Terrorist Attacks In The United States

Sir, - The United States and its people deserve the heartfelt sympathy of every citizen of this and every other country in the…

Sir, - The United States and its people deserve the heartfelt sympathy of every citizen of this and every other country in the world.

However, in the white heat of our horror and shock we must, if further such atrocities are to be avoided, attempt to understand what has motivated such hateful actions. To simply condemn them as the acts of fundamentalist madmen is not adequate.

Is it possible that the moral bankruptcy of national and international policies, politics, and politicians has led, perhaps inevitably, to the commission of desperate acts by desperate people who have been marginalised as a consequence of those policies?

The United States claims to be the defender of freedom and democracy, yet it has plotted the overthrow of democratic governments and has supported some the greatest enemies of freedom and democracy in its own back yard. France has expressed abhorrence of terrorism, yet it launched a murderous bomb attack on Greenpeace. Britain portrays itself as a paragon of justice and fair play, yet its jailing of innocent Irish people, the Bloody Sunday massacre and its conviction at the European Court of Human Rights indicate otherwise. Israel expresses shock at the violence of the Palestinian intifada, while at the same time shooting teenage stone-throwers. The Western alliance attacked and isolated Iraq for its unlawful refusal to comply with a UN resolution calling for its withdrawal from Kuwait, while ignoring Israel's refusal to comply with a similar UN resolution calling for its withdrawal from the occupied territories.

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All of this is justified by the expedient of "national interest".

Of course the United States is not the force for evil that Osama bin Laden and his ilk would have us believe. Ireland, of all countries, knows otherwise. Rather, the US is suffering the consequences of immoral international policies for which it is not solely responsible. Countries which are just as culpable, but are perhaps cleverer or more cowardly, have thus far avoided such catastrophic consequences. We can only pray that the United States will prove to be the only - and not just the largest - target of such savagery.

In the name of national, political and even personal interest we have allowed pragmatism at best, and rank hypocrisy at worst, to become substitutes for principles. In the absence of principles defining right and wrong, fair and unfair, even and uneven, is it any wonder that certain people cannot distinguish even between savagery and sanctity? - Yours, etc.,

Paul Kelly, Royal Canal Terrace, Dublin 7.