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After The 7/7 Media Circus

DAVID SMITH
Two weekends after 7/7 bombings, during a surge of violence in iraq, a suicide bomber drove a commandeered petrol tanker to a shia Mosque. The resulting explosion killed 83 people and injured many more. There was no condemnation by world leaders nor was there any pouring in of countless messages of sympathy from a shocked international public. The victims were not sought after by the media, as the attack did not register highly on sellable news criteria. Neither do other acts of terror carried out across West Asia, Chechnya, israel-Palestine and india. in complete contrast, the London bombings incited a media frenzy of hysterical proportions. The former soviet dictator Joseph stalin's quote "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic," could be adapted into media policy as: A first-world death is a tragedy, no one else is really worth it!
British Prime Minister Blair's initial 'evil ideology' speech came across as dangerously simplistic and patronising to a shocked and worried public. Reminiscent of previous consumer geared catch phrases like, Us President Bush's 'axis of evil' or Us secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's drum banging 'outposts of tyranny.' This speech only seemed to further fuel the fire of a scare mongering popular media.
speculative finger pointing over the bombers background only served to scapegoat a whole community. The Muslim Council of Britain received a reported 30,000 hate mails. The backlash has led to hundreds of racial assaults on Asians and desecrations of mosques. The 21/7 bombings, the shoot-to-kill policy and fear of more attacks continue to spread a psychology of terror throughout London.
The Blair government's public denial connecting the attacks and the iraq War appears desperate and evidently unconvincing. As a pre-7/7
government intelligence report, known to the PM reasons that "a perceived 'double standard' in the foreign policy of western governments...in particular Britain and the Us", opened plenty of incentives for a blowback. This perceived 'double standard' reflected millions of peoples' thoughts from around the world, including thousands of Londoners who took to the streets in protest against the Us-led pre-emptive iraq invasion. The attack on iraq, based on 'sexed up' tales of non-existent WMD and over a saddam-Qaeda connection only alienated the representative government from British public support.
Now is the time for retrospection; British political leadership must realise thetrue ideology behind the London attacks, both intertwined in domestic and international roots.
Launching the suicide attack to coincide with the hyped G-8 summit maximised the political message intended to the world's most powerful leaders. This calculated attack committed by elements of a politically disenfranchised British youth, also added new 'home-grown' factor to the 'war on terrorism.' While physically partitioned from the outside world in 5-star luxury accommodation, protected by steel walls and hundreds of armed security guards, Londoners were left to battle the carnage in their streets. As the G-8 leaders watched images of the aftermath of the bombings, did they wonder if the attacks' message were for their benefit?
it is Blair and Co's aggressive foreign policy that is under attack and not simply, 'our way of life.' Western political leadership deem London as an unfortunate price in their endeavour to export their ideology of freedom and democracy to West Asia. it is the ordinary person on the streets of New York, London, Madrid, Gaza, Bali, Baghdad, etc. who pay with their life for an unpopular imperialist policy. While saddam Hussein - the once number one tyrannical dictator - is
now to be saved from a possible execution sentence by the same British government that previously targeted him with missiles.
The current political climate in West Asia must be understood and analysed in as much depth as the London bombings if the answer is to be unraveled. The mistrust felt toward the Western political elite is almost inexhaustible. Political turmoil engulfs saddam's once relatively stable, secular state, and creating a power vacuum that has allowed collaborators within the 'coalition of the willing' to greedily enriched themselves on iraqi resources. The plight of the Palestinian and Chechen people, a continued presence of Us military bases and 'puppet regimes' across islamic lands aggregate together with intensification of the 'New Great Game' in Central Asia. The opening Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil-pipeline has been proved provocative. There are glutinous amounts of controversial subject matter for the media and public to explore.
Terrorism seems to be a symptom of 21st century globalisation, where of the troubles of one side of the world will visibly affect another.
Fundamentalist religious based ideology is growing more popular around the world. Media fascination on terrorist attacks solely in Western countries distorts the true origins of terrorism, only adding to ordinary peoples fears. Blair and western leaders in general cannot afford to bury their heads in the sand. Winstonian speeches may give the impression of a Blitz spirit, but restoring permanent peace in London will need to reflect stability around the world by encompassing policies that will break the trend of unequal respect for life.
By arrangement with IPCS New Delhi, India
The author is a Research Intern, IPCS