Observer Letters

t there has been no comparable public outpouring of sympathy for the Chechen children or expression of horror at the ‘evil’ Putin.

The universal horror experienced at the atrocities in Beslan and, in particular, the hatred felt for the Islamic fanatics who perpetrated this act of terrorism against innocent children is all very well, but such a response is crude and simplistic. This is because double standards and self-deception are involved.

Were not incomparably more innocent children blown to bits at Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Did the men responsible for those gratuitous acts of violence delude themselves that the children killed were ‘accidental’ casualties in a ‘legitimate’ war? So how is it we can admire one set of killers and abominate another?

It is not so much the uncritical revulsion against the events in Beslan that I find disturbing. It is the lack of revulsion against greater atrocities committed elsewhere – by us and our leaders.

Children are being maimed and killed in an illegal war in Iraq at this very moment. The men responsible for these deaths, instead of being hauled before the international courts and tried as war criminals, are likely to be re-elected soon as leaders of their countries.

The outrage at the school in Beslan, though terrible, pales into insignificance when compared to the destruction wreaked on Chechnya by Russia. But state terrorism is irrelevant, according to David Aaronovitch, as is US backing for the Nazi policies of the state of Israel to the events of 11 September. He has admitted to being fooled over the Iraq war. How long before he admits to being misled over the so-called ‘war on terror’?

For a brief uncomfortable moment there, it looked like there might be some atrocities so despicable that there would be universal condemnation, which could only detract from the true story of what’s happening in the world: the crimes of the West. Thank God for those Observer readers who’ve brought us back to our senses, reminding us of the horrors of the Second World War in Dresden Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and, really, what was the difference between our side and theirs? Didn’t both sides kill lots of people?), the slaughter of the innocents by our troops in Iraq, and the policies of Israel, the new Nazis.