The sour smell of hypocrisy.

(Note: written originally the day after 9/11)

This short piece is a bit of a musing on what has happened since 9/11.




The sour smell of hypocrisy.

On the anniversary of 9/11 last night, I thought of the thousands of people who had lost their lives during the events of 9/11 itself, and the many more who've lost their lives in the wars that have spun off it since.

I ended up reading an article by a former DEA agent who described how invading Afghanistan was good for ramping up heroin production and distribution - Afghanistan now produces 50 times what it did under the Soviets and supplies 95% of the world's heroin. 14% of that makes its way into the US itself, if rumours are true, on CIA planes.

I think of the first responders, many of whom are sick and dying, who have had their pensions or healthcare cut off and weren't invited to the anniversary at ground zero.

Then I think of the 90% of Patriot Act convictions that have nothing to do with terrorism.

I think of the humiliating searches conducted at airports, and the fact that despite the invasive searches, guns still go through scanners and they still can't detect some chemical explosives.

Then I think of kids like Clifton Hicks, the US serviceman who filed for CO (Conscientious Objector) because he was sick of being told it's okay to shoot civilians, unarmed or otherwise.

I think of Blackwater mercenaries, many leftovers from the regime of Augusto Pinochet, clearing traffic jams in Iraq by wildly firing automatic weapons at random civilians.

I think of a terrorist mastermind that needed kidney dialysis, who was shot dead with his unarmed wife, and whose body was pitched into the sea, depriving the world of a court hearing.

I think of documents from our former PM telling the former US VP to lock one of our citizens up for 5 years and waterboard him, all so our former PM could look good in an election and wouldn't have to face the fact there was nothing to charge him with.

I think of extraordinary rendition, secret torture centres, Abu Ghraib.

I think of the allies of our ally the US - Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the two biggest sponsors of terrorism in the world. With Afghanistan, Pakistan is one of the biggest producers and distributors of drugs in the world.

I think of all these things, and I mourn the people who died in the Twin Towers. And I'm glad they're not alive to see the corruption and murder fostered in their names.