10 years - the lines are too long.

Due to the anniversary of  tragic events of ten years ago I have taken a look at why the western world has been so despised by other nations.  Can we look at our society and be totally  surprised by the views of other nations?

The attacks themselves were sickening, disturbing and totally inexcusable.  Thousands of people were killed in horrific and terrifying ways and many thousands more have had to go through the last ten years missing a spouse, partner, child, parent, etc.  There are no excuses for what happened at all (just to clear up my stance).

Is it a surprise we (along with the Americans) are almost detested by some areas of the world?  Here are some of the things that have happened since that fateful day:

1. War in Afghanistan - actually something both good and evil I suppose.  On the one hand it brought freedom from an oppresive regime, the right to free vote, for education (especially for women) and the chance to rebuild a country that was almost western in style before the Taliban took over.  However, this was done as a way to try and find Bin Laden (who had already fled as we now know) and initially hundreds of civilians were getting blown up on a regular basis.  People in some areas still live in war zones and young soldiers are still dying there.  The Taliban has as yet not been totally eradicated.
2. 2003 invasion of Iraq - For many this was the real turning point as both American and Britain invaded on the theory that Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction hidden away.  Hans Blix had reported that no finding of any such weapons had been made, but American and lap dog Britain went in anyway.  The result was the needless deaths of many fine young soldiers and again hundreds of civilians.  Yes, there was much rejoicing at the topling of Saddam's regime, but the cost was perhaps too great.  The excuses from George W Bush and Tony Blair over the reasons for invasion have changed too much over the years.  Britain has since become a hate figure at times, especially in Europe.  Look at the amount of times we got nil points at Eurovision...
3. Economic Crisis - The first signs that corruption was rife in the banking and investment world was probably Enron.  At least that was the first high profile case.  Based in Texas, Enron was a big energy, commodities and services company that file for bankruptcy in 2001 due to accounting fraud.  The three men responsible will be lucky to ever see the light of day again and several companies such as RBS, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup were sued.

Since then we have seen a total economic collapse, beginning in 2008 in America.  Enron was a sign that corruption may go deeper than previously thought.  The recession began due to reckless lending practices by financial institutions and securitisation of real estate mortgages.  This spread around the world and led to risky lending prices as property boomed far beyond the price of the average person.  At the same time, oil and food prices began to skyrocket, putting more pressure on people to get loans.  The troubles properly started with the collapse of Lehmen Bros on 15 September 2008, which cause a major panic.  The knock on effect caused a global recession as international trade dropped ad unemployment shot up.  Goods lost their value, yet oil prices remained high.  In Britain several big banks struggled under the pressure and were bailed out by the tax payer.  The first of these was Northern Rock in 2008.  It then turned out bankers had still been awarding themselves huge bonuses from the tax payers' money, again a not terribly popular thing to do.

The latest problem has been economies collapsing.  The first was Iceland when its banking structure fell apart.  Millions were lost, including some British local government money.  This was a massive disaster for all concerned.  Then Ireland's economy began to flounder due to the real estate crash.  Whole towns remain empty as brand new houses were developed and never sold after the crash.  Greece had been investing its pension money wrongly in schemes destined to collapse.  The result was an unmitigated disaster for Greece leading to protests and riots.  After that came the Greek bail outs from Germany, still a bone of contention.  Portugal and Spain could end up going the same way too if not careful.

We are not out of the woods yet either.  Britain stares down a double dip recession and the rest of the world teeters on a knife edge prompting many to suggest almost revolutionary change in the global financial system.  Meanwhile food prices continue to rise along with oil.

          4. Treatment of terror suspects - hundreds of terror suspects have been kept in places like Guantamino Bay for years on end with no promise of trial or freedom.  They were kept away from family and friends and some had to endure awful practices such as water bording (cloth over the face and water poured on to simulate drowning) and being forced to listen to Britney Spears records on repeat play...Some men were genuinely innocent, but were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Needless to say, as these practices emerged there was a global outcry.  All of this was done in the name of 9/11.

I want to point out that the average person on the street in America and Britain generally cannot be held responsible for the actions of their leaders.  Very few supported the invasion of Iraq (except those sucked in my the media scaremongering).  No one supports the bankers who have made living life that bit more difficult (except the bankers themselves).  The people are stuck with having to vote for generic looking parties with blurred views on how to treat the economy.  On top of all this, no right minded person would go against supporting our brave troops.  I for one have the utmost respect for any member of the armed forces.  The mental conflict of the people is that they support the troops, but not the conflicts they are involved in.

With this level of confusion and forced self loathing, is it any wonder that the western world has become to be hated and perhaps even pitied as slightly pathetic?  Not long ago, Britain had a proud empire, ruled the waves and was feared around the globe.  Now we are viewed as weak, dangerous and America's lap dog cum whipping boy.  America is blamed for invasions under questionable circumstances and economic crisis.  All of this really kicked off in the last ten years since that disturbingly fateful Tuesday morning in America.  They were right when they said life would never be the same again.

Americans were asked this week about their views since 9/11.  I think this sums up the true attitude: they complained lines at the airports had gotten longer.