IF the attacks on America have their source in the
Islamic world, who can really be surprised?
Two days earlier, eight people were killed in southern Iraq when British and
American planes bombed civilian areas. To my knowledge, not a word appeared in
the mainstream media in Britain.
An estimated 200,000 Iraqis, according to the Health Education Trust in London,
died during and in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter known as the Gulf
War.
This was never news that touched public consciousness in the west.
At least a million civilians, half of them children, have since died in Iraq as
a result of a medieval embargo imposed by the United States and Britain.
In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Mujadeen, which gave birth to the fanatical
Taliban, was largely the creation of the CIA.
The terrorist training camps where Osama bin Laden, now "America's most wanted
man", allegedly planned his attacks, were built with American money and
backing.
In Palestine, the enduring illegal occupation by Israel would have collapsed
long ago were it not for US backing.
Far from being the terrorists of the world, the Islamic peoples have been its
victims - principally the victims of US fundamentalism, whose power, in all its
forms, military, strategic and economic, is the greatest source of terrorism on
earth.
"Perhaps we can reach some sort of compromise," Anderson said. "I don't want to go so far as to soak the painting in the menstrual blood of a 13-year-old girl, as some have demanded, but I'm open to other suggestions. We might be able to scare up a pint or two of rhino vomit to splash on the canvas. And I know candied yams can be mashed into a nice, viscous paste and spread pretty easily. Personally, I like the painting as it is, but if a little shock is all it takes to calm everybody down, I'm all for it."