Ter-Reign of Terror: September 11 and Aftermath (original) (raw)

2003, Rubina Saigol, '‘Ter-reign of Terror', In Terror, Counter-Terror. Joseph, Ammu and Kalpana Sharma (eds). New Delhi: Kali Press.

It has become customary to talk as if history began on September 11, 2001. Everything that is happening to the world today began when those planes crashed dramatically into the symbols of global capitalism and military might. The tendency to view September 11 as a major discontinuity in world affairs, obscures the fact that September 11 and the events that followed, in fact represent a continuity and, perhaps, even an intensification of global agendas that preceded September 11, 2001 by decades and even centuries. Colonialism, imperialism, globalization and militarization were not invented post September 11. September 11 became a catalyst for global agendas that were festering long before that date. It brought out into the open and laid bare the fangs of military might, state terror and economic domination that are implied in producing the events of September 11, 2001. I would go so far as to argue that in fact nothing has changed, at least not in any substantial way, and that what happened on September 11 and after, only accelerated the pace of what was already under way prior to that fateful date. ‘Ter-reign of Terror: September 11 and its Aftermath', In Radhika Coomaraswamy & Fonseka, Dilrukshi. Peace Work: Women, Armed Conflict and Negotiation. International Centre for Ethnic Studies. New Delhi: Women Unlimited. 2004. ‘Ter-reign of Terror', In Terror, Counter-Terror. Joseph, Ammu and Kalpana Sharma (eds). New Delhi: Kali Press. 2003.