External war is something that North America has never had to deal with on any serious level for centuries. �We have no great depression, no world war�our war is a spiritual war�the great depression is our lives.� I am constantly amazed at the hub-bub over Sept. 11th that was created. This was partly due to where I was when it went down. In the ensuing 4 years since that shit went down, that outpouring of rage, shock and awe�justification and seriousness is still outstanding.
War is something that I grew up with on TV�video games. My friends and I tended to think of war as a tactical videogame with explosions, smoke, strategy�victory. In war�nobody wins. There are only degrees of losing.
Fact: Sept. 11th, 2001 saw 5,000 people die innocently. It spawned 2 wars, largely justified by the West, billions in damage, economic chaos. The public and members of my family were in tears and felt so sad watching people jumping out of buildings. They felt scared that the dream had been abruptly smashed.
Fact: May 2001 saw 10,000 people in Central Borneo die innocently. Thousands of ethnic conflicts between ethnic Madurese and Dyak groups broke out across Indonesia�s least populated province. People were in a rage, military were in every town on every street with thousands of refugees seeking asylum in Malaysia. Thousands and houses and some small villages burned. This was an area already under huge environmental and economic strain since the 1998 collapse and ensuing riots caused by world bank reforms (the WB is headed by the US). Futures were bleak. The conflict was a result of transmigration policies enforced by President Suharto, a military dictator brought to power by the CIA and upheld for 30 years by US, Canadian and generally G7 interests.
Fact: Nov 2001, the US began aiding the Philippine government in it�s bombing of Mindanao. The largest island in the Philippines, its southern area was also home to a minority population of Muslims and a militant and terrorist separatist movement. The government had not always been fair and objective to the minority population in land allocation and religious law. In the name of the War on terrorism, The US was fire bombing Basilan island, the Abu Syaff stronghold. Thousands including children dead�weekly bombings in Zamboanga. People kidnapped and beheaded constantly.
Fact: December 2001. In the aftermath of the US wars in Afganistan and a perceived assault on Muslims, religious wars flair up again on Sulawesi and the Mulluccas. Thousands dead, entire smoldering pits where villages once sat. No buses going through the region�no way in or out.
Fact: 2002: East Timor finally gains independence after a 25 year fight for succession. In the 1970�s after being dumped by the Portugese, the small half-island colony starts spreading communism rhetoric. US secretary of state Henry Kissinger visits president Suharto. The day after he leaves (giving the OK to the Indo pres) Suharto invades East-Timor, a small bankrupt country at the time, anarchic, with little geopolitical or economic significance. 250,000 dead. One quarter of the population. Even before independence conflict and rage kept breaking out between them and the Indonesian state. Kupang in Timor Barat, was a hastily built up shack of buildings. Depression was rampant.
I knew a man in Indo from the UK who told a bunch of Americans that their country deserved to get bombed. He didn�t know they were from the US and they gave him right hell. So angry. He unfortunately had a very good point. No one personally deserves to die for another actions. But it�s a danger to hang around with the wrong crowd and not stop people�say your government�from doing things that will come back to haunt you. It came back to haunt the US. And people�kids�who had been chanting for war for years at home�thinking that Saving Private Ryan was cool. That Braveheart had some good fighting scenes. That Command and Conquer was interesting, never understood�that they were getting a big fat enema.
Sept. 11th was a little blip in the death toll from war that year. It was a terrorist attack. It was small. It was almost insignificant in size and personal impact comparatively to the shit I saw with my own eyes. Burning images. People scared walking down the streets, never leaving at night. Worrying when they hear a bomb has gone off. It never goes away�one can never forget.
In war nobody wins. There is only degrees of losing.