“What about those who died on 9/11?” It’s a question I get asked often enough as a result of the notorious 9/11 video I made nearly a year ago.[1] Others have asked me why I celebrate 9/11 and think it was a good thing that happened. Why do I mock the people who died and the country that suffered? In their view the people who died in the towers were innocent people killed by Islamic terrorism. In other words, they didn’t deserve it, so why do I say they did?
Let me answer this straight up so that there is no misunderstanding: Yes they deserved it, and America deserved it. I also have a good reason believing so. America has caused suffering like what happened on 9/11 to countless millions, even hundreds of millions of people. The history of the U.S. has been a history of imperialist mass murder. It has been a history of the attempted genocide of two whole races, Native Americans and Africans.
The history of the United States has been long and bloody. They have attacked, murdered, raped, and exploited countless millions all over the world. They have carried out all of these acts for their own benefit, and for profits. There can be no denial of this. There has been no altruism in the murderous legacy of America. The U.S. now stands on a gigantic empire of suffering that props up the wealth and power the country has. A benefit that fuels the privilege of even the lowest sections of the American population. This inhuman mode of existence is what the U.S. is about. This is what America is. These acts are not historical aberrations, or mistakes as some liberals say. They are not exceptions, they are the rule.
In all that time they have made as many countless enemies as they have victims. When you take actions like these, sooner or later it is going to catch up with you. Those who have been oppressed will lash out at their victimizers at some point. When they do there’s no telling what the consequences might be. America has victimized nearly the whole world. On September 11th, 2001 that is exactly what happened. People from the Arab and Muslim world struck back at the United States. One shouldn’t even entertain the idea that they were a few kooks who hated their American freedoms.
Yes, people will and have a right, to hit you back. They have a right to self-defence against imperialism. You can’t complain when someone defends themselves.
Despite the narrative presented to us by the mainstream, the real victims of 9/11 were not the 3,000 that died on in the towers. It was the 3,000,000 who died as the U.S. used the events as a justification for more imperialism and mass murder. America wasn’t a victim of 9/11, the people of the Third World were the victims a 1,000 fold.
Here some might argue that if the attacks never happened then the war in Iraq and Afghanistan wouldn’t have happened. If the terrorist didn’t give the U.S. an excuse, the wars wouldn’t have had a justification. This is Wrong. History has shown us that imperialism strikes out of necessity, it will come up with a reason one way or another. This logic attempts to claim that if no one attacks the U.S. then U.S. imperialism won’t exist. It has never needed to be attacked in order to justify their invasions. They will and have always happened regardless.
The obvious comes next: “What if it was you or someone you care about that died?” I’d answer that this is not an argument, it’s an appeal to emotion. However, to fully answer the question I’d say that it doesn’t matter. My death or the deaths of my loved ones would be on the heads of the imperialists who are oppressing the Third World to begin with. No amount of, “well what if it was you?”, can change the fact that the First World is oppressing the Third and that they need to liberate themselves from it.
A lot of people try to argue that the people in the towers were innocent. I find no truth to this claim. Think about what the World Trade Center means. World Trade, the very capitalist mechanism that drives imperialism itself. The target chosen by the Jihadists is very appropriate given the nature of the invasions of other nations. It is financial and (to a lesser degree) industrial capital that give rise to the need to carry out the imperialist wars. For the World Trade center to be attacked, is appropriate; the center of American trade.
In this case many people were quick to remind me (they must have thought I didn’t know) that there were “working class” people in the towers too, and they didn’t deserve it because they’re not the capitalist class. My answer to this is simple. They were not innocent either. I and others have documented many times how First World people have high living standards off the backs of suffering Third World masses. To deny this obvious reality is nothing short of defending First World terrorism against the Third World. It actually reinforces my point. This privilege that they get from imperialist plunder keeps them from being revolutionary, keeps them from fighting that injustice, it makes them culpable. This benefit from the murder and exploitation of Third World people satisfies the wants of First World people so that they don’t rise up and stop it. To refuse to oppose this global oppression in a meaningful way (actually resisting and destroying the system) is to be in collaboration with it.
When First World people do not take the necessary measures to stop the injustice they benefit from, it does nothing to help the people they victimize. Can we honestly look Third World people in the face and say you can’t defend yourself because we’re not trying hard enough? I think it is next to impossible for First World people no to know what the system does. They can’t claim they don’t know how bad their military is to the rest of the world. Even if they refuse to believe they benefit from its actions, they still know how bad it is. In this day and age of information there is no conceivable way they don’t have access to the knowledge. The poor of the world don’t have the luxury of useless anti-war actions, they’re being killed. First World people can waste time taking such action because they’re not being killed.
No amount of ignorance, denial, or well intentioned uselessness saves any of the victim’s lives. They need to defend themselves now. The inactivity or ignorance of the American people is no defence for what continues to happen, just because they “don’t know” what’s going on means nothing to the victims, it doesn’t stop the killing.
I’ve had people say they realize this, but say that both events are tragedies and they’re against both of them. I say that is wrong. There is no room for some kind of liberal middle ground. One is a victim and one is a victimizer. Doing this is also condemning the act of self-defence. When the U.S. launches an imperialist invasion, it cannot be compared to the actions of people trying to defend themselves. When the U.S. military invaded Iraq for empire, it had no right to complain about I.E.D.s, and no right to complain about attacks by militants. One cannot condemn the attack of the bully and the actions of the victim defending themselves. Not all acts of violence are the same, self-defence is not the same as assault. To decry both acts as tragedies essentially sides with the oppressor.
I’ve noticed some great hypocrisy by First Worldists who denounce the acts of the police when they oppress the public. Yet they consider the U.S. to have been a victim of 9/11. They wholeheartedly admit that the U.S. is a terrible criminal of the world, but somehow when violence strikes it, it’s wrong. These so-called radical leftists are happy to denounce the police when they oppress them, even celebrate when they get hurt. But suddenly they have a wide open heart when they are the oppressor getting hurt.
This is what being a Third Worldist is about, pointing out that we are the perpetrators of imperialism and that our privilege and wealth is based upon it. Denouncing us for it is no different than denouncing a White person for being against racism. No different than attacking a man for being against patriarchy. It is absolutely necessary to acknowledge this reality
The First World is wrong, Amerikkka is wrong.
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Links:
[1] 9/11 Tribute to the Real Victims, Maoist Rebel News (YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9H7rpHSbU
I thought you were a Truther, Jason…?
I have some doubts about the official story.