Disclaimer: I don’t care. My opinion, my diary, and what I have to say, I think, needs to be said.
Terrorism has been around for millennia. It has taken different forms at different times, and under different guises. But it always involves power over someone else.
I have mentioned previously the Crusades and the Inquisition, but not in the context of power, although I think that must be implied. Ethnic cleansing comes under the heading of Terrorism.
Ethnic Cleansing: Another way of saying “wholesale murder.” In more recent times, we have seen apartheid in South Africa. Tribal warfare in other parts of Africa has been going on for years now. The Chinese invaded Tibet. Why? Because they could, it seems. Witness the clash between ethnic groups in what we used to call Yugoslavia. Witness the conflict between Afghans and Iran. Witness the persecution of ethnic Turks in Northern Iraq. It goes on and on.
Now it seems to be Arab against Arab. Recall the bombings in Saudi Arabia? Recall the open warfare between Sunni and Shiite in Iraq, both Muslim, but with different notions of how to practice their religion. And, Saddam Hussein’s own Baathist party has had its share of troubles. Arab against Arab. Muslim against Muslim. All terrorists.
This terrorism didn’t start with the Arabs versus the Israelis. No, we’ve just taken notice of it because Israel is fighting back and being called ugly names because of it. The newspapers and TV news reporters are horrified when the Israelis bomb a known terrorist training camp. But when an Arab “martyr” blows up a busload of innocent people, well tch, isn’t that too bad.
Now let me quote from the Associated Press:
“GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned an Israeli airstrike that killed 14 Hamas militants in unusually harsh terms Tuesday, warning the attack will invite a tough response from the militant group and saying retaliation will be ‘justified’….
“The Israeli attack, which struck a Hamas training camp in Gaza City shortly after midnight, came a week after Hamas suicide bombers blew up two Israeli buses in the Israeli city of Beersheba, killing 16 people.”
Yasser Arafat has made promises to control the terrorists, but he’s the leader of Hamas, a group that has trumpeted credit for the bombings, as reprisals, of course, against Israeli defense maneuvers. He has been totally intransigent when it comes to any meaningful peace moves. A terrorist leader.
And now, moving on to the horror in Russia. Quoting from an article by David Brooks in the New York Times, September 7. 2004, entitled Cult of Death:
“We’ve been forced to witness the massacre of innocents. In New York, Madrid, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Baghdad and Bali, we have seen thousands of people destroyed while going about the daily activities of life.
“We’ve been forced to endure the massacre of children. Whether it’s teenagers outside an Israeli disco or students in Beslan, Russia, we’ve seen kids singled out as special targets.”
And a further quote from the same article:
“The Dutch foreign minister, Bernard Bot, speaking on behalf of the European Union, declared: ‘All countries in the world need to work together to prevent tragedies like this….’”
TRAGEDY MY FOOT!!! It was a cold, calculated, planned act of terrorism of the worst sort. Mass murder is what it was. In a school full of children!
When terrorism was confined to the Middle East, we tsked-tsked, and worried how it was ever going to end.
People, let me tell you – It isn’t going to end. Unless….
EVERY nation in the world must condemn in the harshest terms possible any act of terrorism. Terrorists are criminals of the worst sort. Remember how Saddam Hussein refused to testify in Court, saying he was the President of Iraq, and the Court had no authority over him? What happened next? Where is he now? What judgment has the Court made?
My point is that terrorists and tyrants need to be dealt with on their terms, not ours. They have no respect for law, so why apply the law to them?...if the law is applied at all (see the previous paragraph).
In Russia, the police should have tear-bombed the place from the git-go, or used anesthetic gas, or whatever means to disable the terrorists. Then go in and shoot them all on the spot. Oh, you say, the hostages might have been harmed or killed. Yes, they were. And the police didn’t get there in time to prevent the torture and killing. But the police might have prevented some of it if they had acted quickly and in force.
Negotiation won’t work. Don’t even try it. Go in, use the terrorists’ tactics against them, and if some innocent hostages get killed, well too bad. They were marked for murder anyway. Terrorists don’t negotiate. They kill.
So let’s deal with them on their terms.