Glasgow bombing
Jeff sent an e-mail, seeing if I had any reaction to the Glasgow attack. My main one was (without knowing too many details last night),
What a bunch of lousy terrorists. The bombs either don’t go off or they set themselves — no one else — on fire.
The media are going nuts, reporting as many sordid details as they can get their hands on. From the witness interviews I’ve seen, they’ve betrayed more feelings of… inconvenience, not out-and-out panic.
Alex Salmond and Mohammad Sarwar have said the attackers were not Scottish, which is good because no one could conceive of a Scot deliberately trying to kill other Scots (heard Sarwar say this on STV).
<sarcasm>Yeah, the Scots are such pacifists who never deliberately cause harm to others.</sarcasm>
Neil had to drive to Prestwick to pick his sister up at the airport last night (great timing, huh), and he reported that there were a couple of police cars, someone checking every car that came in (and directing them to the correct car parking areas), and police stationed at every entrance. This afternoon, there were a few police officers walking around in Livingston, but things have been extremely calm.
So far, while the media seems to be hoping to be able to report the kind of widespread panic Americans are known for, I don’t think the people are letting them have it. Neil reckons it’s because the UK has had so many years’ experience with the IRA.
Comments
Dear Sir,
It is truly shocking how the media always takes sides with the aggressor and the stronger powers, in the case of the US and UK, it appears that the media have always given these nations of unbridled greed, terror and aggression a sympathetic response to any problem on their shores. So while Bilal an angry Iraqi doctor, “indoctrinated” Kafeel and cousin’s Sabeel Ahmed and Mohamed Hanef to “pan Islamic fundamentalism (whatever that might mean), convincing them to undertake the suicide mission at Glassgow airport, what is the “pan ________fundamentalism” which has convinced Bush and Blair to openly murder more than a hundred thousand innocent Iraqi, maiming thousands more, destroying their homes and lives?
While condemning all acts of individual terrorism the media must never loose sight of the primary issue in Iraq and in the rest of the world, it is Bush (The USA) and Blair/Brown The UK) which are the biggest and most dangerous terrorists of them all. If the USA and UK do not follow these rules of engagement, invading
any country at the drop of a hat to “protect” their interests, its time the world got together and invaded the UK and USA to teach them a lesson on how much hurt pain and anguish they have caused to the world. And the world would not need to do this through individual acts of terror.
The Iraqi’s have a fundamental right to resist any aggression by a foreign power on their land and that resistance does not have to be Gandhian or by flower power, neither must resistance only be on the occupied soil.
Seeing the current international political developments, my biggest fear is that our spineless political leadership (UPA, NDA, CPI, CPM, etc), our spineless ruling classes and our spineless media will not dare utter a murmur of protest if Bush and Co. decided to do an Iraq on India, instead I can see them calling those who resist “terrorists”.
We must never forget that the British did not lord and rule over India on their own, it was exactly this same type of people, especially the upper caste ruling
classes which actively supported British Colonialism.
Regards,
Sachin Singh
Edited only for spacing and line breaks.
Sachin, I am not a Sir.
To start, the papers and other mass media love a good story to sell papers. The more they can make things sound dangerous and sordid, the more ‘eyeballs’ they grab.
Personally, I heard that one of the failed terrorists (in London? 21/7?) had come to the UK when he was 13, and was in trouble for sexually assaulting a woman at 15. I suspect he is not truly religious, Islamic militancy is just a cover for him to live out his fantasies.
I don’t agree with your an eye for an eye attitude, though. The US and UK governments clearly haven’t learned from history, and neither have you.
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