By Hermes Solomon
MEDIA coverage of the Brussels bombing mirrored exactly that of last November’s Paris massacre, the formula set after the Charlie Hebdo killings and faithfully re-enacted after the Bataclan horror and again on Tuesday in Brussels.
Sympathy and tears belong in cemeteries. Finding the real cause behind atrocities belongs to those still living.
ISIS is our conscience. Killing innocent civilians is not their prerogative alone. The West has been killing innocent civilians forever it seems – the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa – in the name of democracy; that greatly misinterpreted word.
I am on my side and will do what I must to protect my interests. But I cannot kill. I leave that to ‘others’ and reap the multifarious benefits of their slaughter.
I accuse politicians, warmongers, armament manufacturers, fascist regimes and ‘others’ of committing genocide. But I am innocent, and that’s why, as an innocent, I am blown to smithereens by those seeking revenge for the destruction my country has dealt on theirs.
Tears are shed, and the blame for atrocities directed at those I have learnt to fear and hate. It is the same for ISIS.
I want to understand why we live like this. I want answers – truthful answers – to questions that exclude philosophy, nationalism, patriotism, and that God-forsaken word, democracy.
Why did Brussels renege on its responsibilities to war torn refugees? Why is Turkey massacring Kurds? Why are the US and Russia taking their fight to other countries? Why is Assad’s regime painted like those of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Gadhafi and Egypt’s Mubarak, fascist dictators that the US put and kept in place? Is Putin’s Russia not the same sort of regime? Is the US a democracy, where communism is outlawed? Of course it isn’t. Assad did not destroy Syria – democracy did.
The media must stop feeding us filth. ISIS is a revenge organisation; revenge for the slaughter we are inflicting on their ‘brothers’.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I am not that man. I know we deserve all we get and will shed tears equally for those massacred daily in Syria as for those in Brussels.
It’s no good saying ISIS alone is to blame. ISIS is the Middle East’s response to our genocide. We grew ISIS. The US and Turkey armed and financed ISIS. Europe stood by and watched it grow, shedding media filth to wipe away our tears after terrorist acts. But who cries for Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, notwithstanding increasing terrorism in Africa – certainly not western media.
The world must change its perception of democracy – this falsehood by which the US rules, this falsehood by which Brussels reneges, this falsehood by which Moscow, and others, kill with impunity.
ISIS is not democratic. ISIS seeks to impose their beliefs and wishes on the Middle East – and not only!
ISIS will continue to fight by the only means it knows how – terrorism. But what is a terrorist – you in your country and me in mine? Were the Vietcong terrorists and the US under Nixon, saviours?
Brussels is a victim of our times, and there will be many more if leaders don’t get their heads together and do what they were elected to do – rule with equanimity.
Don’t blame ISIS alone for Brussels. Blame Brussels. Brussels is at the mercy of its own ineptitude.
The lives of ‘others’ is our responsibility.
