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Old 11-11-2001, 07:09 AM   #22
Barry the Sprout
White Dragon
 

Join Date: October 19, 2001
Location: York, UK.
Age: 42
Posts: 1,815
Hmmm, this post is mostly made to respond to Neb's "We only need to kill one person..." idea. Not that I have anything against you Neb but I think it is falling into a bit of a trap.

Terrorism is not one person, Al-Queda (how do you spell that anyway? I seem to see a different spelling everywhere I look) is not one person. Osama Bin Laden is much more of a figurehead to the west than to the fundamentalists themselves. We have a tendancy to find a person and then demonise him. We know now that Saddam Hussein was not the only figure involved in the Gulf War, Hitler was not the only Nazi calling the shots, and Stalin was both proceeded and succeeded by murderers. I am not saying that we are being too hard on Bin Laden but I am saying that his death will not set back Al-Queda that much. They have a strong ideological backing that does not depend on a leader, it depends on global circumstances that the members do not agree with.

Also, why is it that when Sharon rolls tanks over Palestinians the world collectively thinks "Thats gonna cause trouble...", and the same for when Unionists blow up a Fish shop in Belfast. But when the US starts going after a terrorist organisation the response is instead "Well they have justification...". Years of terrorist conflict in other areas of the world have basically taught us that whatever the justification it still solves nothing. In Northern Ireland the vast majority of Nationalists supported the Good Friday Agreement even though it was arguably very unjust to them in favour of the Loyalists. After so many dead people they realised that the problem was not being solved.

In my personal view the west has the opportunity now to solve this conflict in another way. But that opportunity has not been taken and it doesn't take a genius to work out that "An eye for an eye" is probably going to come next.
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