists in to domestic pets. More arms will lead only to more terror. Trying to control the world by ruthless force will only be retaliated by more ruthless force. Even wars don’t solve problems. End of one war is only the seed for the next and more deadly war. And controlling others by brute force is no democracy either which they proclaim to practise.

Whoever is responsible for the London explosions physically, the moral responsibility for all the terrorism today is that of US as they are the cause of it all.

The age old saying ‘Live and Let Live’ should be realised by them. Terrorism has nothing to do with religion. A terrorist is as irreligious as any politician trying to bend religion to his own advantage to achieve his short-term goals. Bush’s attempt to paint the counter-terrorism as a ‘Crusade’ is as bad as the terrorists painting the terrorism a ‘Jihad’.

Market based economy, driving people to insatiable desire for more money and more power can never bring peace in the world. Only a moral based society can ever dream to live in peace.

Asathoma sath gamaya, thamsoma jyothir gamaya, mruthyorma amrutham gamaya’(‘lead us from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light and from death to bliss or sleep to awakening’).