By Mahmoud Al Abed
English News Editor
The terrorist attacks on the US showed us terrorism at its worst, and unfolded a dark page that we all should read.
But this is not the only lesson. Acts with such magnitude and horror must lead the entire globe into one direction: a better world.
Maybe the US has tasted the bitterness of war and terrorism before, either by virtue of its own deeds such as its defeat in Vietnam, or through insane acts of terrorism as was the case with the Oklahoma blast which was carried out by American citizens.
But this time it is different. Now the US can join the club of the oppressed and the victimized. They can exactly tell how the Japanese felt when they were attacked with atomic bombs; how the Palestinians feel when they are shelled by US-made apaches and F16s; how an Iraqi mother feels when her child dies in her hands of disease and hunger.
We should feel with the families of the victims. They belong to us now. We can share the tears and the mourning of the dead who have woken up one morning, hoping for a better day and a better world, but met their destiny the ugliest way.
It’s not only that none has the right to feel joy that American innocent civilians have got killed. In fact, no one has the right to kill or feel relief that a human being gets killed anywhere.
The US, the de facto world master, has now to wipe its tears and to have a clearer vision of its responsibilities towards its people and the peoples of the world.
Justice must be accomplished. Occupation and oppression must be brought to an end.
The US can now wipe out Afghanistan from the world map if Bin Laden is proved to be behind the attacks; its allies in the Middle East can terminate every “opponent of peace,” and “unfriendly regimes” may become history in a matter of days. But that can never be the happy ending of the story.
Now there is a need for a New World Order, one that is based on justice, equality and respect of the human being.
President George W. Bush must go and tell his father that his style of such order has failed, and then turn back to wise people in the world to look for the right path to peace.
