Thou Shalt Not Kill

 Highway of Death

Sabra Massacre

Let me start by saying I oppose violence in any shape or form for any reason. Human beings have intelligence and language to resolve differences. Resorting to violence to resolve differences belongs to the animal kingdom.

Killing people is the worst kind of violence. I wholeheartedly subscribe to “Thou shalt not kill”.

Now that I’ve established that, let me get to the reason I am writing this.

In the previous weeks there have been attacks on civilians in London and Manchester and Teheran. Before that, pretty recently there were attacks on civilians in other parts of the world.

On November 15, 2015, one hundred and thirty people were killed in Paris, France in a series of coordinated attacks some by gunmen who blew themselves up.

On March 22, 2016, thirty two people were killed in Brussels, Belgium in 3 coordinated suicide bombings.

On April 3, 2017, sixteen people were killed by a suicide bomber in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

On April 9, thirty people were killed by a suicide bomber in Tanta, Egypt.

On May 12, twenty eight people were killed in a suicide bombing in Mastung, Pakistan.

On May 20, thirty five people were killed in four different suicide bombings in Baghdad, Iraq.

On May 22, twenty three people were killed in Manchester, England by a suicide bomber.

On May 24, six people were killed in a suicide bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia.

On May 27, thirteen people were killed in a suicide bombing in Khost, Afghanistan.

On June 3, seven people were killed in London England in a vehicle and stabbing attacks.

On June 7, seventeen people were killed in Teheran Iran in two separate shooting attacks.

The suicide bombings in Russia and Muslim countries are mentioned once in our media and all but forgotten. There’s little to no coverage of individual human interest stories, mourning mothers or crying children, flowers and teddy bears laid on the site of the explosions. It’s the attacks in Europe and the US that get detailed coverage in our media. The news coverage focuses on how “terrorists” kill civilians. Reporters and broadcasters alike often puzzle about the reason why people would do such a thing. Why would a young man or a group of young men, often born and bred in a European country commit such a heinous act? Why don’t they want to enjoy their lives? Aren’t young men usually full of zest for life?

People who are interviewed often say the perpetrators are “sick in the head”, or “want to take away our way of life”. Politicians call the suicide bombings “cowardly acts”, and Britain’s Theresa May called for the containment of “Islamic extremism”.

Let me reiterate: I wholeheartedly believe in “Thou shalt not kill”. I do not condone any form of violence. I’m just examining the reasons for these horrific violent incidents. The obvious reasons are very seldom mentioned in the western media. As Mark MacKinnon states in the Globe and Mail, “We don’t connect the attacks on our cities to anything that’s happening in other parts of the globe.”

In the past forty years the US and its allies including Canada, Europe and Israel have meddled in the affairs of many countries in the Middle East and Africa. Most of these countries have rich reserves of oil or are on the route of profitable oil and gas pipelines. Most happen to be majority Muslim countries.

In 1982 the Christian Phalangists at the request and with the help of the Israeli Defense Forces surrounded and massacred up to 3500 Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.

In February of 1991 the US bombed and killed tens of thousands of retreating Iraqi troops, who were withdrawing from Kuwait, on what became known as the Highways of Death. This act which one US pilot described as “Shooting fish in a barrel” has been called “one of the most heinous war crimes in human history.”

In 2001 the US attacked Afghanistan, to eliminate Al-Qaeda. Tens of thousands of Afghani civilians were killed as a result of the US invasion. Today, 8400 US troops are still stationed in Afghanistan with their commander asking for more.

In 2003, the US invaded Iraq, a sovereign country some 11,000 kilometers away from the US, claiming Saddam Hussein had “weapons of mass destruction”. Total Iraqis killed since the beginning of the US invasion to now, according to varying sources and body counts, range from 175,000 to 500,000, many of whom were innocent civilians. It was proven later that Iraq never had the “weapons of mass destruction” that George W. Bush and Tony Blair claimed it possessed. American and other foreign troops are still in Iraq claiming to support Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS. Whereas according to various leaked documents, US has funded ISIS indirectly through its allies, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The US and other European leaders justify their actions with lies which are by and large reported in their countries as facts.

