Another socialist blog

In the wake of the July 7 terrorist bombings in London, Tony Blair has been at great pains to deny that British foreign policy contributed in any way to the attacks. This is especially difficult to pull off in the face of the recent report from Chatham House, Security, Terrorism and the UK, which says what seems so obvious: Britain’s alliance with the United States has made Britain a target.

The report … says that the UK is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the US and has closely supported the deployment of British troops in the military campaigns to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam’s regime in Iraq.

The report claims that there is “no doubt” that the invasion of Iraq has imposed particular difficulties for the UK and for the wider coalition against terrorism. According to the paper, the situation in Iraq has “given a boost to the Al-Qaeda network’s propaganda, recruitment and fundraising”, whilst providing an ideal targeting and training area for Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.

No surprise there. That’s what we predicted before Bush started the war in Iraq, and before he started the war in Afghanistan. So what are Blair and Bush doing to misdirect attention away from the elephant in the room?

Simple. To any question about the causes of the attacks, they respond as if they’d been asked about justification for the attacks. That way they get to deflect any examination of their own actions, and repeat over and over for the cameras that there is no justification for terrorism. Of course there isn’t any excuse for terrorism. We didn’t ask you whether you thought there was an excuse. We asked whether you provoked it. A Chatham House representative, to her credit, kept her own eye on the ball:

Clearly the British and American governments will continue to lower this discussion to new intellectual lows. It’s as if nothing they’ve ever done has ever provoked anger in the world.

Indeed. What Blair, Bush and their political allies want you to believe is that terrorism exists for no reason at all. Terrorists are just evil people, they tell us, and there’s no sense examining their motives any further than that. It’s a neat, tidy formula, perfect for the pliant citizens of the empire, simultaneously dismissing curiosity about the world abroad, and critical thought about the government at home.