How Britain became a terror target
The news that the police claim to have “foiled a major terrorist plot” aimed at blowing up flights to the USA shows once again how ordinary people become targets in a conflict that the British and American governments bear ultimate responsibility for.
If the reports are true - and we are all so sceptical now that we find it difficult to believe/accept anything the New Labour government and police say or do - then it can’t be long before a terror attack actually succeeds and more innocent people are killed.
Britain is now clearly a No 1 terror target. It is not hard to see why. The invasion and occupation of Iraq on a pretext has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Muslims in that country. Civil war has broken out in Iraq as a consequence of the policies of the British and US governments. Now Washington and London are backing Israel four square while that country smashes Lebanon to pieces, killing mostly women and children.
Far from defeating terror, these actions and policies have made it more certain that at some stage innocent British people will pay the price, as they did in July 2005. If some British-born Muslims have turned to terrorism, they do so in desperation. They live in a country whose government practises state terror abroad and demonises minority communities at home. They live in a country where the democratic process counts for little and freedoms disappear one by one.
Having said that, A World to Win rejects totally the use of blind terror as a method. It plays entirely into the hands of governments like New Labour. It uses terror threats to wind up the entire population, divert attention away from its disastrous policies and as an excuse to rush through more draconian laws. The targeting of ordinary people is deeply reactionary and only worsens the position of Muslims in Britain.
New Labour through its policies and actions has made Britain a prime terror target. To change this, we have to find another way to build relations between different peoples and faiths. The so-called “war on terror” is patently no way forward, based as it is on a shadowy conflict with an endless queue of would-be jihadists.
A precondition for a change in approach is getting rid of New Labour and transforming politics into something that reflects the aspirations of the powerless majority. The alternative is to remain pawns in a conflict orchestrated by the arc of extremism stretching from Washington and London.
A World to Win
11 August 2006
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