"BLOWBACK"

Saudi bombing kills at least 7 Americans
Al-Qaida prime suspect, Powell says

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Attackers shot their way into three housing compounds in synchronized strikes in the Saudi capital and then set off multiple suicide car bombs, killing 20 people, including seven Americans, officials reported today.

Authorities also found nine charred bodies believed to be those of the attackers, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said.

The bombings, which took place about 11:30 p.m. Monday, constituted one of the deadliest terror attacks on Americans since Sept. 11, 2001. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the coordinated strike had "the fingerprints of al-Qaida," the group that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"Terrorism strikes anywhere, everyone," Powell said. "It is a threat to the entire civilized world."

President Bush vowed to hunt down the attackers.

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A while back I finally got around to watching the movie Brazil. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) for me, I got around to watching it only a few weeks after the infamous terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I actually first saw the film back when I was in college, but it was in a dorm room crammed with talking people on drugs, so I really didn't even get the gist of it. So, after wanting a better and undistracted viewing of Brazil for many years, I finally took a break from watching round the clock TV news coverage of the new "War on Terrorism," and put on the DVD.

It's a great film, of course, but watching it at the time that I did made the experience both frightening and depressing. Brazil depicts ordinary people trying to live their mundane lives in a world of repression and violence. Terrorists are constantly blowing things up which is either in response to, or justifies the police state in which the film takes place--I'm still not sure whether the terrorism or the repression comes first. Perhaps the distinction is unimportant as far as film analysis is concerned: the terrorism and the violent government response to it are, in the film, a never ending cycle. Terrorism causes state violence. State violence causes terrorism. Neither side achieves its goals (whatever they are), but both continue down their paths of destruction.

We are living in Brazil.

The anti-terrorism measures undertaken by the Bush administration have repressed, jailed, and killed hundreds of thousands of people while turning the world against the US. Despite all the carnage, Bush's "War on Terrorism" has seemingly not even dented Al-Qaeda abilities. I am beginning to wonder if the White House even cares. After all, terrorism offers a handy political justification for empire-building wars. Osama bin Laden is far more valuable to the warmongers alive and free, an ever present threat, than in jail or dead.

And as I've written on Real Art many times, Bush's wars are causing more terrorism.

That's right. MORE terrorism. This kind of terrorist attack in Riyadh was predicted by the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA, and the FBI. They call it "blowback. That is, this attack is in retribution for US government actions. Bush knew that this would happen, but he continued to take America down the path of self-destruction. He could have taken some common sense steps that would have lessened the likelihood of more "homicide bombers." That is to say, the way out of this cycle is to conduct foreign policy in terms of economic justice, democracy, cultural respect, and human rights rather than in terms of business interests. Bush chose business interests over the cherished ideals of the American people. More importantly, he chose money and power over human lives. The White House did not plan or carry out these bombings, but it shares some of the responsibility: Bush knowingly fanned the fires of justified Islamic anger toward the US; this both emboldens and strengthens Al-Qaeda.

More attacks are coming.

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