The Webdiaries of September 12 and 13 last year follow.
TRAGEDY
Wednesday, Sept 12
I am still in the shock phase of grief. Fear isn’t allowed in yet. Some people in Australia have hit out and are threatening fellow Australians. Others have used the tragedy to bolster their case against allowing any Muslims into Australia, including the Tampa boat people. A few of these people have written to the Webdiary. Some others have written making judgements about the United States and suggesting it is responsible for last night’s events. I’ve chosen not to publish any of these emails at this time. Many Australians are still waiting for news on family and friends in the United States.
Keith Conley wrote to me today: “In light of what happened last night, please put a halt to the Webdiary. It can serve no purpose now. Any argument over refugees will be inflamed by the raw tidal wave of emotion that is about to be unleashed. This is not the time.”
I’d already decided the same thing, but have changed my mind. Today, I publish contributions from John Avery, Brian Bahnisch, Andrew Cave, Polly Bush, Colin White, Marc Pengryffn, Merrill Pye and Beris de Vanharasz.
***
John Avery in Adelaide
It is a reasonable guess that the perpetrators of today’s terrorism in the US are an extreme faction identified with Islam and probably connected to the Taliban. Having said that, it is vital that the actual culprits are identified and punished with narrow particularity, not just for sake of justice but to defeat the purposes of these outrages.
President Bush has said no distinction will be drawn between terrorists and the regimes who support them. But that is the exactly the response these shocking deeds seem calculated to elicit. A key object of extremist factions, such as those competing with more moderate groups among the Taliban, is to prevent moderate groups defecting, to shut the escape hatches.
We have seen this tactic in Afghanistan with the desecration of the Buddhist monuments, the arrest of aid workers for (allegedly) preaching Christianity and the outrageous repression of women in that country. The terrorists believe that more extreme and outrageous the actions, the more reliably will their targets extend revenge to anyone tainted by association with them.
Under common attack, more moderate factions are forced to commit to the extreme hard line, whether they like it or not.
If this is correct, the US response should be to drive a wedge between the perpetrators and to their close supporters, rebarbative as they definitely will turn out to be. This course is unlikely to be followed because the extremity of the terrorists’ outrage is designed to amplify their victims’ hostility and harden their feelings of revenge.
Thus the huge scale of losses inflicted on the US are calculated to induce feelings of revenge that will not be satisfied with the punishment of a mere handful of scruffy tribesmen, even if Bin Laden were among them (should his group turn out to be culpable).
The vividness and power of these events, underscored by presumed religiously inspired suicides, make it emotionally difficult for the Americans to resist the terrorists’ overt message that they are primarily engaged in war with the USA or the west.
The war with the diabolical west may turn out to be their platform, but the real purpose of their attacks and their extreme high stake tactics seem to be fame, self-preservation and advancement within a specific regional politics marked by labile factional and ideological commitments to forms of Islam ostensibly opposed to modernity with a western face.
The world will pay a high price if America succumbs to these forceful temptations. President Bush, contrary to what he has declared so far in the heat of the moment, should lend support to the more moderate factions to isolate the extremists, contrary to the extremists’ desire to draw a savage response from the USA, but this is unlikely to happen.
It seems a small point to make now, but the prospect that the world might have developed better ways of dealing with the increasing flow of refugees from Afghanistan and nearby countries seems to have evaporated.
I had hoped that, in that context, Australia would be able to review its responsibilities to take refugees on a more compassionate and responsive basis. That would have changed things for the better. At present, it seems that we can only hope things do not get far, far worse.
***
Brian Bahnisch in Brisbane
When I was young there was a fellow called Gandhi. I admired his pacifist philosophy but could not bring myself to adopt it entirely. I would always be ready to kill if it meant saving my sister’s life. But Gandhi made you think. We do have to be careful about extending the cycle of violence.
Later when doing a course on ethics I read that every society on earth has legitimated killing in some form in some circumstances. Exceptions are possible but they are rare. Last year I met a Kiwi, a Moriori, who told me that the Moriori were so gentle they would rather die than fight the invading Maori. There are not many Moriori about these days.
Last night was a bad night. After Lateline finished I checked out the end of the Channel 10 news. There was a World Trade Centre tower burning. By the time I got out of the shower it was clear that bad things were happening. I watched in fascination, as it became clear that the world had changed forever.
This morning we told my 14-year-old about what had happened. His response? Bad things are going to happen. You know how the Americans are when some of their people are killed.
