9/11 legacy: Millions of lives lost for corporate profit

September 14, 2012
Issue 
US bombing of Baghdad, 2003.

β€œRIP to the 2976 American people that lost their lives on 9/11 and RIP to the 48,644 Afghan and 1,690,903 Iraqi people that paid the ultimate price for a crime they did not commit. And the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who experience this everyday. Your 9/11 is their 24/7.”

The above quote that flashed across the social media last week captured a reflection of many people about the terrible collective punishment still inflicted on innocent people right across the Middle East and beyond for the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US.

Osama bin Laden has been killed by US special forces but the occupation and war on Afghanistan continues, even though its official justification has lost any coherence.

We are told: "Our troops are there to help the Afghan people, but they are getting out soon." But just who are they "helping"? They are propping up corrupt and ruthless warlords who have no more regard for democracy or women's rights β€” or possibly less β€” than the Taliban regime the foreign occupiers supposedly drove out.

If the occupiers were there to help the Afghan people why did they not even begin to start trying to count Afghan civilian casualties until the seventh year of occupation?

A nightmare of war and terror has become the 24/7 reality in many countries across the world. A terrible collective punishment is being exacted on millions of people who have absolutely no responsibility for the US terror attacks. The scale of this retribution far outstrips that of the cruel despots of the pre-capitalist era.

However, a few giant corporations are making fat profits out of this "war without end".

A September 13 report by Tom Engelhardt in TomDispatch.com revealed (US$66.3 billion) of the global arms trade last year, followed by Russia at 5.6% (US$4.8 billion).

If you want to find the criminals, follow the money.

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