Since 2014 US has meddled in the internal affairs of Syria, a sovereign country 10,000 kilometers away from it, by first funding the rebels trying to overthrow Syria’s leader, Bashar-al-Assad,  then conducting airstrikes in Syria, and later invading it with ground troops. This is all done in the name of defending human rights, and fighting ISIS, which US itself helped create. And by the way, flagrant violations of human rights in other countries, including Saudi Arabia, West Bank and Ghaza, go unnoticed.

In each incident of “terrorism”, usually less than a 100 people are killed. In each incident of the US or its allies invading a country thousands or hundreds of thousands are killed, and many many more injured, left homeless and forced to flee. Let me repeat again that I am a pacifist. I oppose killing a human being under any circumstances. In my view one person killed is one too many. I am in no way justifying the killing of civilians in Europe, because the numbers are lower than those of the killed civilians in the Middle East. I am just drawing a comparison here in an attempt to present my view of the reasons why young men are killing themselves and others in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

The above are just a few examples of the world’s richest and most powerful country and its cronies riding roughshod in a number of much smaller and weaker countries. The US and its allies have much more money, are incomparably stronger militarily, can destroy however many villages, cities, bridges, roads, installations, museums, schools, hospitals they want with impunity, while their own citizens sit in the security of their rich countries and enjoy their high lifestyle.

There is no way the victimized countries can retaliate in kind against the US and its gang. In most of these smaller countries the previous rulers have been murdered and new puppets of the west have been installed to govern. They obviously don’t have the local support to rule the country in any meaningful way, especially when there are thousands of foreign troops stationed in their country. No matter how much justification the western governments and the US try to sell in their false narratives to the world, the fact remains that the US and its allies are the bullies of the international playground. They invade, kill and destroy at will and with impunity.

Now let’s think. About the words we use. And about the narratives we’ve been conditioned to believe.

Who is the “terrorist”? The superpower who invades, bombs, kills and obliterates with impunity or the lone young man who has no way to register his discontent other than blowing himself up? Committing suicide goes against every instinct of self-preservation, especially when you’re in your twenties or thirties and full of love for life. How desperate do you have to be, not to see any way out of your predicament, but to commit suicide?

Who commits the “cowardly act”? The one who sits in the safety of his office and drops drones on innocent civilians or the one who sacrifices his life to make the voice of those innocent civilians heard? The highly trained, well paid pilot who flies expensive military planes and bombs foreign cities that pose no threat to him, or the displaced, disenfranchised, hopeless immigrant/refugee, or child of an immigrant/refugee, –often on the run from his own country because of the havoc created there by the rich western countries– who embraces certain death to protest the grotesque carnage done to his people.

How did “Islamic extremism” come into existence? Maybe Theresa May can look at the list above for a quick review of what her Christian country has done or condoned in a number of Muslim countries. How would she brand Britain’s actions? To use her own religious terminology they could be called: “Christian lies”, “Christian violence”, “British exploitation”, “US-British collusion”, to cite a few hypothetical examples.

What foundations is “our way of life” built on? Invasion of a continent, appropriation of its land, and murder or subjugation of its indigenous inhabitants? Use of slavery for free labour? Colonizing other countries and plundering their wealth? Owning and using nuclear bombs, –the US is the only country who has actually used its nuclear bombs– allowing our friends to own them, but screaming blue murder when those we don’t like want to have them too? Selling arms to those who will further our interests? Sending troops into sovereign countries to depose their rulers, slandering them with lies? Limitless economic growth? Polluting our earth to the point of no return?

Maybe it’s the time to think again about “our way of life”.

I don’t have a panacea. But one thing is clear. If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll keep getting what we’ve been getting.

It’s got nothing to do with Islam or Christianity.

It’s got everything to do with power and money.