There was lots of comment on the radio. American voices, experts in terrorism and defense, saying that Bush should be careful about overreacting. One pointed out that the terrorists were just toying with the US. There was no payload of anthrax and they could have taken out the White House.
They spoke about how hard it was to defend against such an attack. Weapons could be taken on board and put together later. I realised that the terrorists would not have needed any weapons at all if there were enough of them and they were skilled in unarmed combat. In fact the woman who phoned her husband from one of the planes mentioned only knives and cardboard cutters.
It was an elegant plan. Use the power of the products of capitalism against itself. I wondered about what violence had preceded these unspeakable acts and what violence would follow. After all the Brits and the Yanks have been bombing Iraq for the last 10 years.
Then came Beazley. He expressed concern for the victims and their families and then talked about retribution. Is this what I want my leader to be saying? Shouldn’t he be calming things down? And I thought, give up Kim. People will never vote to change the government now with the strong man in control.
Then came Howard. He had compassionate words too and then spoke of a lethal strike. I called into the newsagent and picked up The Bulletin. I had been sweating on The Bulletin Morgan poll. The last one had been taken just after the Minister, who could not remember where he had been or what he knew, had given out five different stories to cover himself. (Margo: Junior minister Ian Macfarlane was implicated in Liberal Party rorting of the GST. He is now in Cabinet.) Labor was then 57 to 43 ahead. This one was taken on 12 September. The gap had narrowed 10 points in two weeks. Howard was in the hunt. Now he would surely romp it in.
Then came talkback on the ABC. I expected it and it came. We must keep these Muslims out! They want to destroy our Christian society. Then a guy came on and said the notable thing about this attack was that it came from inside the US. And here in Australia we have one man (Justice North) subverting the will of our elected leaders. (Margo: Justice North had just declared the government’s detention of asylum seekers on the Tampa unlawful.)
So is this the end of what Fukuyama claimed was the end of history, namely liberal democracy and free market capitalism? Perhaps not, but it must be getting closer. Eric Hobsbawm says borders are becoming more porous, crime is globalising and the technology of violence is increasing to the point where it is hard for the nation state to exert control within its borders and make the place safe for global capitalism. He thinks the nation state reached its zenith about 40 years ago.
And what do we do? Throw up our hands in despair? Well no, we keep pushing the rock up the hill like Sisyphus even if it is destined to keep rolling down again.
***
Andrew Cave in Kuraby, Queensland
My wife went to the local supermarket about half an hour ago. When she came back she told me of overhearing conversations. Two young men talking to a checkout operator saying “All Arabs are crazy”. Another checkout operator saying “Now you know why we turned those boat people away.” A beautiful young Arab woman working on checkout defending herself against three other checkout operators who were evidently focussing on her as a representative of Islam and so having some responsibility for the terrible crime in New York overnight.
This sort of reaction is commonplace now as the message to fear the Islamic people of the world becomes internalised, part of the very moral and decision making framework of our lives. Unquestioned like the notion that man is the most evolved creature on the planet.
It is this sort of fear that attacking the boat people works on. Those who pander to it may think, isolated in their sane and well-educated suburbs, that this can be used for political advantage and that it can be contained like a controlled burn-off. But like a fire that gets to the tree crowns, it will run away from their control.
Watching the American news coverage, I have been struck by how considered and calm their commentary has been. There has been overt efforts to ensure that it is not assumed that it was Islamic terrorists and that a distinction is drawn between the people who did it and the people who may have unwittingly shared a country.
I can only hope that our media will do the same – even the shock-jocks. And I sincerely hope that the first politician to try and make political mileage by linking New York with the Afghan refugees is so vilified by the press that he (or she) never participates in public life again.
***
Polly Bush in Melbourne
Madness. Complete and utter madness. Excuse my age (24) but this is the biggest thing I have ever seen. This is the scariest feeling I have ever had. This is beyond comprehension.
Work was a joke today. I couldn’t do anything except mindlessly click the refresh button on any news site I could find. People walked around, mouths open, eyes vacant, silent, stunned.
And this is just Australia. Crowds gathered around the office TVs, but still, silence, stunned faces.
A male colleague of mine told me on one of many unproductive smoko breaks today, “I don’t want to be called up for war”. I never thought I would hear that from someone my age and seriously contemplate it.
