Upon reading the details of the Paris suicide-terror attacks this morning, I turned to a Counterpunch piece by Chris Floyd. After reading the Floyd piece I wrote down some thoughts of my own. These are them, as posted on CP.
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CounterPunch contributor Chris Floyd has put into words some of how I’ve been feeling this morning, in response to the horrific news out of Paris. I recommend reading his piece. I won’t restate the facts and arguments he makes, but they are crucial.
I will only add this:
Doing justice to the human misery of this moment means both attending to the particular experiences and desperate needs of those affected right now in Paris, *and* relating what has happened to the rest of the world, and to the history that has brought us to this desperate point. Still a rare occurrence in the West, such blinding terror attacks have become an apocalyptic commonplace in the places that Western states have helped to ravage. While it is totally unacceptable that places such as Paris are made to look like battlefields, it is equally crucial that we seize upon this moment to reflect on those other places, with histories and culture just as rich as Paris, that have been torn apart by recent wars and sectarian violence, often as a direct–and sometimes an indirect–response to Western imperialism, and often under US leadership. Places whose suffering seldom makes it onto our TV screens, and even then, when it does, is generally shorn of the historical context that makes it comprehensible.
Read the rest of the article here.