Today is the anniversary of the 9/11 attack that changed the World upside down. Of course I can not get over this anniversary when we are having the infamous “War against in terrorism” in Egypt. Unfortunately we refuse to learn from other people’s experiences nor to learn from history .. even our own history.
These points below I believe we should know in Egypt especially now , they are lessons learned in a hard way from 9/11 and what followed it.
- Force will not beat terrorism and the evidence is in front of us , almost after 12 years of the 9/11 attacks and before it the World Trade center attack , the terrorists are not defeated !! In fact why we take an example from the U.S when we have our own experience with the bitter terrorism in the 1990s which I still remember very well. Using force and police state techniques did not stop radical thinking and terrorists.
- Terrorism based on ideology can not be defeated only by force but I will dare to say that you need counter ideologies more than force to fight the radicalism in ideologies that lead to terrorism.
- Fighting terrorism for real should start by admitting the root problems causing it from social, economic , cultural and above all political problems and try to solve it in order to prevent any radicalism in the future.
- Discrimination against others will not stop terrorism , in fact it may breed a new class of radicals who may resort to terrorism to make that society that rejected them suffer.
- History proved that “War of terrorism” was used by the Bush administration for certain political, economic and military gains that used fighting terrorism for a cover and the Iraq invasion is a good example.
- Shutting down media and forcing journalists to shut up in these times of so-called War of terrorism mean that there is something wrong and you do not want the public to know it.
- Do turn monster while fighting monsters. There are human rights according to religion and laws that should not be broken under any circumstances.
- McCarthyism always fails in the end
BY the way this year marks the 40th anniversary of Chile’s infamous coup supported by the CIA. I look to what happened in Chile and I know that there are many lessons should be learnt :
- The West has no problem with military tyrannies as long they serve their political and economic interests.
- Justice will prevail in the end in a way or another.
- Killing and torturing thousands can not be justified under any circumstances.
I am creating fighting terrible fall flu so I am not in mood for long posts to explain each point.
In the end I will quote what Ben Franklin once said :
Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