Idiot callers on talkback radio likened boat people to terrorists, without making the connection this is what boat people might be fleeing from. Emails went wild. I got sent this Nostradamus quote: “In the city of God there will be a great thunder, two brothers torn apart by chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb. The third big war will begin when the big city is burning.” Ta for that, whoever.
Dubbya quoted the bible. Terrific. I recalled his father’s speech during the Gulf and the emphasis on the sons and daughters of the USA. I felt sick. I rang my Mum interstate for some vague reassurance that life is OK. She asked me to come home, so we can go bush and build a bunker. That didn’t help.
In light of the Tampa, I didn’t think news could get anymore depressing. It has. Unfortunately I think this will just enrage the racists in this country and around the world.
We live in dangerous times. I fear the future.
***
Colin White in Highgate, Western Australia
If reports are to be believed, this evil is the work of Islam. Why does Islam insist on hiding from the world the beauty inspired by Allah, presenting only the evil inspired by Satan?
I hope the American people have the fortitude to rebuild those beautifully elegant towers to their original design, as a living, working monument to all who perished there yesterday. A design in which, ironically, I have always seen the influence of Islamic architecture.
***
Marc Pengryffyn in Katoomba, NSW
Arbitrary slaughter of innocent people is the norm over most of the world, not the exception. The murder of thousands of Americans is a horrible tragedy. So were the deaths of the thousands in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Chile, Chechnya, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Palestine, the former Yugoslavia, China, Burma, etc, etc. There is no defence against terror, except to create a world without the depth of inequality and injustice that currently exists.
It disturbs me that the first thing I heard President Bush say was to promise revenge. Not justice. Revenge. This suggests that even more innocent civilians will be killed to ‘send a message’ to the terrorists. Why do the bodies of the innocent always have to be the medium of the message?
Likewise, the Australian government has been speaking in terms of retribution, rather than justice. Predictably, the noisy, hard-of-thinking bigots who patronise talk-back are threatening violent retribution against the Australian Muslim community. More innocent victims.
Tit-for-tat atrocities is not the way to end terror. Look at Palestine or Northern Ireland. The terrorists need to be brought to justice, and the conditions that foster fanaticism and terror need to be addressed at the roots. We need justice, not vengeance.
But few will listen. Few will even bother to think. They will only react, and the cycle of violence will continue. Sometimes it’s hard to be an optimist.
***
Merrill Pye in Sydney
My worries for reverberations continue, but down the bottom of Pandora’s Box was hope. Just maybe some sort of common feeling might come out of this. New York and Washington DC now maybe can feel like Belgrade and Baghdad did. Those pretty pictures, like movies or computer games, missile-cam and night-vision, now connect with reality, with pain, grief, loss and destruction.
***
Beris de Vanharasz
I feel desperate for the world and all the decent people of all races and beliefs.
***
FEAR
Thursday, Sept 13, first edition
I can’t stop crying. I know – we all know – that we at at the beginning of a journey which could destroy our hopes for a better world and plunge us into a religious war. I don’t believe in God, but I’m praying that the world’s leaders – including the leaders of the Muslim world – will find a way to avoid world catastrophe.
In the first edition of Webdiary today, letters from Americans to us, and from us to them and each other. I end the edition with proposals for solutions from a dual citizen.
Today’s contributors are:
Rich Wagner in Massachusetts, thanking Australians for their support.
Liz McEachern-Hall, an Australian in Boston, in defence of America.
Dave Hoefer in Florida, who is considering sending his Australian wife and children to Australia for their safety.
Varia Cartledge, an Australian in Boston, who feels she has no right to argue with Americans at this time
Tricia Phillips in Indiana, hoping her country’s response does not mean war
McKenzie Wark, an Australian in New York, connecting his media theory with living the reality
Gemma Dalgleish in Sydney, on the feeling of fear
A Iman in Greystanes, Sydney an Australian with a Muslim perspective
Betsy Emmons in solidarity with the United States
David Palmer in Adelaide, a dual citizen of the United States and Australia, with suggestions on strategy and policy.
***
Rich Wagner in Hadley, Massachusetts, 200 miles north-west of New York City
These attacks have been psychologically overwhelming to many individuals here in the US for many reasons. Even for those of us, such as myself, who (thankfully) suffered no injuries or loss of life to family or friends, it is very hard, for too many reasons to enumerate.
I grew up across the Hudson River from Manhattan, and remember the pride I felt at seeing those towers, often miles and miles away from hills in New Jersey. Now they are just *gone*.
