O, come on, everyone else will be doing one…
In response to Andy (PWL Andy, that is), who asked in a private post if anyone had the same reaction as him, yes, I did. I got a call from Ruth asking me to get a telly on and find out what was happening, and my first responses went something like
“Bloody hell, an actual terrorist attack.”
“Hope Bush keeps his nose out of this, bastard”
“Shit, that was insensitive of me.”
“O, Jesus, Howard’s on the telly. That’ll bugger the asylum applications, then”
“No, still insensitive. Better get onto the ‘Net and try again, then…”
Unfortunately, I’m still not doing very well. Yes, I had a vague resurgence of “bastards, how dare they?!” but that was pretty much neutralised right off on the grounds that nobody seems to know whodunnit… For once, however, I suspect it’s not an Irish thing, because even the Real IRA have been fairly quiet lately. (Partly, of course, that’s because it’s no-longer fashionable for the US to give money to the IRA, for some reason or other)
But Andy is, as usual, right. For September 11th, my first response was “How terrible!” followed presently by “No, hang on, that wasn’t an attack on American democracy, that was an attack on trade. Shit, this is going to get out of hand…”
Now, largely thanks to the stalwart efforts of George W. (and, indeed, everyone else who jumped on the bandwagon) my first response wasn’t “Shit, that’s awful, the poor bastards involved” – that got relegated to third place, mingled with guilt that my first response was surprise that an attack had actually happened, regardless of media hype, and that my second response was that Bush didn’t use it as an excuse for attacking, for example, Iran.
I wait to be proven wrong on the attacking Iran…
I do feel terrible, insofar as I have a right to feel anything at all (as far as I know, I’ve never met anyone involved, so issuing full-blown mourning seems fairly callous), for all those affected, and, naturally, I hope Andy (K) has some decent news asap, but I do think it’s telling that in the time since September 11th 2001 my initial response to terrorist attacks has changed from “fucking Hell, that’s awful” to “O, shit, I really hope the politicians don’t use this for another bollocks war”
Presently, I suspect, I’m going to get savaged for this post, and to all the flamers waiting in the wings, I say this: Fuck You, chummy.
In 2001 it took about a week for the focus to shift from the suffering of the victims to a state of abducting the issue for political gain. Today it doesn’t seem to have taken an hour. That’s bad, my friends, that’s bloody bad. The proper reaction to events such as this is, I cannot help but feel, one of sorrow and quiet reflection. It should not be one of Bush popping up and suggesting a hunt for countries may make tenuous links.
So, no, thank-you, this post is not here to say “hah, I don’t give a shit about people suffering,” it’s here to say that I’m frankly fucking scared, but not because there’s an ever-present threat of a terrorist attack, as there was during the Irish troubles, but because things like this, in the world of today, give politicians too much scope to play silly buggers, only paying token tribute to the victims and their families whilst they pay much more attention to where the Yanks will invade next…
That’s what scares me, really. Terrorists I can cope with, all things considered, because God willing I’ll never be affected by a terrorist attack. Politicians, however, are rather more insidious, and if some dickhead uses this as an excuse to bring in bloody ID cards I shall do my sodding nut.
’nuff said. Even I’m getting far too political for my own good, now…