This war represents a failure to listen

I assume that most people have already heard about the guy getting gunned down in the tube. (If not, you can read it here.)
When the news first came out about the tube attacks, and Londoners were all like, "We've been bombed by a better class of people than terrorists, for heaven's sake! We've been through the fucking Blitz", and proceeded to report the sitation as calmly as I have ever seen done, I was so impressed. Classy, I thought, and if you know me, you know that I think substance follows style anyway. So yeah, I was really impressed, and slightly envious. But this? Come on, America's supposed to import mores from Europe, not the other way around! I'm sorry, but unloading a clip into someone who might be wearing explosives taped to their body? Really bright idea, folks, especially on a crowded tube car. 'Cause that wouldn't make those bombs explode or anything. You're England, for god's sake. WTF??

Since the latest bombings in London, I've been hearing and seeing a lot of comparisons between terrorist attacks and rape. If a woman gets pulled into an alley and raped, do we say it was her fault? Or if she was dressed a certain way, or drinking at a party, do we claim she was 'asking for it'? Of course not. According to this line of reasoning, it's impossible to see these attacks as a symptom of our society with all its cruelties and injustices. That's 'blaming the victim'.

I don't think that anyone in their right mind would believe that the death and terror that those people went through was a good thing, or justified. Or be happy that a city like London was wounded in such a way. But comparing the situation to rape is ridiculous. People died. People were maimed. People were (and are) terrified. But let's face it, the systematic oppression that goes on in Western society is going to take its toll. If you look at the Pakistani population in England right now for instance, they experience probably the same level of racism that African-Americans did in the eighties, here in the U.S. They live in isolated pocket societies, that allow for very few outlets into the outside world. They are the by-product of a post-colonial age that so royally screwed up their own countries that they are forced to live on the fringes of the 'First World'. Add to that a sizeable dose of religious hysteria and zealotry, and this is what you get. You can't depend on everyone being good enough to rise above their situation. People are morons. If you participate in a society that doesn't allow for that, then face it, your hands are not clean. None of ours are.

Comparing this situation to rape is totally specious. Rape is not about anything but power, and when it's the rape of a woman (which is mostly what I think these comparisons are about), it doesn't stem out of generations of institutionalized oppression of men, does it? No.
Blame the victim, my ass. All these people are victims, the people who died and were injured and tramatised yes, but also the people who are marginalized and are stupid enough or uneducated enough to be ripe fodder for any kind of cult that gives them a sense of purpose and power.

I don't believe that these London bombers were ever at an Al-Quaida training camp. I think they were swept up in the waves of hysteria that swept over all of us in the Western world, post 9-11. They were just caught up on the other side, just like the poor stupid assholes who scream patriotism! while letting the Bush Administration get richer and richer even as they get poorer and poorer, and promptly went up and joined the military.

But don't worry, because 1 in 25 bags going into the subway system will be checked! Don't you feel so much safer now?