The destruction of a temple dedicated to some moral hope for the future...no matter HOW likely or unlikely you may find that particular form of hope to be... equated with the destruction of a temple devoted to sheer greed? To economic imperialism? To "World Trade" that benefits only one side of the transaction?

Please.

I felt sorry for the thousands of relatively innocent peoople who were just doing their job inside of that temple to Mammon...hell, it could just as easily have been me in there. I had just done a concert a few weeks before 9/11 on one of the promenades a number of floors up.

But let us call a spade a spade, here.

The World Trade Centers were a monument to greed and exploitation.

NOTHING more, and nothing less.

You know those moneychangers that Christ chased out of the temple?

That was their shop.

The hopes and prayers of millions that a Messiah might appear to right all wrongs is of another order of aspiration entirely. Whether you believe in their religion or not.

Excuse me.

I have to go out and get a breath of fresh air.

It is beginning to STINK in here.

AG

Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.-Mae West

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

There is a difference worth pondering in the days ahead.  The WTC's destruction began all this; it happened where people did not feel vulnerable.  And nothing's happened there like that since.  

The destruction of a similarly central shrine in Iraq comes after much destruction, in the midst of destruction, in which everyone feels vulnerable every day.  This doesn't make its destruction less powerful---not at all---but makes it different.

But there is a common response.  It became Us v. Them in the U.S. with startling speed, and the Them included such absurdities as the French.

This destruction in Iraq is also going to harden the Us v. Them lines.

The destruction of this dome in Iraq, like the destruction of the ancient Buddhist statues by the Taliban, has an apocalyptic air for us all because it destroys a link with the past, it destroys a cultural symbol and link.  We all shudder when this happens.

It was apparently something similiar for many people with the WTC, maybe especially for those who didn't know NYC without it. But that  huge office buildings (which frankly I didn't like)have a preeminent cultural standing in the U.S., and maybe anthropologicially there is a similiarity to the two cultures, tells us more about our differences.  Also that WTC was a symbol about which we have very mixed feelings makes it different.  But as far as it goes, yes, we should understand the apocalyptic effect in Iraq, and the Us V Them many here felt when the WTC went down.            

 

"The end of all intelligent analysis is to clear the way for synthesis." H.G. Wells "It's not dark yet, but it's getting there." Bob Dylan

Chomsky has suggested that:

somebody ought to compare the US media on Iraq and the Russian media on the invasion of Afghanistan. I bet you it would be pretty similar. You know, agonising stories about the suffering of soldiers and how they’re trying to do great things for the Afghans, fighting these hideous terrorists, which was all true, the deeply humanitarian aims and how could Russia gain victory, for the benefit of the Afghans of course. I think it’s pretty predictable that that’s what the coverage would have been. That’s what the coverage is here.

Meanwhile, the balkanization of Iraq continues apace:

Sunni Party Quits Iraq Government Talks after Mosque Bombing

Iraq's most powerful Sunni Muslim party quit talks to form a new government Thursday after reprisal attacks for the bombing of an important Shiite mosque.

Amid reports of more than 100 killings nationwide - many of them Sunni Muslims - the Sunni Accord Front announced it is leaving political unity talks after meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari

This is basically what I believe we're now referring to in any discussion of the events of 9/11/2001: not the events themselves, but what we see of the waves.

I witnessed the gradual & astounding construction of the WTC; I lived my adult life in Manhattan with ample chance to contemplate their form, their cultural meaning, their practical situation as compass-points, their embodiment of a certain aspect of the city's complex spirit. I worked on the upmost floors for close to five years, until 1994.

I didn't witness the planes hitting the towers, but I saw the results almost immediately afterward; I lived for days with their smoke & odor. When I then left the city by bus, I caught my first view of the smoldering gap in the familiar skyline & thought of a beloved face with its teeth smashed in.

And yes, I believe the comparison of their destruction to the destruction of an extremely significant holy site is a bit of a stretch -- just as I think of the distance between subjective personal history & spiritual history.

that's disconcerting...

"It makes absolutely no sense for Sunnis to bomb Shia mosques; this would be akin to Baptists bombing Catholic churches. Sectarian violence, dividing Iraqi society, does not serve Iraqis, either Sunni or Shia."

and

"Only vicious and crazed Muslims would blow up the remains of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad--or American, British, and Israeli intelligence operatives or their double agent Arab lunatics, or crazies incited by Rumsfeld's Proactive Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), designed to "stimulate" terrorist reaction."

The full article here:

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m20891&l=i&size=1&hd=0

I don't now much about Nimmo, I've seen him on CouterPunch.

The single most striking thing to the non-Islamic persons in our group was the depth of her distress. Her American culture, and similar facade to others present, likely contributed to what some said, the the identical observation as here. It's like the Twin Towers.

As this student had partly grown up in sight of those towers, I think we expected her to agree. But she quietly said, No. That  [the World Trade Center] was terrible, but in other ways. I cried for the Towers, but this  [the destruction of the Askariya Shrine] cuts my heart; it hurts all of my brothers and sisters.

About the Towers: As  a non-New Yorker, I don't think of the Towers as a constant presence in the skyline, filled with people, in the way that many do.

My thoughts are of sitting in the lobby of one Tower early in the day,facing the walkway coming up from the trains. I can still see the undulating mass of humanity, of all colors and shapes, moving without end, walking up that ramp, a sea of people.  Maids in uniform, men and women in khakis with metal tool boxes. People in suits, a group of Hasidic elders, children in t-shirts, young couples with strollers, and bored-looking teens. Several people in non-Western clothing. A seeing eye dog and her companion. A man with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder. I moved into the crowd and heard bits of French, Spanish, German, Yiddish, and languages I could not recognize. That's who I thought of on  9/11, and what I think of now.

I agree with my student. Both are terrible, but they are not parallel.

The perception of the crusade in the mind of the American mainstream has so little connection to reality, or even the perception of the warlords.

Thus I would caution against Washington declaring well, we have successfully destroyed this sacred mosque, let's go do Karbala and Najaf and then we're outta there.

To the crusaders, both command and common gunmen, it is just another operation, spreading a little more democracy and shock n' awe on Haji.

And the average mainstreamer is just anxious to see the crusade move on to Teheran.

one man's conspiracy is another man's business plan
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