A man I worked closely with for a year was on the 38th floor of one of the Towers when the first plane struck. Thank God he evacuated in time. Even all-too-close calls can be damaging, psychologically, as I’m learning.
But one of the most significant reasons we feel overwhelmed has to do with the shock of reality, of our own naivety. I must confess that the Gulf War, with its displays of our technological capabilities for warfare, made me (and I’m sure many Americans) feel invincible. But what weaponry brought this about ? Knives, our own aircraft, and demonic human beings possessed by hatred. No more; no less.
A high price for humility, lacking though it was …
Having been in Australia for a month, over a decade ago, I know some about the justified resentments towards the superior attitudes many Americans carry abroad. I like to think I set a better example then than most.
I loved your country. So in this time, for me, it’s been truly helpful to read about, and to hear through distant Australian friends in Internet “chat” rooms, the sincere and complete support, and sympathies, expressed by you, our friends and allies.
It’s especially welcome given the vulnerabilities we are now at least a little less blind to.
Different things help different people here, now. For me and my love of your country and folk, your flags at half mast help. Even if no one else I know sees that, know that *this* American sees that and feels embraced. *This* American sees your flowers, and feels the symbolic mutual shedding-of-blood from all those donating blood, whether it is actually used here or not.
This American has heard the words of Mr. Howard and other Australians, and they make me feel strong again, but now because I see global strength and unity in this battle.
This American is thankful for his distant friends.
***
Liz McEachern-Hall, an Australian in Boston
I have thought about responding to some of the comments in this Webdiary from SMH readers and after reading some of the reactions to the carnage in the US I feel compelled to act.
I currently live in Boston with my American husband and the impact of the last few days has certainly been felt in this area. It is hard not to feel vulnerable or afraid. As I write there has been an evacuation of a section of the downtown area in Boston with FBI and police on the scene searching for alleged suspects in the attacks. There are SWAT team members surrounding the area and much confusion on the streets.
I appreciate some of the comments that have come from SMH readers concerning the welfare of the victims and extending thoughts and prayers. In addition some of the sensible responses have shown how great my country is and how great an understanding it has of world issues.
However for those few who have suggested that the US deserves what it has been through I have this to say. You have no concept of what it must be like for people living here and particularly for those in New York City. At one point I had lost a friend down there, but thankfully he is OK.
I may not be an American citizen, but I certainly don’t stand around and think, “Well, they deserve this”. No one does. Just because you live far away doesn’t give you the right to judge my husband, my friends or anyone else.
I am a patriotic Aussie through and through and miss home terribly, especially at a time like this. However, this is my location and situation right now and I see this tragedy as an opportunity for the world community to come together and look beyond nationality, race or religion to help others.
If you want to do something constructive try donating some blood to help the victims, rather than donating your words.
***
Dave Hoefer, American in Orlando Florida, married to an Australian
It has been 30 or so hours since the first news broke of the tragedy in New York and I am still in a daze. The whole thing seems surreal to some degree, as if somehow I am going to find this was all a bad dream, but I know it’s not. Despite what most people read from around the world, the US up until Tuesday was a safe, wonderful place to be from and to live in. Not Hollywood type visions of the US – the real US.
I travelled to Oz 17 yrs ago with two other Americans. I was the “moderate” of the group. That ended yesterday. I have always tried to “turn the other cheek” so to speak. I thought a large arsenal was enough, that large numbers of bullets and weapons would act as a deterrent. Apparently I was wrong. You have to be willing to use them.
I do know that Tuesday’s terrorist attack was not just an attack on America and it’s freedoms, it was an attack on all free people. Americans will rise up together, yes together, for the first time in years. We do not want martyrdom for the villains, but if that’s what occurs, so be it.
We want justice. We want revenge. We are angry. We are saddened. There will not be an act of retaliation, there will be an act of self defence. I hope that others will join with us. Freedom has a price and it now must be paid. Initial restraint is called for, a kneejerk reaction serves no real purpose, but when the time comes to respond which side of the smoking gun do you want to be on?
I married an Australian woman, and when she got home from work yesterday, I asked her to get hers and our children’s passports in order. I do not know what the short term future will hold and the thought that I would have to send my family elsewhere to be safe scares and angers me to no end.
I have often made the statement to my wife and her family that on a world stage, the US is damned if we do, and damned if we don’t. Well it has now reached another platitude: “You are either for us or against us”. Which will it be?
