It flies by...

As we hurtle towards the 10th anniversary of 9/11 (11th September for Anglophiles), I think what seems to strike many people is the surprise at how little it seems to have changed the world.

Yes, we've had a couple of awful wars and a messy arab spring. But the Afghan and Iraq wars were ultimately wars of choice and the world and the US has stubbornly refused to be more just.

Bush somehow managed a second term despite 9/11 happening on his watch and the obvious failure (and transparent agenda and incompetence) of Iraq.  

When people said that this was an attack on the American way of life, they were damn right but they were dead wrong when they claimed that it was under threat or in any way vulnerable. When I witnessed the events, I did believe this was huge and I predicted wars to follow but outside of that, the economy steamed on and politics continued on its road to polarisation.

I think events like Katrina, the credit crunch and others have contributed at least equally to where we are now. I have to admit it doesn't feel 10 years ago and in some ways we've stood still but there have been a lot of slow-burn, non-headlining changes that have changed society and the world.

Oil has continued its upward trend, debt has become a dirty word and people in the Middle East have run out of patience with their pathetic dictators.

I had many questions in the aftermath of the event as I looked at the remarkable opportunism, staggering unpreparedness and downright odd behaviour of government and the president. So many questions were officially avoided and people forget about the disturbing links to the Bin Laden family the Bushes had (James Baker, a long-time friend and former Sec of State, was hired as a lawyer to defend the Bin Laden family from 9/11 victims' families).

But over time you just had to absorb the facts and the full picture and see that, yes, Bush was an incredible arsehole and the family has seriously murky history but 9/11 itself was as it was and no less heartbreaking for it.

By the way, I was critical of the official JFK assassination story (although I never claimed to believe anything else specific) but I now think it's correct and accurate after having all my questions answered. I still think RFK stinks to high heaven, though.

Anyway, I digress. So, what now? Well, I don't see Obama winning again because the propaganda machines out there haven't stopped their drivel since even before he won and the idiotic Tea Party has seduced many into thinking what is effectively Libertarianism is somehow middle ground.

What I do see is eventually, the US's imperialism shrinking (partly due to this libertatrian rise) and China - possibly along with India if she can stop being so corrupt and look outwards - to slowly increase its might bloodlessly and near-silently. Beyond that, we're talking pure guesswork.

I just hope we don't need to see any such cataclysms and wars again in my lifetime. Hope. That's it.

NYC “Mosque” and 9/11

So I write on the 9th anniversary of 9/11. I’ve not been especially active here for a number of reasons but I thought that, as this community centre thing along with the Qu’ran burning controversy was climaxing, I’d weigh in.

Anyone who’s read other posts in this blog will not be surprised to learn that I feel that if no further buildings with a religious purpose were built anywhere in the world, I’d most likely rejoice. However, this has no specific relationship to Islam, just religion.

What I have to say is, though, that the US constitution was written for a reason and that those who performed the 9/11 attacks were neither American (unlike those Muslims who would mainly seek to use the building) nor part of the Islam practised by the Muslims involved. In fact, only a miniscule proportion of Muslims even think that Al Qaeda are in the smallest way justified in their actions.

I fail to see how these indisputable facts could in any way lead you to even get slightly annoyed by the building of a prayer centre in the NYC location proposed. To just deepen the logic, we all know that many Muslims were killed by terrorists in the twin towers and that Al Qaeda kills Muslims as much as any other creed. If you want to lump in the Taliban with Al Qaeda (a significant simplification) then the Taliban have probably butchered more of their fellow Afghan Muslims (plus Al Qaeda doing the same in Iraq) than several 9/11s combined.

So, given that human beings of all creeds, colours and religions have suffered grievously at the hand of the frankly insane clique known as Al Qaeda, how on earth can there be a problem with this centre just because Al Qaeda claim that their own interpretation of the book that these organisers follow (but in no way share) is the correct one? If any one of these Muslims seeking to build this centre were to walk into an Al Qaeda base, they’d be just a likely to be slaughtered as would George Bush. This is simply the truth and if anyone cannot see this, they need to read more.

The book-burning fiasco was, of course, yet another example of how completely ill-informed idiots, who seem also to be fundamentalists (branding Islam evil – why? because it’s not Christian?) can skew debates in the US further and further away from any semblance of fact. I truly applaud Obama with how he has scolded this tosser and continues to try to pull the debate away from generalised anti-Islamic claptrap.

It’s almost funny how much Islam actually has in common with Judaism and Christianity. In fact, many of their customs are in some way one that Judaism and Christianity did follow but almost “forgot” about. Certainly, there’s a fair bit of sense in parts of it. I think it’s also fair to say that there’s nothing like a settled approach to the more headline-catching parts of Islam (e.g. Hijab or Women’s place in society) and trying to tar the very fragmented Islamic faith with a single brush is contrary to fact and counterproductive.

If all three faiths would “get” each other and realise their vast swathes of common ground, we could all see peace a lot sooner.