randomWalks

“Responding to Terrorism”: A Compendium of Articles from the Alternative Media collected by Utne Reader Online.

Nineteen years ago today, the greatest act of terrorism — using Israel's own definition of that much misused word — in modern Middle Eastern history began. Does anyone remember the anniversary in the West? How many readers of this article will remember it?

Powerful commentary by Robert Fisk.

originally posted by xowie

"We should be careful when we use those analogies. If I ever used war analogies, I apologize. Football is not war." - Ray Brown.

originally posted by xowie

Take a peek at photojournalist Raku Loren’s What’s Really Going On.

Statement of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

originally posted by xowie

Our government has a bad record in its ‘wars’ against such ill-defined enemies as poverty or drugs. Terrorism in the modern world is effected across many borders and its remediation requires analogous forms of cooperation. ‘War’ may sanction actions that increase our insecurity and vulnerability. War does not easily coexist with justice despite the best efforts to elaborate just war theory. War seeks the destruction of the other rather than efforts to find the best ways in which to coexist with those who are different.

originally posted by xowie

Devastating hi-res photos by Sara K. Schwittek, Brooklyn, N.Y.

originally posted by xowie

Argentina: 2 missing Australia: 9 confirmed dead, 85 missing Bangladesh: 50 confirmed, more missing Belgium: 60 missing Brazil: 5 missing Canada: 2 confirmed, 100 missing (est) Chile: 1 missing China: 4 confirmed, 30 missing Colombia: 6 confirmed, 116 missing Denmark: 5 missing Dominican Republic: 3 missing Egypt: 1 confirmed, 3 missing El Salvador: 1 confirmed, 18 missing Finland: 7 missing France: 81 missing Germany: 4 confirmed, 700 missing India: 250 missing Indonesia: 1 confirmed, 1 missing Ireland: 4 confirmed Israel: 1 confirmed, 150 missing Italy: 8 missing Japan: 2 confirmed, 100 missing Lebanon: 1 confirmed, 2 missing Malaysia: 7 missing Mexico: 150-500 missing (est) Norway: 1 missing Pakistan: 3 confirmed, more missing Paraguay: 2 missing Peru: 5 missing Philippines: 7 missing Portugal: 3 confirmed, 20 missing Puerto Rico: 1 missing South Africa: 1 confirmed, 2 missing South Korea: 1 confirmed, 27 missing Spain: 9 missing Sweden: 1 missing Switzerland: 4 confirmed, 10 missing Taiwan: 9 missing United Kingdom: 100 confirmed, 200 missing (est) Zimbabwe: 6 missing

originally posted by xowie

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What would happen if instead of bombs, we instead bombed them with food and those 45 words?

originally posted by xowie

Noelle: Will this bring peace?

Admiral Carroll: We can inflict grave damage, but it will not bring peace, it will not end terrorism, it may even exacerbate it. We will lose the sympathy shown around the world. We should make Americans safe from terrorism by reducing the motives. Terrorism arises out of abject poverty and hopelessness. If I can't protect my children, if I see my family dying around me, I become a terrorist out of a feeling of sheer helplessness. Without any hope for the future, they give their lives.

originally posted by xowie

If we are to make progress as a civilization—or, more critically, survive as a species—we face the stark choice of either building a new global culture of compassion or continuing to ignore or support our current system's cultivation of inequality, militarism and the degradation of human life where economic and social decisions are guided only by market values. Without fundamental change, the forces who see violence as the only method to address legitimate grievances, symbolized in the carnage of lower Manhattan and along the Potomoc, will inevitably grow and become more destructive in this noxious environment.

originally posted by xowie

[Friday's Congressional resolution is not] based on a quest for justice. It is an open-ended invitation to attack anyone U.S. leaders decide to target. And those leaders -- Dick Cheney and Colin Powell among them -- are some of the same people who during the Gulf War unleashed attacks not only on military targets but on civilians and the entire civilian infrastructure of Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people during and after the war. This resolution, and the statements from the Bush administration about an ongoing global war, suggest that what is coming will be even more frightening.

originally posted by xowie

One target of operation "Infinite Reach" was bin Laden's paramilitary camp in Afghanistan. "The U.S. picked the highly accurate cruise missile for the strikes against the Afghan camp," reported CNN's military correspondent Jamie McIntrye, "because of their ability to fly with pinpoint accuracy." One of the missiles was so inaccurate it hit the wrong country, Pakistan, several hundred miles off-course.

