Terrorism
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The frightful events of yesterday are in my opinion "pay-back time" for the world in general an d the USA in particular. However, it goes without saying that any form of violence must be condemned ... and that moments like this call for prayers for the dead, injured and familys of those who lost dear ones.
It is the responsibility of each and everyone of us to address the distress calls of those who are abused and in need of help ... before they resort to violence so as to gather attention.
Here in Europe the news and radio were carrying live reports but surprisingly, it was business as usual ... people went about their work for the rest of the afternoon. In my opinion, we knew that something like this will happen somewhere ... the question was when and where. The other assumption, which I again better preceed with an unequivocal condemnation of any form of violence whatsoever; is that the US Govt. must have been prepared for this sort of a horrible event ... because any logical person could have foreseen that 'extremist factions' will certainly react if America chooses to disregard the misery caused to nations by her armed forces (Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia) and/or her close allies (Israel). In my opinion, the Govt. of America must come to face the fact that the world's problems are her problems ...
One must add the public opinion in a large part of the developing countries that this is the lesson of a Govt. and a Nation getting a taste of it's own medicine ... for once the US is at the receiving end. It was the USA who originally created, financed, trained and armed the Afghan militants who were dubbed by the CIA as 'freedom fighters' when it was to fight the USSR ... and now conveniently they have become 'terrorists' because they have got out of hand.
The US cannot continue to back Israel with powerful weapon systems which are used against civilians and say "we have no control on how it is used". The plight of the Palestenians must be a issue requiring immediate global attention.
As an after thought, I would say that the US can now choose 2 options ... one is to retaliate violently and create more bloodshed and play into the hands of these terrorists (from the US perspective) or martyrs (from the Islamic world's perspective) and create a never ending cycle of violence like in Israel .... OR ... more ntelligently seeks to put an end to the source of the conflict with a concerted diplomatic effort with the Arabs, the Israelis, the Afghans, the Pakistanis, .... and all the other enemies of the USA all over the world (Sudan, Somalia, Yemen,... and the list goes on).
It is the responsibility of each and everyone of us to address the distress calls of those who are abused and in need of help ... before they resort to violence so as to gather attention.
Here in Europe the news and radio were carrying live reports but surprisingly, it was business as usual ... people went about their work for the rest of the afternoon. In my opinion, we knew that something like this will happen somewhere ... the question was when and where. The other assumption, which I again better preceed with an unequivocal condemnation of any form of violence whatsoever; is that the US Govt. must have been prepared for this sort of a horrible event ... because any logical person could have foreseen that 'extremist factions' will certainly react if America chooses to disregard the misery caused to nations by her armed forces (Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia) and/or her close allies (Israel). In my opinion, the Govt. of America must come to face the fact that the world's problems are her problems ...
One must add the public opinion in a large part of the developing countries that this is the lesson of a Govt. and a Nation getting a taste of it's own medicine ... for once the US is at the receiving end. It was the USA who originally created, financed, trained and armed the Afghan militants who were dubbed by the CIA as 'freedom fighters' when it was to fight the USSR ... and now conveniently they have become 'terrorists' because they have got out of hand.
The US cannot continue to back Israel with powerful weapon systems which are used against civilians and say "we have no control on how it is used". The plight of the Palestenians must be a issue requiring immediate global attention.
As an after thought, I would say that the US can now choose 2 options ... one is to retaliate violently and create more bloodshed and play into the hands of these terrorists (from the US perspective) or martyrs (from the Islamic world's perspective) and create a never ending cycle of violence like in Israel .... OR ... more ntelligently seeks to put an end to the source of the conflict with a concerted diplomatic effort with the Arabs, the Israelis, the Afghans, the Pakistanis, .... and all the other enemies of the USA all over the world (Sudan, Somalia, Yemen,... and the list goes on).
