Most of you will probably have seen the video featuring London 7/7 bomber Shehzad Tanweer, which was shown yesterday on Al-Ajazeera (where else). In it he made reference to the central deceit and modern lie, about cause and effect which has been airbrushed in after the fact: the relationship between 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The point has been made by many, but well put again by one of the survivors of the London bombings: an event which we are remembering today at noon.
Jacqui Puttnam, who was on the tube train blown up on the Edgware Road, said: “Were we in Iraq and Afghanistan when they flew planes into the World Trade Center? We weren’t. They are going to do this anyway.”
I could not have put it better myself. The lie about Iraq and Afghanistan (was anyone out there actually saying defend the Taleban prior to 9/11?) is pedalled by Al-Qaeda and recycled without a hint of shame by the stop the war coalition whose ability to gloss over this issue is dishonest in the extreme.
If we had no Iraq or Afghanistan (but granted they added to Muslim disaffection), but a London 7/7 all the same would they be out on the streets today shouting “stop the asymmetrical war: now”. I didn’t think so. It’s not much of a slogan.
Gene adds: Isn’t the debate over the link between 7/7 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq rather pointless? For one thing, there’s no way of knowing the real motivations of the suicide-murderers. More important, even if you could prove a direct causal connection, what difference would it make? Is anyone going to argue that the invasions were wrong because they made a handful of people angry enough to blow up themselves and others? Are we in the UK and the US going to be paralyzed by the possibility that anything we say or do– no matter how justified– may induce someone somewhere to act in a similar manner?