***
Varia Cartledge, an Australian in Boston
The two planes that hit the WTC towers yesterday flew out of Boston. We’re all in horror and grief. New York City is a big place. Most people I know spent yesterday scrambling to find out the whereabouts of friends and relatives by email and phone.
I have to be careful who I talk to today. We’re all hurting, sad and horrified, but they have more right to their feelings because this is their country, and mine only by adoption. I don’t want to hurt anyone any further by arguing with them.
The one person I have spoken to this morning advocates bombing the hell out of whatever country we find harbours the terrorists. I fear that the majority will feel this way. She said it didn’t matter if more innocent people died if the US bombed overseas – they already killed civilians here, so why not? She said it didn’t matter that it’s not the right thing to do, it would make 80% of Americans feel better.
I do not see how killing civilians during US reprisals against the terrorists would make anything better. The people who were killed yesterday leave behind them a mass of grieving family and friends. To cause the same grief in the name of revenge would only leave another huge emotional wound on humanity.
I believe that justice can be done without leaving more people empty and grieving. Violence begets violence. I believe it is up to the leaders of the United States to find a way to bring justice against the perpetrators of this crime too big for words, without harming any more innocents.
But I won’t be able to say any of that. Because I also believe that to argue right now with people who are hurting would do no good. We must attempt to heal the wound with the tools that we have, and I’m feeling incredibly inadequate to do my part right now.
***
Tricia Phillips, American
I live in Indiana in the United States. The terrorist attack has been tragic and devastating. There are positive and negative aspects to this crazy act. I do fear what will happen when it is found out who committed this act – military action probably will follow.
This act is just unprecedented – how should we react? What should be done? I just don’t know, the world is a crazy place. It didn’t just affect the US though, it was felt all over the world, the whole world is affected.
Americans are not the only one who are dead and missing; Australians, Britons, and other countries had their citizens and compatriots among the victims. I also include them in my prayers, thoughts, and in my heart.
I am grateful and want to say thank you to all the people in all the countries who are sending us their prayers and thoughts. This act has brought us closer as Americans, but I also feel in some ways the world was brought together. People all over the world were putting thoughts and flowers at our embassies. It made me feel good inside that people care.
We are all human beings, there are good and bad in all religious groups, nationalities, race, and every distinction between people that anyone cares to make. The Muslim people as a whole are not responsible. They only people responsible are those that involved in the plan to commit this act.
I truly hope no military response is needed. I hope and pray that enough evidence is found that we can bring these terrorists to Justice. I hope that no country will fund or give safe haven to the groups. I hope that all countries will unite against terrorism so we can get intelligence on these groups and keep something like this from happening again.
I hope that the people of the US keep our sense of unity and solidarity and that we keep showing kindness to each other. I hope nothing like this ever again. I wish that terrorism didn’t exist anywhere, especially in the Middle East, where so much violence occurs everyday. Someday the world will be a better place when we can learn from our mistakes and from history.
***
McKenzie Wark, Australian academic in New York
Words fail the very event with which they tangle. It is in the nature of disaster to defy representation. The abstract grazes the concrete and vaporises on contact.
What we are witnessing, on our TV screens, our computer screens, is a weird global media event. Like all such events, it appeared as if it came out of nowhere. It took the media by surprise. The networks were reporting live on an event before they even knew what the envelope of the event was.
As I write, we still don’t know. There is no reliable information as to how this event started, or how it will end. And still the networks keep pumping out the information. As with all such events, the desire for information far outstrips the ability to provide it. People cluster around screens and newsfeeds, anxious for details that are not forthcoming. Endless repetitions of the same video clips and endless speculation from supposed experts fill the yawning gap between fact and appearance. CNN just goes live without commentary. Images and sounds in search of a story.
The saturation of the media space and time spills over from broadcast media into personal communication. The phone lines jam as people try to contact loved ones. People use their internet communities to share words, mostly heartfelt but futile, as a way of working through the surplus of emotions that spills over from this weird global media event.
Weird global media event: It is an event because it is far outside the routine of newsmaking. In news, the story always precedes the facts, and the facts fit the story with the predictable tang of redundancy.
It is a media event because it instantly connects any and every vector of communication together in a vast, irrational stew. Everything from financial data to erotic emails twist toward the unfolding shape of the event. It is a global media event because the vectors that snap into place create their own world. (We are that world). Events of this kind are no respecters of scale or boundaries.
And it is a weird global media event because it is a pure singularity. It does not quite fit any template. It is its own precedent. It defies meaning. The truth of the event lies in what can’t be said.
