Theater of good and evil.

• Author: Galeano, Eduardo
• Position: The Upside-Down World - Terrorism, United States - Brief Article

In the fight of Good against Evil, it is always the people who end up dead.

The terrorists killed workers from fifty countries in New York and Washington in the name of Good against Evil. And in the name of Good against Evil, President Bush vowed revenge: "We will eliminate Evil from this world."

Eliminate Evil? What would Good be without Evil? Religious fanatics are not the only ones who need enemies to justify their madness. The arms industry and gigantic military apparatus need enemies to justify their existence. Heroes become monsters and monsters heroes: The actors switch masks according to the script.

There's nothing new here. German scientist Wernher von Braun was evil when he invented the V-2 rocket, which Hitler used to pulverize London, but he became good the day he placed his skills in the service of the United States.

Stalin was good during World War II and bad later, when he became ruler of the Evil Empire. During the years of the Cold War, John Steinbeck wrote, "Perhaps the entire world needs Russians. I bet even Russia does. Maybe there they call them Americans."

Afterwards the Russians turned good. Now Putin says, "Evil must be punished."

Saddam Hussein was good, and so were the chemical weapons he used against the Kurds and Iranians. Later he turned bad. He was called Satan Hussein when the U.S., which had just invaded Panama, invaded Iraq because Iraq had invaded Kuwait. Bush Sr. presided over this war of Good against Evil. With the humanitarian and compassionate spirit that characterizes his family, he killed more than 100,000 Iraqis, the vast majority civilians.

Satan Hussein is the same as he always was, but now this enemy number one of humanity has slipped to second place. The scourge of the world is now called Osama bin Laden. The CIA taught him everything he knows about terrorism: Loved and armed by the U.S. government, bin Laden was one of the principal allies of the United States in the war against communism in Afghanistan. Bush Sr. was Vice President when President Reagan said these heroes were "freedom fighters." And Hollywood agreed with the White House: Rambo III was being shot at the time, and the Muslim Afghans were the good guys. Not anymore: Now they are evil incarnate, a mere thirteen years later.

Henry Kissinger was one of the first to react to the recent tragedy: "Those who provide support, financing, and inspiration to the terrorists are as guilty as they are," he stated, using words that President Bush...