Wavefront

... And now Egypt?

I haven't read much about the bombings in Egypt of Saturday night. It's times like this that I know why I don't watch the news on TV. 'Cause they'd get it wrong. Reading the news, finding people closely associated with the events IN the news is difficult, but better. I sit behind four walls all day, and four walls all night.

Damn it. I AM in prison. At least, everybody's here with me.

To find out about the outside world, there are three ways. You can talk to people, you can see it yourself, or, you can read the paper and watch the news. Reading the internet gets a little hairier. Regardless, the world is a place that one can understand only by experience.

Among all these things, experiences both actual and by proxy, you develop an impression. A belief in the way that things are going. A sense of the ebb and flow of all things -- how they interact and lace together what is to come.

Well...

There have been two bombings in London, one failed, fourteen days apart and within seven days past. No-one should dispute the term fortnight at this point in history. London is a city fortified against terror as a second fortnight lapses.

The weekend Egyptian bombing looms in the background to these events. It is as though, with the intensity of investigation and the nature of this warlike act continuously to be sown in the minds of Americans and Europeans, the Eastern world faces yet another strike. And the Western world remains unresolved to turn and notice.

***
A character flaw exists in the world. Self-centredness of the West is at odds with the interconnectedness and social nature of the East. So much so that the two Western powers, as though father and son, face an eternal struggle between them. Meanwhile the Elightened East -- a Holy spirit -- cries "Infidel!" The East pitches every form of distraction in an attempt to shift the attention of the world; to present a different prespective. Ever the paternalist, the West turns away, preferring to draw only the lifeblood of its existence, oil, from the belly of the East at a rate of a billion barrels per day.

And so the stage is set for a forever war. The War on Terror already presents a constant state of emergency. Everyone and anyone could be a terrorist. The question is, what is the Government going to do about it? We know what is happening in the West, or do we? Big Brother is conducting all the work in the London Bombing. There are only two potential perpetrators: Islamic fundmentalist terrorists associated with al Qaeda, or someone else. As President Bush says, "either you're with US, or you're with the terrorists." If the bombing is proven to have no connection to al Qaeda, the threat is within US.

It's 1984, baby, YEAH!

There has always existed tension between these great powers. Since the gripings of De Gaulle in letters he wrote during the second War. Between Churchill and Roosevelt, De Gaulle was considered to be "our bitter foe." It was De Gaulle who wrote that the war of the future would be fought between a Brittanic Europe and Resplendent America.

Something wicked this way comes.

If it is true that Europe is willing to stand united against US, as they did against the Axis in 1939, which way will the world tumble? EU is the only world body robust enough to stand against the might of US. The conflict in Iraq, staged by/for US interests, and currently the wedge in a global definition of justice, may unleash a new shift in world policy.

The Cold War postponed this conflict for many years. Perhaps the lines along which such a conflict rested were too blurry for the Americans to resolve immediately. Their belligerent self-righeousness was stayed by the failures of the Nazi War Machine, the resolute compusure of Stalin, and the lack of knowledge surrounding this Soviet Motherland.

The spectre of nuclear holocaust between incidental enemies, capitalists and socialists, prevented the conflict from being triggered. Much mork was conducted by "spies" and "agents." In the end, Capitalism outlasted Socialism by creating a global market that the socialists could not resourcefully compete in. Socialists themselves began to desire free market economies to satisfy their desires. Corruption spread and, finally the wall fell. It fell Westward.

The West now battles within itself.

"After you get the money, then you get the power. After the power comes the respect."
'Lil Kim, "Money, Power, and Respect."
(currently serving a prison sentance, one year plus a day)

The words of a true Capitalist.

***

Now that a bigger conflict is brewing, another fortnight inches past. An innocent man was killed today - Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian native. A case of mistaken identity, the London Police shot and killed him under a staunchly defended "shoot-to-kill" policy. No chances are being taken as the next bombing could be much more devestating.

Did the police forces of New York act in this manner in the wake of 9|11? Did any "suspect" die as a result of mistaken identity during investigation? The difference, I believe, between the coverage of 7|7 and that of 9|11 is that London Police are taking responsibility for their actions in the public sphere. To this extent, the death of Jean Charles de Menezes will be investigated to the satisfaction of the Brazilian Foreign Minister. Any deaths in association to 9|11 investigations fell easily within the scope of the flashy new USA PATRIOT act.

Perhaps its just my perspective, but, the nature of warfare has changed. If these bombings were taking place in Colombia or Sri Lanka or Cambodia it would be called guerilla warfare. Now that US is facing a global network owning alleigance to no flag, and now that attacks are in city centres against civilians, it is terrorism.

The most terrifying thing is, it may never end.