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2004/11/11-12 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:34850 Activity:very high 61%like:34847 |
11/11 Here's one for the Arafat trolls to chew on for a while: http://tinyurl.com/4sljz (boston.com) \_ Hell NO! We won't think! \_ You are right. It was so much easier when the Palestinians peacefully accepted their ethnic cleansing. I hate that bastard for daring to fight back. \_ Wow. Revisionist history makes yet another appearance on the motd. \_ What's revisionist about it? \_ Um, 'ethnic cleansing'? \_ The Palestinians just all left their own homes and farms on their own accord? Right-o. \_ What's to chew on? Palestinians have used terrorism. Is this news? Shall we chew on that while ignoring Israeli occupation? How does that make sense? \_ wait a minute, so suicide bombing is evil, but killing civilans blindly using American donated Apache gunship, missiles, and tanks is perfectly ok? -peacenik \_ I think there's a substantial difference between thugs that TARGET civillians with carbombs and suicide bombers and beheadings as a tactic to control the people vs trying to kill the people that are doing this TO THEIR OWN COUNTRYMEN (mostly, anyhow). The US is doing everything it can to minimize civillian deaths, but the remorseless insurgents must be eliminated. I suspect that if the US just ... left ... that the people stepping forward to fill the vacuum would create a legacy hideous beyond describing. It's rather sad that someone getting a Berkeley education would need this explained to them. If you think the use of these weapons is blind, then honestly, you're saying you can't tell the difference between random violence against innocents and violence targeted against inherently violent people that have no respect for life. \_ in war, there's no such a thing as good civilians vs. evil militants. The militants are the civilians, and at times the civilians are the militants. The civilians give birth for new militants, and they feed and shelter each other, period. And by the way there's no such a thing as Berkeley educated people having homogeneous opinions, and in fact, not everyone on motd is educated let along having a Berkeley degree. The idea that the world is so black and white, is so Bush. \_ Holy shit, you've missed the point so completely it makes my teeth ache! The point is a matter of intent b/t the US military vs the intent of the terrorists. Likening them is dumb. Jesus H Christ, are you even posting in the correct thread? I'm honestly baffled. \_ It's not entirely binary, but there really are normal civilians and thugs. Civilians mostly just want to be left alone. Thugs terrorize them into giving them shelter, etc. You = m0r0n (the dangerous moral relativist kind) \_ Come on, don't be so harsh. Where would this world be without Lenin's "useful idiots?" |
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tinyurl.com/4sljz -> www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/11/arafat_the_monster/ The Boston Globe JEFF JACOBY Arafat the monster By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | November 11, 2004 YASSER ARAFAT died at age 75, lying in bed surrounded by familiar faces. He left this world peacefully, unlike the thousands of victims he sent t o early graves. ADVERTISEMENT In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, han ged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world, George Bush would not hav e said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless hi s soul." Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools an d pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a c reature so evil -- as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eterni ty. Arafat always inspired flights of nonsense from Western journalists, and his last two weeks were no exception. Derek Brown wrote in The Guardian that Arafat's "undisputed courage as a guerrilla leader" was exceeded only "by his extraordinary courage" as a peace negotiator. But it is an odd kind of courage that expresses itself in shooting unarmed victims -- or in signing peace accords and then fla grantly violating their terms. Another commentator, columnist Gwynne Dyer, asked, "So what did Arafat do right?" The answer: He drew worldwide attention to the Palestinian caus e, "for the most part by successful acts of terror." In other words, but chering innocent human beings was "right," since it served an ulterior p olitical motive. No doubt that thought brings daily comfort to all those who were forced to bury a child, parent, or spouse because of Arafat's "successful" terrorism. Some journalists couldn't wait for Arafat's actual death to begin weeping for him. Take the BBC's Barbara Plett, who burst into tears on the day he was airlifted out of the West Bank. "When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound," Plett reported from Rama llah, "I started to cry." Normal people don't weep for brutal murderers, but Plett made it clear that her empathy for Arafat -- whom she praised as "a symbol of Palestinian unity, steadfastness, and resistance" -- wa s heartfelt: "I remember well when the Israelis re-conquered the West Bank more than t wo years ago, how they drove their tanks and bulldozers into Mr Arafat' s headquarters, trapping him in a few rooms, and throwing a military cur tain around Ramallah. I remember how Palestinians admired his refusal to flee under fire. Why were they scarcely remembered in this A rafat death watch? How is it possible to reflect on Arafat's most enduring legacy -- the ris e of modern terrorism -- without recalling the legions of men, women, an d children whose lives he and his followers destroyed? If Osama bin Lade n were on his deathbed, would we neglect to mention all those he murdere d on 9/11? It would take an encyclopedia to catalog all of the evil Arafat committed . But that is no excuse for not trying to recall at least some of it. Perhaps his signal contribution to the practice of political terror was t he introduction of warfare against children. On one black date in May 19 74, three PLO terrorists slipped from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Ma'alot. They murdered two parents and a child whom they found a t home, then seized a local school, taking more than 100 boys and girls hostage and threatening to kill them unless a number of imprisoned terro rists were released. When Israeli troops attempted a rescue, the terrori sts exploded hand grenades and opened fire on the students. Everyone knows Arafat's name, but who ever recalls t he names of his victims? The 21 dead children of Ma'alot -- 21 of th e thousands of who died at Arafat's command. |
boston.com Schilling pitches season-low 5 innings Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek talks with pitcher Curt Schilling in the second inning in Toronto Thursday night. Judge refuses to stop gay marriages A federal judge today rejected a last-minute bid by conservative groups to block the nation's first state-sanctioned gay marriages from taking place in Mass. New bishop criticized for comparing critic to convicted pedophile The new bishop of the Springfield Diocese apologized today for comparing an outspoken priest and critic of church policies to a convicted pedophile. Animals on this menu were treated humanely before slaughter A Virginia pub became the first in the nation to get an animal welfare group's stamp of approval for the humane treatment of the animals on its menu. Striking concern The Red Sox were an offensive juggernaut last season, but so far this year their defining offensive stats have been strikeouts and men left on base. List of all Globe chatters REPORTERS' QUESTIONS WORKING DURING THE DNC: Do you work in Boston and plan to take the week of July 26 to 29th off because the Democratic National Convention? The Globe is seeking creative students who've discovered they can reap the benefits at other schools' career centers. DOING LAUNDRY: Do you do wash your clothes at a laundromat? Got any pet peeves of laundry etiquette -- any funny, or sad, stories to share? |