Terrorists attack Iraq

Neville Watson, http://warkills.blogspot.com

For the last two weeks Iraq has been bombed. The bombing has been designed to create fear by the use of violence, the avowed and stated aim of every terrorist. The operation has been named “Shock and Awe” and the description points out the two essential characteristics of the action: that it is shocking and it is religious in nature.

The fact that it is shocking is self evident. Corpses, horribly mutilated by blast and fire, litter the hospital corridors, while dismembered and badly injured children lie in its beds. Distraught mothers identify their children in the morgue, and death and destruction are everywhere to be found. The aim of the bombing has been accomplished. The people are in a state of shock and in fear of their lives.

The second aspect of the stated aim concerns the religion of those bombing Iraq. The word “awe” is one used by all the major religions and is dictionary defined as “a feeling of respect”. Their religion is based on violence, with their theologians referring to it as “redemptive violence”. Violence is regarded as the way, the truth and the life. It is believed that peace comes through violence, and violence is the ultimate solution. From their earliest days children are indoctrinated in this belief. It is the dominant motif of their cartoons, comics, film and television. The USA is the world headquarters of those who hold violence in awe. It possesses the greatest number of weapons of mass destruction, and it has used them more often and with more deadly effect than any other nation on earth.

The interesting thing about this terrorist attack is that it is readily acknowledged. The term “Shock and Awe” is not a name given to the action by its opponents. It is the name chosen by the USA to describe its present bombing campaign. It is to my knowledge the first time the USA has acknowledged that it is engaging in terrorist activities.


Neville Watson is a lawyer and Uniting Church Minister from Australia and is presently with the Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad.