Poetic reflection on US terrorism

9 October 2001

This poem was written in response to the media release from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (see below).

September 11, 2001

On September 11, thirty-thousand
beautiful children lost their lives
due to curable diseases
before reaching the age of five years.*

Thirty-thousand beautiful children
will never know what it meant
to love or to be loved
or to care for their own children.

Thirty-thousand beautiful children
will never have the opportunity
to build hospitals, homes, or universities,
or to perform in the arts.

Sixty-thousand parents will never
see their beautiful children
grow to maturity, and the lives of
these parents were transformed as a result.

Also on September 11, four aircraft
were hijacked and crashed into the
World Trade Center, the Pentagon
and into a field in Western Pennsylvania.

Six-thousand people needlessly perished.
Yet we do not know who committed this crime,
or the reason why these murders took place.
Yet, the US government decided to take revenge.

So the President, the Congress, and the Senate
voted unanimously to spend forty billion dollars.
But this money will not be used to save the lives
of the thirty-thousand beautiful children who die every day.

No, this forty billion dollars will be used
to murder some of the children living in Afghanistan
who are at risk of perishing.
And they called this plan Infinite Justice.

On September 23, thirteen coal miners
were killed at the Jim Walter Resources
Blue Creek Mine Number 5 in Brookwood Alabama.
The miners warned the company of dangerous conditions.

While the people who are responsible for these murders
are known, no charges have been filed.
Yet, the government has gone to war in Afghanistan.
They say they need to fight against terrorism.

Responding to the events of September 11,
Fidel Castro gave a speech
at a ceremony which marked the completion
of a school for elementary school teachers.

After Cuba experienced its most difficult
economic years, it found the money for this school.
Yet, public school systems throughout the US
are under-funded after that economy experienced its best years.

Fidel said that Cuba would not join the United States
in its war against the people of Afghanistan.
Apparently, the Cuban people
have better things to do with their time and money.

Steve Halpern

US imperialism is the worst kind of terrorism.
NDFP, 9 October 2001.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) strongly condemns the US-led imperialist act of aggression against Afghanistan. Using the cover of a so-called war against terrorism, targeting its former protégés, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime, the US is raining cruise missiles and bombs on major cities and populated areas in Afghanistan in utter contempt of the national sovereignty of Afghanistan and the Afghan people. To add insult to injury, it claims to be providing humanitarian aid and dropping food together with the missiles and bombs. Reports of civilian casualties and large numbers of people fleeing the bombing are just coming in. The record of state terrorism by the U.S. is clearly etched in the memory of peoples who have been victimized by it.

The Japanese people cannot forget the hundreds of thousands who were killed in a matter of seconds with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Filipino people cannot forget the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who lost their lives in the U.S. war of aggression and colonization.

Nor can the Korean people forget the U.S. war of aggression that caused the death of about 2,800,000 Koreans.

The Vietnamese people also cannot forget the more than four million killed through terrorist use of napalm bombs, the massive use of explosive bombs and more than 18 million gallons of Agent Orange.

In supporting the coup d’etat of Suharto against the democratic government of Sukarno in Indonesia, the U.S. was guilty of the death of more than 800,000 and the imprisonment of half a million people.

Add to this the U.S. involvement in supporting the coups d’etat in Guatemala in 1954, in Chile against the Salvador Allende government, and its support for the Contras in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Then there is the support of the U.S. for the Israeli slaughter of the Palestinian people and its attacks against Cuba, Libya, Iraq, Yugoslavia and so on.

All these acts of state terrorism by the U.S. have resulted in the loss of millions of lives. Indeed, U.S. imperialism is the worst kind of terrorism. The peoples of the world, including the American people, have to thoroughly expose and vigorously oppose it. We have condemned the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the four planeloads of civilians and have expressed sympathy for the civilian victims and the American people. But the American people must tell their own government to stop engaging in far bigger acts of terrorism that invite retaliation on what is now a well-proven vulnerability of the U.S.

It is reprehensible that the U.S. is using the September 11 attacks as an excuse to attack Afghanistan and massacre its people. It claims to run after a private band of terrorists but it does not provide any convincing evidence. It proceeds to aggress against one country and threatens to do likewise against other countries, using the slogan of a global war against terrorism. What is most condemnable about the U.S. is that it is using the September 11 attacks as a pretext for carrying out far larger acts of state terrorism against the people fighting for revolution, nations for liberation and countries for independence.

In this context, we condemn the subservience and puppetry of the Macapagal Arroyo regime in allowing the U.S. military forces to trample on Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity, particularly the use of Philippine air bases and waters. It is assisting the U.S. in carrying out a war of aggression against Afghanistan and the Afghan people and other bloody acts of terrorism against other peoples, nations and countries.

National Executive Committee National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
Certified by: Luis G. Jalandoni Member, NDFP National Executive Committee.