Monday, August 01, 2005

Should Fear of Terrorist Reprisals Dictate Policy?

In many of the debates on television on terrorism, it is often argued that we bought it upon ourselves by invading Iraq (twice). The first invasion was in 1991 in response to Saddam Hussein's unprovoked attack on Kuwait. Of course terrorism has been around a lot longer than that but for the sake of this argument, let us accept that the invasion of Iraq is the cause for the present upsurge in terrorism. Does this change anything?

Do those who use this argument, advocate that we (the international community) should turn a blind eye to crimes against humanity in other parts of the world for fear that the fanatics might turn their attention on us? What does that say about us? Is it alright for the Saddam Hussein's and other rogue states to commit criminal acts of savagery against their own and other innocent populations while we who lie safe in our beds, turn a blind eye? Are ordinary and innocent Iraqis, Rwandans or Zimbabweans somehow different from us? Are their lives less valuable than ours? Are they not also a part of humanity? Would we not want the international community to help us if we were victims of terror perpetrated by our own government?

A century or two ago, we might have been totally unaware of events on the other side of the globe and therefore unable to respond but in a globalised, so called civilised world with instant communication, there are no excuses for turning a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow human beings. Somebody has to take the lead and bring an end to these atrocities. It should be the U.N. but as has been shown time and again this is a morally corrupt organisation which has failed on countless occasions in it's humane duty to go to the aid of those facing genocide, torture, murder and rape.

However, somebody must summon the courage in a civilised world to intervene for all our sakes. If some of the member states within the U. N. are so apathetic and inhumane, as to ignore the horrendus plight of millions of oppressed peoples, then applaud those that show the moral courage to stand up and be counted. The rest, and we and they know who they are, are beneath contempt.


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