"Yes, we are at war. Or rather, henceforth, we are all in war. We deal blows, and we take blows in turn. We are in mourning, suffering the consequences of these terrible events, in the sad knowledge that others will occur. Each person killed is irreplaceable.
But which war are we talking about? It is not an easy war to define because it is formed of various types which have been pushed together over time and which today appear inextricable. Wars between states (even a pseudo state like 'ISIS'). National and international civil wars. Wars of 'civilisation' (or something that sees itself as such). Wars of interest and of imperialist patronage. Wars of religions and sects (or justified as such). This is the great stasis or ‘split city’ of the twenty first century, which we will one day compare to its distant parallels (if indeed we escape intact): the Peloponnesian War; the Thirty Years War; or, more recently, the “European civil war” that raged from 1914 to 1945…
In part an outcome of the US offensive in the Middle East (both before and after 9/11), the war has intensified following the offensives in which Russia and France are now playing a major role, each with their own objectives. The war is also rooted in the ferocious rivalry between those states who all aspire to regional hegemony: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, even Egypt, and in some ways Israel – the only nuclear power of the group at the moment. In a violent collective abreaction, it speeds up all the unsettled affairs of colonisation and empire: oppressed minorities, the creation of arbitrary borders, expropriated mineral resources, disputed areas of influence, gigantic arms contracts. As we just saw, the war seeks, and occasionally finds, support among populations of the ‘other side’.
Ultimately, if we really cared about human lives, our profile pictures would have been photo-shopped with the Syrian flag. With over 200,000 people killed, 65,000 disappeared, and the growth of a medieval terrorist organisation persecuting minorities, employing girls and women as sex slaves, and carrying out gruesome killings, the Syrian flag would most definitely qualify for an act of solidarity with “crimes against humanity.”
Worse still, perhaps, is that it reactivates ancient 'theological hatreds' : the schisms within Islam, the clash between monotheisms and their secular substitutes. Let us be clear, no religious war is ever caused by the religion itself: there are always undercurrents of oppression, conflicts of power, economic strategies, excessive wealth, and excessive poverty. But when the 'code' of religion (or of 'counter-religion') is involved, the cruelty that follows can exceed all limits, since the enemy has become anathema.
Monstrous barbarism has raised its head, reinforcing itself through the insanity of its own violence – like ISIS with its decapitations, rapes of enslaved women, and destruction of humanity's cultural treasures. But other, apparently more 'rational' brutalities are breeding too, like Nobel peace prize recipient Obama's 'drone wars', the results of which are now demonstrated to be 9 civilian deaths for each terrorist death."
Monstrous barbarism has raised its head, reinforcing itself through the insanity of its own violence – like ISIS with its decapitations, rapes of enslaved women, and destruction of humanity's cultural treasures. But other, apparently more 'rational' brutalities are breeding too, like Nobel peace prize recipient Obama's 'drone wars', the results of which are now demonstrated to be 9 civilian deaths for each terrorist death."
Ultimately, if we really cared about human lives, our profile pictures would have been photo-shopped with the Syrian flag. With over 200,000 people killed, 65,000 disappeared, and the growth of a medieval terrorist organisation persecuting minorities, employing girls and women as sex slaves, and carrying out gruesome killings, the Syrian flag would most definitely qualify for an act of solidarity with “crimes against humanity.”
If we really cared about human suffering, our profile pictures would have been shaded with the Palestinian flag where local inhabitants have been kicked out of their lands and have been living under occupation or as refugees since 1948—and whose remaining lands are being annexed by Israeli settlers, in clear violation of international law and causing outrage to few in the world.
Selective grief is indeed hypocritical and disturbing. But the truth of the matter is that we are all hypocrites, we are all selective grievers, and we are all selective sympathisers.
In exposing the hypocrisy of others, our hypocrisy is exposed. In exposing the selective grief of others, our selective grief is laid bare. And in exposing the selective justice in the world, the pervasiveness of selective justice in our societies is revealed.
.net, 16 November 2015
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