Five years on
I am sure that most people can remember what they were doing five years ago today when they heard that the twin towers had been attacked. I was at the local doctor's surgery where my son and daughter, then a few months old, had just had an injection.
Such is the freight of meaning now associated with the date that today at work when I was writing up the minutes of a meeting, just writing the date "September 11th" seemed somehow creepy.
Because of the host of criticisms, some of them justified, which have been made about the conduct of the "War on Terror" in general and the invasion of Iraq in particular, it is usually all too easy to forget how it started - but not today. Even without the flood of material on the television, we are thrown back to remembrance of the most murderous and treacherous attack since Pearl Harbour.
In the years since Iraq was invaded, it has become commonplace for apologists for terror to use US or British foreign policy as a justification for their atrocities. Even now the obvious answer would be that two wrongs don't make a right. Back in September 2001, the idea that the perpetrators of the 9/11 atrocities had any such justification was absurd.
Far from always attacking Islam, the most recent military intervention by the USA and Britain had been in former Yugoslavia where they had attempted to stop genocide against Muslims by serbian nationalist extremists who would have claimed to by Christian. (Though of course they had no more right to commit murder in the name of Jesus than Jihadist extremists have to commit murder in the name of Islam.)
Far from following an imperialist policy in Afghanistan, the country which sheltered the 9/11 terrorists, the USA had recently helped both the Taliban and other Afghan movements to resist imperialism. America had supplied stinger missiles and other weapons to help the people of Afghanistan resist the external imposition by the former Soviet Union, which as an atheist power actually justified the adjective "Godless," of a system far more alien to them than anything ever promoted by the West.
Bin Laden and most of his henchment were Saudis - citizens of a country to which most reasonable observers would consider the USA had been quite friendly.
I am repeating these points about the situation in 2001 because it is often suggested that the West's actions since then have provoked Islamic terrorism. None of the actions most often cited can even explain, much less justify, the attack on the world trade centre.
The truth is that Jihadist extremists are full of hate for anyone who sees the world differently than themselves, including most Muslims, and that they will find any excuse to murder those of whom they are jealous or with whom they disagree. They hate us nearly as much as the USA, and not primarily because of our foreign policy, but because we believe in democracy and free speech.
If we pulled out of Iraq tomorrow the jihadist extremists would still hate us because we think women have the right to an education, health care, and a job. If we somehow managed to solve all the problems of between Israel and its neighbours to the full satisfaction of every Palestinian and Lebanese, the jihadists would still hate us because we don't believe in stringing up every gay person from the nearest lamp-post.
Even if every last person in Britain converted to Islam we still would not be safe from Jihadist extremists, who have murdered far more of their own co-religionists than they have Westerners.
I have used the word "Jihadist" to describe Bin Laden and his ilk. I refuse to call them Muslims because that would be an insult to a great religion which they have defiled by committing their crimes in its name. I note that moderate Muslims sometimes refer to the extremists as "Jihadists" so I am deliberately using the same description to make the point that the great majority of Muslims are not our enemy.
The West can and must stand up for our countries, our beliefs and our values in an intelligent and resolute way. We must oppose the extremists in a way which avoids, to the greatest extent possible, making enemies out of innocent people who have the misfortune to be part of the communities from which the extremists come. Sometimes this will be easier said than done.
But the evil behind 9/11 can and will be defeated, because those who only know how to destroy will never stand against those who know how to build. Those who love life may lose battles to those who love death, but love and life are stronger than death, and we will prevail.
Such is the freight of meaning now associated with the date that today at work when I was writing up the minutes of a meeting, just writing the date "September 11th" seemed somehow creepy.
Because of the host of criticisms, some of them justified, which have been made about the conduct of the "War on Terror" in general and the invasion of Iraq in particular, it is usually all too easy to forget how it started - but not today. Even without the flood of material on the television, we are thrown back to remembrance of the most murderous and treacherous attack since Pearl Harbour.
In the years since Iraq was invaded, it has become commonplace for apologists for terror to use US or British foreign policy as a justification for their atrocities. Even now the obvious answer would be that two wrongs don't make a right. Back in September 2001, the idea that the perpetrators of the 9/11 atrocities had any such justification was absurd.
Far from always attacking Islam, the most recent military intervention by the USA and Britain had been in former Yugoslavia where they had attempted to stop genocide against Muslims by serbian nationalist extremists who would have claimed to by Christian. (Though of course they had no more right to commit murder in the name of Jesus than Jihadist extremists have to commit murder in the name of Islam.)
Far from following an imperialist policy in Afghanistan, the country which sheltered the 9/11 terrorists, the USA had recently helped both the Taliban and other Afghan movements to resist imperialism. America had supplied stinger missiles and other weapons to help the people of Afghanistan resist the external imposition by the former Soviet Union, which as an atheist power actually justified the adjective "Godless," of a system far more alien to them than anything ever promoted by the West.
Bin Laden and most of his henchment were Saudis - citizens of a country to which most reasonable observers would consider the USA had been quite friendly.
I am repeating these points about the situation in 2001 because it is often suggested that the West's actions since then have provoked Islamic terrorism. None of the actions most often cited can even explain, much less justify, the attack on the world trade centre.
The truth is that Jihadist extremists are full of hate for anyone who sees the world differently than themselves, including most Muslims, and that they will find any excuse to murder those of whom they are jealous or with whom they disagree. They hate us nearly as much as the USA, and not primarily because of our foreign policy, but because we believe in democracy and free speech.
If we pulled out of Iraq tomorrow the jihadist extremists would still hate us because we think women have the right to an education, health care, and a job. If we somehow managed to solve all the problems of between Israel and its neighbours to the full satisfaction of every Palestinian and Lebanese, the jihadists would still hate us because we don't believe in stringing up every gay person from the nearest lamp-post.
Even if every last person in Britain converted to Islam we still would not be safe from Jihadist extremists, who have murdered far more of their own co-religionists than they have Westerners.
I have used the word "Jihadist" to describe Bin Laden and his ilk. I refuse to call them Muslims because that would be an insult to a great religion which they have defiled by committing their crimes in its name. I note that moderate Muslims sometimes refer to the extremists as "Jihadists" so I am deliberately using the same description to make the point that the great majority of Muslims are not our enemy.
The West can and must stand up for our countries, our beliefs and our values in an intelligent and resolute way. We must oppose the extremists in a way which avoids, to the greatest extent possible, making enemies out of innocent people who have the misfortune to be part of the communities from which the extremists come. Sometimes this will be easier said than done.
But the evil behind 9/11 can and will be defeated, because those who only know how to destroy will never stand against those who know how to build. Those who love life may lose battles to those who love death, but love and life are stronger than death, and we will prevail.
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