originally posted by xowie

War Against the Planet by Vijay Prashad, Fearing strikes, Afghans flee Kabul by Amir Shah, Bush’s Faustian Deal With the Taliban by Robert Scheer.

originally posted by xowie

Any explanation of Middle Eastern violence that relies upon the notion that Islam is an inherently violent or inherently anti-Western religion is false and misleading. First, Islam is one of the world's largest and most diverse religions and like Christianity or Judaism there are thousands of views within Islam about the religion and also about violence and the West. Secondly, there are major differences even among explicitly Muslim militants and activists regarding these issues - some insist upon non-violent struggle and others regard violence as a legitimate tool. There is no way one can generalize about Islam or any religion for that matter.

originally posted by xowie

In response to Tuesday’s terrorist attacks, Clear Channel, the world’s largest radio network, has sent out a list of some 150 "lyrically questionable" songs by everyone from the Animals to the Zombies to its radio stations, recommending that the songs not be aired.

originally posted by xowie

Suicide bombers are supposed to be 17-year-old zealots with nothing to live for but the hope of a martyr's welcome by 72 virgins in paradise. These men, the FBI reveals, lived middle-class lives, had degrees and jobs and wives and kids and a willingness to leave them all to kill us. Among the casualties last week was our sweet certainty that anyone lucky enough to be able to live in America, share its vices and freedoms and gifts, surely would not want to destroy it.

originally posted by xowie

Felt by all the world.

originally posted by xowie

The simplistic stereotyping that goes on - equating Arabs and Muslims - must stop. Two-thirds of Arab Americans are, actually, Christian. And up to three-fourths of the U.S. Muslim population is not Arab.

Now what does this word Islam mean? Oh, wow, it comes from the word salaam, which means peace. Suddenly, it was dawning. Hey! Didn't I once write a song called Peace Train? It was fast becoming clear that I was now being confronted with something much greater than I had originally anticipated: possibly - the Truth!

Truly, our hearts bleed for the attacks that have targeted the World Trade Center (WTC) as well as other institutions in the United States despite our strong opposition to the American-biased policy towards Israel on the military, political and economic fronts. Islam, the religion of tolerance, holds the human soul in high esteem, and considers an attack against innocent human beings a grave sin. This is backed by the Qur’anic verse which reads: "Whosoever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if be had killed all mankind, and whosoever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had: saved the life of all mankind." (Al-Ma’dah:32)

originally posted by xowie

Altered city. Brief interview with Angus Kress Gillespie. How little kids are handling it. Raw thoughts. No more illusions. We need the rule of law, not the rule of war. Perseverance amid 450,000 tons of debris. Now more than ever. Fallout.

originally posted by xowie

Remember when you didn’t know?

Usman Farman:

The next thing I remember is that a dark cloud of glass and debris about 50 stories high came tumbling towards us. I turned around and ran as fast as possible. I didn’t realize until yesterday that the reason I’m still feeling so sore was that I fell down trying to get away. I was on my back, facing this massive cloud that was approaching, it must have been 600 feet off, everything was already dark. I normally wear a pendant around my neck, inscribed with an Arabic prayer for safety; similar to the cross. A hesidic Jewish man came up to me and held the pendant in his hand, and looked at it. He read the Arabic out loud for a second. What he said next, I will never forget. With a deep Brooklyn accent he said “Brother, if you don’t mind, there is a cloud of glass coming at us, grab my hand, lets get the hell out of here?” He helped me stand up, and we ran for what seemed like forever without looking back. He was the last person I would ever have thought, who would help me. If it weren’t for him, I probably would have been engulfed in shattered glass and debris.

wtc-filter is a good weblog covering the war. If they had a link to randomWalks, I would make it my home page. If they were to add one more weblog, though, it should be World New York.

Astrological analysis of the WTC attack.

Dear reader, two Sundays in the future: you know vastly more than I do about what I mean when I say war. Do you envy me, living in this before, this last shred of relative innocence? I hope not. I hope I ought to envy you, the wild sweet peace you enjoy, the simultaneous epiphany of universal human amity and accord, the melting of all world guns into memorial sculpture which took place on, say, Sept. 16, the miracle that occurred in place of the carnage I’m dreading today. Oh, I hope I ought to envy you; I hope I’m a moron.

originally posted by xowie