No better than our enemies
Horrific, barbaric, a senseless act of terrorism; these are but a sampling of the words being used to describe the killings in London last week.
Yet as truthful as they may be, they raise a troubling question; how do we describe the deaths of more than one million Iraqis in a war now commonly acknowledged to have been based on a deliberate lie?
Killing is no less awful simply because it has been sanctioned by our state; fear and terror no less odious when they are generated to advance our corporate interests.
The wars we launch for geopolitical advantage are as horrifying, barbaric, incomprehensible and terrifying to the people who suffer them, as was the dreadful attack which shook Westminster.
Only by utterly rejecting a calculus which judges the lives of others to be of lesser value than our own; only by recognizing that our appetite for human rights, for freedom and peace and prosperity, is mirrored in the lives of people in every nation, can there be any real hope of peace on earth.
Simply put, we are no better than our enemies, and to change the world, we must start by changing ourselves.
Mike Ward
Duncan