A time to atone?

It is easy to forget events in our recent history. Things move so fast, the world keeps on spinning, and old things get replaced with new. Watching the David Hicks interview on the ABC last night took me back. It took me back to that dark dark place not that long ago, where people were scared, two corners of the world that could not be more different were somehow intertwined, and governments of all persuasions dug their heels in as far as they could go to achieve .... something.

It was a scary time.

Scary not because bombs were falling in my backyard (luckily for me I lived in the corner of the world where I could just watch them fall in other people's backyards on television), but because the social structures and politics of the world as I knew it got a little bit tough and jaded, and it didn't seem possible to squeeze them back into shape.

As the tenth anniversary of September 11 approaches, we will all once again be reminded of the horror of that day, and simultaneously be directed to contemplate the ongoing horror of the war in Afghanistan. Two diametrically opposed and geographically separate places, joined by animosity, fear and war, drawing in many, many lives along the way in the ten year spiral.

George Bush.

Dick Cheney.

David Hicks.

The Mums, Dads and kids of all those lost in NYC on 9/11.

The Taliban.

Osama Bin Laden.

John Howard.

Citizens of Afghanistan.

The Allied Forces.

Tony Blair.

Some people have been lucky enough to be in another phase of their lives now, while others are still enduring different kinds of hell; grief that won't go away, fear, war, depression, physical wounds, uncertainty, persecution, disability, and it goes on.

George Bush got retirement and Osama Bin Laden got a pretty easy end. He for example - did not have to endure five years at Guantanamo Bay like his alleged soldier, David Hicks. Like all good dictators, Osama Bin Laden spun the ideology like a master, and then lived a life on his own terms, risking very little and certainly not his own safety or life, like the easily led young men below him did.

So with the big players of the day now largely out of our consciousness and the current political landscape, can we move on? I suppose we often like to think we have, but there are a few inconvenient reminders that pop up from time to time to remind us of the legacy that has been left.

David Hicks - the man is free now and he can talk.

A little bit inconvenient for some, but perhaps an opportunity to reflect on how things might have been done differently?

Every Australian soldier that dies in Afghanistan.

Do their families understand what they died for? I hope so.

John Howard

He sounds wise and relaxed, like all former PMs who no longer have a political agenda or really give a shit what people think anymore. But I was recently reminded of his steely determination on the David Hicks matter at the time, and I remain as bewildered today as I did then. Was it worth it? What was it really all about?

Even in applying the most rational, non-emotive, non-political analysis I can possibly muster (as a subjective, biased individual) - I cannot recognise any good outcomes for any side of this ten year horror. There has been no victory, only countless deaths and lives ruined.

Some fat cats sit comfortably in retirement, while some other poor bastards come crawling out of the conflict on all fours, still alive but no longer with a life.

Why?

http://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/justice/inquiry/never-again