where were you | september 11th, 2001

Didn't I laugh when I read in an allstu about how the terrorists would never have done this if they had for a moment, put themselves in the shoes of their victims. What a hypocratic thing to say. And how many times have you put yourselves in the shoes of terror victims in the last few years? Now that the US has been hit again, everyone seems to be sitting up and talking about eradicating terrorism from the face of the earth. Listening to the bold and fanciful statements being made by the mayor of NY and various other VIP's including European politicians of the likes of Tony Blair about all free nations getting together to eradicate the menace of terrorism ( and all of you agreeing so heartily)made me wonder whether all of you have been living in another planet all this time. Where were these concerned leaders when Sri Lankans were getting hammered by the Tamil Tiger terrorists? Where were they when the Central Bank, our own World Trade Center, the Sacred Buddhist Temple of the Tooth etc. etc. were being attacked by the terrorists? When numerous bombs were used to kill many innocent people, when a bomb to assasinate our president left her with only one eye, when our presidents, ministers and other leaders were bieng bombed be these terrorists, when the Bandaranaike International Airport, our only international airport was being attacked and half the planes in our national carrier destroyed? Did you know that of the estimated 280 suicide terrorist attacks, more than two thirds have been in Sri Lanka? These so called leaders of the free world did not then talk about getting together to eradicate terrorism from this world. They issued travel advisories to their citizens about travelling to Sri Lanka and their " the people of the USA join me in expressing our heartfelt dismay and condolences at the tragic loss of life.....terrorism in any form should not be tolerated by any free nation..." and continued to assist the terrorists.
The Head Office of the Tiger terrorists was allowed to remain in London until June of this year. These brutal terrorists who introduced suicide bombers to the world were allowed to freely operate in many western countries. Canada could deem it necessary to pass legislature to ban terrorist fund raising only when NY and DC were attacked. Why? Is it because it is only terrorism against the white nations that is unacceptable or is it that in some way the whites of the world are more human than the blacks, browns and yellows?
Those who are so concerned about terrorism now are the same people who have refused to even allow us to purchase weapons legitimately to defend ourselved against these "freedom fighters" as you so lovingly dubbed them and forced our government to negotiate with shady arms dealers.
Why will these champions of the free world not help us destroy the murderous LTTE? Why can they not provide us with the weapons to destroy the tigers? Why cannot they train our soldiers? Why can't they, if they are genuingly concerned about eradicating terrorism help us in every way they can? Is it because eradicating terrorism to you means ensuring it just doesn't happen in your prosperous, developed nations?
The tigers are said to collect $30 million dollars annually in Canada alone. Are they not aware of this? Then why is it allowed to happen? Where are those Canadian politicians who attended the terrorist fundraisers just within the last year saying now?
Why is Anton Balasingham ( a head of the LTTE) banned only in about six nations and tolerated elsewhere? Are England and other white nations issuing travel advisories against visiting the US? Will they declare America a War Risk Zone as they did with Sri Lanka after the airport was attacked? What about war risk insurance premiums? Will they increase the insurance premium for flights and vessels going to America as they did with SL ( and crippling our tourism industry)? How about security audits at the airports?
Let us be honest. Let us accept that the developed world is only interested in anything if it has an adverse effect on them. Why do people have to come on TV and say "this isn't just an attack against America, it's an attack against the world"? Why does a terrorist attack become an attack against the world only when America is attacked? Aren't Sri Lankans part of this world? Of course those brown people living on some obscure island in the Indian Ocean (oh, so that's where it is) don't really count. I mean, surely, they're not real people with real lives. It's not like murdering AMERICANS.
Why did our people have to fight so hard to get America to ban the LTTE? Why are tigers still freely roaming about Canada, countries of the EU, Australia, Russia and Japan? Why are they banned , as far as I know only in SL, India, Malaysia, the US, and England. France has the audacity to ban just six of them, meaning that they are accepted as terrorists who go around killing innocent SL civilians but they're welcome in France as long as they're not six of the leaders. Why is it that Canada tries to stop terrorist fund raising only when the US is attacked? Wasn't it enough for them that countless bombs were killing Sri Lankans again and again? Do you know what we learned in school? To keep a pencil on our desks so that bomb tremors wouldn't take our tounges. Do you know what we'd do at boring assemblies to while away the time? We'd sit back and count the number of ceiling tiles still intact after the bomb blast. Do you know what we'd do when we heard the noise in the distance and saw the smoke rising and the birds flying away? We'd say, " oh, there's another bomb" and return to our conversation or work. Do you know what I did last year on september 11 th when I woke upto my room mate saying "yeah, I heard.....and the Pentagon?!" ? I thought , "another bomb" and turned around to go back to sleep until I remembered I wasn't in Sri Lanka anymore. Living in Sri Lanka we've learned to be woken up to be told our fathers, mothers had been caught in bomb blasts. We've learned to wave at soldiers in the rehabilitation center near our house, who would sit in their wheelchairs and stare at the road all day. We've learned to see crowds around the "Eye Hospital" in Colombo the days following a bomb blast. We've learned to laugh at Australia when they refused to send their cricket team to our country in case the terrorists bombed them. Even terrorists aren't stupid enough to bite off the hand that feeds them. Isn't it significant enough how the suicide bombers made sure that all the foriegn tourists got out of the airport before they attacked it?

So before you send off your hypocrite e mails and talk about terrorists putting themselves in other peoples shoes, take a minute to realise that all this could've been avoided long ago if all of you had ever deigned to accept people from other nations, 'the natives' or 'the locals' of the countries you so love to spend your vacations in ( if there hasn't been a bomb blasted just recently), as your equals.

i dont support blodshed , and i'm sorry for all the victims .
it's that september 11 th was not the 1st day people got bombed & shattered
& they lost loved ones !!!!!!!!

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