This is not an irony: I wrote about weird global media events in Virtual Geography: Living With Global Media Events (Indiana University Press, 1994). The examples in that book were Tiananmen square, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War and the ‘Black Monday’ stock market crash. I thought when I wrote about these events that they would not be the last. I never expected to be touched by a weird global media event personally.
New York is my home town. Like everyone connected to this most global city, I spent the day trying to confirm that friends and family are safe. And they are. But there are many people whose friends and family are not safe.
My proximity to loss makes me feel their genuine loss, in the very marrow of what I cannot say for them or about them. Words lose their glamour. But silence is not much of an option.
***
Gemma Dalgleish in Turramurra, Sydney
Yesterday I felt something that was a new emotion, a new feeling that was foreign, something that I had never felt before. I tried to find words to describe this feeling – was it sadness, shock, despair or fear?
It was no use trying to find a name for it, I only had to look around at the people coming off the train in the city and the people walking to work. Everyone was walking a little slower, it was like they were all carrying something on their backs that was weighing them down.
I realised it was my heart that was heavier than it had ever been before. Something has struck at our innocence and at our sense of freedom. It has made us realise that we are vulnerable, it has exposed our ignorance and our naivety.
While the anger, hurt, shock and frustration will be evident in us all, we must at the same time think first with the head and then with the heart. We must be rational and fair and not point blame without first having the knowledge and the truth.
Go home tonight and tell your mother, your father, your sibling, your partner or your children that you love them.
***
A Iman in Greystanes, Sydney
A tragedy took in the US on the 11th of September. What many may be unaware of however is that this incident has two perspectives, which need to be considered.
Many Muslims and Arabs on a global scale identify that innocent lives of individuals have been targeted and destroyed. Islam teaches practicing Muslims to struggle for the sake of Allah (Jihad). When individuals or groups fight against Islam we are obliged to fight back in various forms. (eg Palestine).
However Islam through the teachings of the Prophet argued against the killing of innocent people, in particular women and children.
You don’t have to be Muslim nor an Arab to identify the role America has played in destroying lives in many countless Arab and Muslim nations in the past, on a day to day basis, whether through direct military attack or sanctions and policies. Violence will always breed violence. This is why people who lose children daily in places such as Iraq and Palestine >rejoiced at the fact that such had taken place in America. Not as a justification of such actions but as a symbol of their ongoing ignored suffering.
Islam does not teach us to justify wrong with wrong, yet countless suffering which has been imposed and continues to take place resulted in this rejoice. Muslims die in horrific ways all over the world daily and it is but a STATISTIC to the western world. When we are victims, which is often the case, this is ignored and a great majority of cases are not always shown on the western news nor given attention as our lives to the western world seem to be worthless, even the lives of our children!
But when America is subject to such violence, which it contributes to the Arab World, they are victims and viewed also as innocent people! Shouldn’t this work both ways and both perspectives be taken into account?
Since this attack on America has taken place we as Muslims in Australia have been subject to vast quantities of racism and hatred, and the American news has illustrated that such is evident in the US currently also. When a minority have committed such a horrific act it seems appropriate for the general public to swear at us and our beliefs (which are wrongly portrayed and understood) and spit, or stare at us with hatred as we walk past minding our own business.
We feel for these innocent people as we are innocent sufferers and victims ourselves in many contexts. We do condemn such acts as we condemn American or other negative involvement towards us. It works both ways. We feel their pain and their position more than the western world seems to know.
Now an attack or retaliation is being planned. I can imagine the outcome of this yet again on our people due to our minority. I somehow believe that rather than targeting simply those who are responsible that we as a whole will be targeted yet again. What disappoints me more so is the agreement of the Australian population to take part in such actions, and the extent those western governments seem to be willing to go to not simply only to target Terrorism as a whole but the Arabs and other Muslims yet again!
It also disappoints and saddens me to see that we may be identified as ignorant yet we feel for sufferers and we take all perspectives into account as true Muslims and humans. Why is it acceptable for Americans to strive and fight for freedom, yet such only be an impossible dream when Muslims are involved?
We are humans, with morals, and beliefs which many seem to misinterpret. I hope that all humans on a global scale can identify these perspectives. We know your all mourning and hurting as we do also and have been for many many years. We need to accept each other and allow each other to have equal rights, not enforce some selectively and treat all people as being superior to Muslims or Arabs who don’t seem to matter.
