Terror Cubed

I heard a report on NPR Weekend Edition this morning, June 15th.  It was regarding terrorist bombings in Pakistan.  A bus full of students and instructors, all women, was bombed outside the Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University in Quetta.  Eleven women were killed instantly and at least twenty were wounded in the blast.

As despicable and sad as this was, the terrorists were not done.  Another bomb exploded  by the hospitals emergency room as the victims were being brought in for treatment!  Then terrorists took siege of the hospital killing three security guards and the deputy commissioner of Quetta.  Three nurses were killed in the crossfire when police raided the hospital.  Two of the four terrorists were killed in the gun battle with police.  The other two blew themselves up.

I am totally against terrorism but I can, minimally, fathom where extremists, revolutionaries, and others may resort to it as a tactic in whatever it is they are dedicated to and fighting for.  What completely blows my mind are these second attacks.  It is a double terror, double evil, and goes quadruple against any sense of humanity and any religion that is worthy of anyone believing in.

A bomb goes off on a bus or in a crowded place.  People are killed or wounded.  Others rush to offer assistance and a second bomb goes off to finish off those not killed by the first bomb and to kill and maim those rushing to offer assistance.  There are no words to adequately describe how I feel about the people that do this.  They should be hunted down like the dogs they are and killed.  There is no possible redemption for people like this who are pure evil.  

Now, these despicable souls in today's story have taken this egregious tactic to an even more dastardly level.  Instead of a second bomb at the site of the first bomb, they placed the second bomb at the hospital emergency room.  Then they raided the hospital and took hostages  with, no doubt, the intention of further killing.  It is an unbelievable twist on an already unbelievable tactic. 

There are no rules in terror.  But, until recently, attacking the already wounded, caregivers, and hospitals followed some unwritten rule to simply not do that.  The hate and need to create a deeper sense of fear and terror has superseded whatever sliver of morality and decency might have been there.

It all reminds me of the World War II movies in which an American plane is shot down by a German or Japanese plane.  The American pilot is able to bail out and is parachuting to a a presumed survival.  The enemy plane banks and returns to finish the job by gunning down the helpless pilot in the parachute.  What these terrorists are doing is even worse.

I am dismayed that there is not more global and universal outrage regarding this kind of tactic.  I have a feeling everyone hopes that if we just ignore this it will go away.  I am afraid it will not.

There... I have ranted.  I do not feel any better.