Bastions of US Imperialism Crumble Bastions of US Imperialism Crumble
Today, September 11 2001, has witnessed the world’s biggest ever attack on the US – an attack that has destroyed the headquarters of US imperialist finance, the World Trade Centre in New York, and the headquarters of the US military, the Pentagon in Washington DC.
To effect this destruction, hijackers armed with knives took over four passenger aircraft, which had all set out from eastern American airports at around 8 a.m. bound for western American airports. The hijacked aeroplanes were simply driven into the buildings in question about an hour after takeoff. The fuel in their tanks ignited massive fires. The two World Trade Centre towers remained standing for about an hour after the attack, enabling the workers in the lower floors of the buildings to be evacuated, but the extreme heat of the fires eventually melted the metal structure of the buildings which then collapsed. Thousands of innocent people have been killed.
The blame for this disaster must be put by the American people, as well as the rest of the world, on the US terrorist government. US aggression all over the world has in the last ten years alone led to millions of deaths of innocents. Iraq, in particular, has suffered ten years of bombing, aggravated by the effects of the depleted uranium used by US imperialism, and then further aggravated by sanctions.
For the millions who never thought it would be possible to wreak vengeance on the all-powerful United States aggressors for the suffering inflicted on them and on those they loved, the success of the attacks on the most powerful symbols of US financial and military might has been a matter for great satisfaction and even joy. Those who have themselves suffered from US aggression will naturally be the first to feel sympathy for those who died in America and for their families, for they have suffered too at first hand. But while themselves suffering the American people too should spare a thought for those whose lives their terrorist government has destroyed.
Today’s hijacks have shown that even without access to the multi-million dollar high technology military hardware in the hands of the imperialists, the oppressed people of the world can strike back. While there still continues to be such terrible injustice in the world, while half the people of the world suffer inhuman living conditions for the benefit of a handful of billionaires bent on controlling the world’s oil supplies, while those same billionaires will stop at nothing to secure their power and privilege, then no power on earth can prevent there being resistance.
It is the need to fight back against injustice that fuelled the actions of the hijackers, who sacrificed their own lives in the cause of the need to resist. There are millions of people in the world, victims of imperialist aggression, who would be prepared to make the same sacrifice. The solution is not to create more victims – as the US terrorist government will certainly set out to do. The solution is to call a halt to the US government’s own terrorist agenda.