We need to stop signifying such acts and misleading the general public by providing wrong information about what Muslims believe and what we regard as morally right or wrong, as happened with the rape incident recently (which Islam condemns in every aspect) and what is happening now.
And to the anonymous person who spoke wrongfully and targeted us yet again and didn’t even have the courage to sign a name: True believers following the rightful way of Islam are not “evil mutant species”. we DO love, we DO tolerate, and we DO have joy! You state, “What god could possibly recruit these bastards?” Islam teaches us that every individual is accountable for >his or her actions before Allah (god) on judgement day. You want immigration to be stopped immediately, yet you want the women such as myself to be brought in so that those of us who cover ourselves, our bodies, which none has the right to see but our husbands, to be exposed so that we may be in a sense happy and accepted.
I am 19 years old, I am Muslim, I have an Arab background, and I am Australian. NOBODY forced me to cover up. It is prescribed for us in our religion to protect ourselves from the evil of man’s eyes. I have no intention to ever remove such and I believe that we do not have to be exposed to be beautiful!
You argue that “this planet is too small for them; I certainly don’t want them to be my neighbours”. This is the sort of ignorance which I was referring to. It’s amazing how we are a multi-cultural nation yet we don’t accept very many cultures or religions! You judge Islam by the behaviour of a minority of Muslims. You associated rape with us yet again.
So I conclude with this. Before targeting Muslims go to our sources (Quran and Sunnah) and see how true Muslims must behave. Before selectively regarding some as victims and others as nothing go back to history and events in Palestine, Iraq, Cambodia and Vietnam to name but a few and realise the reasons why this world has become the place which it is today.
***
Betsy Emmons
I have been reading your Webdiary and am saddened and ashamed for this country. This “getting what America had coming” attitude is horribly selfish and short-sighted. What Australians forget is that America is in a no-win situation: either isolate themselves and be involved in no world affairs, which may economically devastate some countries and certainly hinder many others, as well as allow many human atrocities to continue unabated, or America can assist as the largest democracy in the world, and therefore make enemies with those who disagree with its policies.
Who wins? America does not make sound foreign policy choices at all times about who to side with, but AT LEAST THEY TRY – they have accepted the role as the largest democracy and assist countries and people. Which is more than I can say for fellow countrymen, who are eagerly turning away refugees for purely isolationist and anti-humanitarian reasons.
What I am interested to see is what Australians would do if America does become horribly economically crippled and retreats into domesticity. Will we be blaming them for becoming aloof and arrogant to not assist the poor and needy in the world?
You forget the billions of American dollars that are constantly sent worldwide in efforts to assist developing nations, the military presence to keep civilians safe in the Serb attacks, in many wars, right or wrong. It disgusts me that we sit in our cocoon in the south Pacific and throw stones at their government. I know without blinking an eye that if we were in trouble, they would come to our immediate assistance.
Instead of whining, go donate blood, say prayers, remember the dead.
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David Palmer in Adelaide
I wrote the following in my capacity as an educator (university lecturer), and as a dual citizen of the United States and Australia. Australia is now – and for some time has been – my home. I plan to use the following policy outline on the current US crisis as part of my presentation to a forthcoming university-wide forum we’re planning at Flinders University. I’ve also sent the paper to various political leaders and representatives. Some of what I’ve written may be irrelevant in a few days, but here it is anyway.
The current American crisis – some suggestions on strategy and policy
In the present crisis, the United States government needs to pursue strategy and policy that simultaneously encompasses military, diplomatic, and social solutions. It is a crisis that goes far beyond the recent tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the terrible loss of life that resulted.
1) The United States government must move toward a multilateral international policy to address the crisis. There are two aspects of this strategic policy that need to be implemented.
First, move toward eliminating the terrorist network, including those running state regimes where this network (or networks) is based. It should be done systematically to get at that source. There is little point in virtual war (high altitude bombing without engagement) or economic embargoes, both inadequate and inhumane strategies the US has used in the past.
Instead, the following might be better:
* Establish an international military force comparable to that used in Kosovo by NATO. Russia must be included in such a force, however, as should China if possible.
* Provide all necessary assistance in whatever form to indigenous resistance forces on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, both states that appear to be state supports of the network.
* Locate, capture and prosecute those in the terrorist networks.
* With the international military force, in concert with indigenous resistance forces, remove the Taliban from Afghanistan. (It should be noted that the Taliban is an international organization, not a national Afghan formation, and that a majority of Afghanistans Taliban rulers are of Pakistani background, not Afghan.)
