Will the Anglo-Saxon powers reap what they sow? Naturally everyone is responsible for their actions and the likely consequences of them. Why should this be such a muddle?

In a broad sense the Anglo-Saxon powers are responsible. This is what Chalmers Johnson calls 'blowback'. Basically the Western, Imperialist powers have been meddling in the Middle East (ie, killing Arabs and cheating them of their resources) since the First World War and now the chickens have finally come home to roost.

The contemporary situation needs to be contrasted with Vietnam and even the First Gulf War. During the Vietnam war the US unleashed vast military violence, killing millions of Indo-Chinese, and making Kissinger the world's biggest living war criminal. However amazing the Vietnamese resistance to this onslaught was, it apparently did not occur to them (or to anyone) that they could or should strike back in the US homeland.

This is the significance of September 11 and why it was such a big shock, both in the US and Europe. For the first time in 500 years the guns have been turned the other way. There is a reasonable prospect over time that a WMD will be detonated in a Western city.

Of course the regimes of Bush/Blair/Howard have terrorism as a low priority compared to imperialism and corporatism. Rather terrorism can be exploited via the politics of fear to increase the strength of their grip on power. Through their policies they have quite deliberately increased the risk of terrorist attack in the homeland. It is worth noting that prior to the invasion of Iraq, Iraq did not have a single suicide bomber in the whole of its (violent) history; since the aggression, there have been hundreds, something like one a day.

The Anglo-saxon imperialist policy in Iraq is criminal folly. And somewhat to the surprise of many of us, it is a near total failure, in its own military and strategic terms.

A senior house Democrat has recently expressed this by labelling the invasion a 'flawed policy wrapped in illusion' and calling for the early withdrawal of US troops as the only available option. It remains to be seen whether the crazed and incompetent Bush administration is capable of making this necessary adjustment.

NB. Airpower is the great, unpunished warcrime. It is true the Nazis started it, in Guernica, but the Allies, especially the US, have the blood of millions of victims on their hands. There can hardly be peace and non-violence in the world until an airforce general is hauled before a court and charged with warcrimes and crimes against humanity.

Will the Anglo-Saxon powers reap what they sow? Naturally everyone is responsible for their actions and the likely consequences of them. Why should this be such a muddle?

In a broad sense the Anglo-Saxon powers are responsible. This is what Chalmers Johnson calls 'blowback'. Basically the Western, Imperialist powers have been meddling in the Middle East (ie, killing Arabs and cheating them of their resources) since the First World War and now the chickens have finally come home to roost.

The contemporary situation needs to be contrasted with Vietnam and even the First Gulf War. During the Vietnam war the US unleashed vast military violence, killing millions of Indo-Chinese, and making Kissinger the world's biggest living war criminal. However amazing the Vietnamese resistance to this onslaught was, it apparently did not occur to them (or to anyone) that they could or should strike back in the US homeland.

This is the significance of September 11 and why it was such a big shock, both in the US and Europe. For the first time in 500 years the guns have been turned the other way. There is a reasonable prospect over time that a WMD will be detonated in a Western city.

Of course the regimes of Bush/Blair/Howard have terrorism as a low priority compared to imperialism and corporatism. Rather terrorism can be exploited via the politics of fear to increase the strength of their grip on power. Through their policies they have quite deliberately increased the risk of terrorist attack in the homeland. It is worth noting that prior to the invasion of Iraq, Iraq did not have a single suicide bomber in the whole of its (violent) history; since the aggression, there have been hundreds, something like one a day.

The Anglo-saxon imperialist policy in Iraq is criminal folly. And somewhat to the surprise of many of us, it is a near total failure, in its own military and strategic terms.

A senior house Democrat has recently expressed this by labelling the invasion a 'flawed policy wrapped in illusion' and calling for the early withdrawal of US troops as the only available option. It remains to be seen whether the crazed and incompetent Bush administration is capable of making this necessary adjustment.

NB. Airpower is the great, unpunished warcrime. It is true the Nazis started it, in Guernica, but the Allies, especially the US, have the blood of millions of victims on their hands. There can hardly be peace and non-violence in the world until an airforce general is hauled before a court and charged with warcrimes and crimes against humanity.