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In the past weeks I have resolved to avoid the television even more, simply because the news is effectively the same: Law abiding citizens going about their normal lives; meeting; having a family dinner; watching a film and then- Bang! Everything goes up in fire and blood. Charred bodies and lost lives are all that remain as cheer and joy become tears and tragedy. Someone commented to me only yesterday that she can’t differentiate bombs from Eid fireworks in the new aura of fear featuring in Riyadh.
The level of security created as a result of the bombings in Saudi Arabia’s capital city a few weeks ago is rigorous to say the least. Trying to visit the Kingdom Center, a massive glass skyscraper housing a prestigious collection of businesses, one will be greeted by sandbags, barricades, tire tearing spikes, machine guns and soldiers. A member of the National Guard gets you to open hood and trunk in his eagerness to discover why you have troubled yourself to get entry clearance. At stage 2, security check the interior of the car with a metal detector- yes, including behind the steering wheel. If guests and residents manage to get there, there is another set of barricades and a police car every 20 feet to the entrance. Scenes in upmarket Riyadh now resemble occupied Iraq; only the characters are different. Half of my friends think this is a big unnecessary joke.
I find it very interesting that during the Roman period of rule, the most dangerous rebellions and revolts were led by people they had trained themselves. In modern lingo, this is what the CIA term ‘blowback’ – the unforeseen consequences of state policy. These days it’s not the weapons that are important as much as the brainpower. People wonder how the terrorists of today developed the brainpower to carry out such heinous atrocities.
Well, if sophisticated people like the Americans trained you – This is quite possible. To accept that the violence is what their own hands created is a very painful truth to deal with, but back in the 1980’s it was the best way to fight the ‘Godless’ Russians. Looking at Thucydides’ ‘Peloponnesian War’ provides further insight into the machinations of this gung-ho attitude. The Athenians at war with the Spartans sent a delegation to Melos, a small, neutral island instructing the people there to join their side. The Melians explained that they were at peace with both sides and aimed to maintain this. Energetic with hubris, the delegation from Athens replied: ‘The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.’ In other words, might makes right.
This outlook seems to prevail today when the band of mentally disordered, heartless patients we call terrorists, the US government, the Israeli regime and a host of other entities seem to think that removing large numbers of innocent folk will achieve some sort of motive. Who are they trying to appease? What are they seriously gaining?
It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the theoretical good guys from the bad guys. How are an increasingly clouded public meant to work out who’s who when as well as being trained by the same people, they all behave in the same way. To add to the picture, dubious news networks like Fox present ideas that a mostly blind public will accept at face value.
While I wish the bad guys, moving further away from their stated objectives in recent weeks someday understand that their actions are nothing to do with any religious doctrine they claim to uphold, I remain fed up at ignorant people blaming Islam for this carnage. Such acts do not represent Islam, Muslims or Arabs. On behalf of all true Muslims I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of this sin.
That said, I also offer my commiserations to the abundant Americans who have a sense of the anarchy that has been produced against their will. I hope that good guys stop behaving like the non-descript fools blowing up city after city, even reaching out to places like Bali and Istanbul where terrorism was previous unheard of. Bush says ‘You are either with us or against us’ and Al Qaeda says, ‘You are either with us or against us.’ The time when both friend and foe use the same tactics and rhetoric signifies a fatal flaw in somebody’s logic.
Mr. Bush would be better off spending the hours that he does on Air Force 1 doing some serious reading about world history in the hope that he learns some valuable lessons from the past. For, If this struggle against darkness continues in the way that is, the Melians response that if one is unjust he will find himself in the in the same situation will be true for him as it was for the Athenians: ‘Your fall will be a signal for the heaviest vengeance and an example for the world to meditate upon.’
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Omar S. Roomi
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