Second, differentiate in policy terms between moderate Islamic forces and those connected to dictatorial, extreme fundamentalist orientations. This means immediately addressing the Palestinian issue in the Middle East though the following:
* Halt US military support for Israel until the Sharon government withdraws troops from Palestinian territories.
* Send in an international police force to Israel and the Palestinian territories in order to deal with violence on both sides and secure peace there.
* Immediately commence peace negotiations with the aim of implementing the Mitchell peace accords.
* Address other concerns of moderate Muslims and Muslim countries in other parts of the world.
Unless the second aspect of strategy is implemented – the diplomatic and peacekeeping initiative for Israel and Palestine – the first aspect of strategy, which is a military response, will fail in the long-term. Without solving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, the United States will simply be assisting fundamentalist extremists in recruiting young people for their Jihad.
2) Establish both better security in the US and elsewhere, but also guarantee civil liberties and oppose any form of racial or religious vilification. President Bush, Prime Minister Howard, and other world leaders need to actively encourage public tolerance, dialogue, and understanding, even as an activist policy against the terrorist network is pursued.
3) Convene an international conference under the auspices of the United Nations to address the international refugee problem, especially those people now fleeing Afghanistan. Move toward establishing some degree of uniform policies, processing, and sharing of resources to assist these people.
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More September 11 Webdiaries
September 13
The end of multiculturalism? webdiary
Reith has made the link between the Tampa boat people and the catastrophe in the United States. Being one of the ludicrously out of touch minority I realise I now am, I had thought the atrocity may have softened our attitude to the boat people – they are, after all, fleeing terror. But no, now they’re terrorists trying to infiltrate our country.
September 17
Can the face of hatred be excused? wd
A Webdiary debate is unfolding on the causes of the catastrophe, and whether the United States must take some responsibility for it.
The watchword is security not compassion, wd
This has got to be the worst time in the world to be a boat person. Since last Tuesday, the zeitgeist is security, not compassion.
Hot words, cool heads, and poetry, wd
Wonderful pieces today, as discussion deepens on the why of it and how to respond.
Clamour of discordant voices, wd
This is an entry of discordant voices. Israeli, Palestinian and American perspectives, pleas against massive retaliation and for a more just distribution of world resources, a critique of Muslims everywhere, a plea for a return monculturalism in Australia, an American’s suggestion to express hope. And finally, a poem for the dead in New York.
September 18
Terror unlike movies, wd
I devote this entry to a long piece by a regular Webdiary contributor John Wojdylo on the war ahead. He’s a brilliant thinker and writer, and I thank him for contributing to this forum.
Labor falls into line, wd
It’s official. Labor has abandoned boat people, and a new, hard line consensus on boat people refugees is in place.
Are we heading to a point of no return?, wd
Mike Woods:
Tall trees blooming
bright & terrible
Flowers falling
Grief the only harvest
September 19
The boatpeople and the war, wd
The boat people. The war. The threads between the two grow more tangled.
Poll praise, wd
I begin with Roy Morgan’s summary of his stunning poll taken on September 15 and 16, after the New York bombing. He headed his statement THE BIG SWING.
Wojdylo adds perspective, wd
Your responses to John Wojdylo’s piece in Terror unlike movies.
Bush’s rhetoric gets more disturbing each day wd
I’d just lifted my head out of my hands after hearing the leader of the free world announce he was leading his allies into “a crusade” – the Christian term for a holy war – when I received an email from an army bloke I’d locked horns with many years ago during the debate on gays in the defence force.
September 20
What happens next, wd
Contributors continue to explore the ramifications – military, economic and cultural – of the new York bombing. I begin with Christopher Selth, who believes that the financial markets are beginning to realise that it signals the end of naive global capitalism.
September 21
More on war fever, wd
Brigadier (Retired) Adrian D’Hage in Kangaloon sends Webdiary another missive.
Warmongering, wd
I’ve just watched George Bush’s address to the nation. Frightening, yes. But also inclusive and measured. It was the speech to mark the official beginning of war by America
September 24
Why is Howard not addressing us? wd
America now has its story. So does Pakistan. And so does bin Laden, as I learned on reading a Robert Fisk piece based on his interviews with the man.
More war stories, wd, Taking on terrorism: The paths ahead, wd
Readers on the war.
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For more war Webdiary, go to webdiaryarchive