Sometimes, bombing and killings are so frequent, I believe we can become numb to them. I believe, for sure, that I can be numb to them. It takes events that have happened recently to remind me just how horrible these attacks are and how even more horrible they have become.
First, armed terrorists attack the departure areas of airports. This happened March 22nd in Brussels. It also happened on July 2nd in Istanbul. Terrorist armed to the teeth, pull up to the departure/ticketing area of the airport. They go in and kill as many people as they can until they are killed or blow themselves up. They do it when the airport is full of people. They kill wantonly with automatic weapons and shock the world. Such departure areas of major airports have no security and are full of people that have practically nowhere to run or hide in such an attack.
On August 8th, gunmen assassinated Bilal Anwar Kasi in Quetta, Pakistan. Kasi was a prominent lawyer and had served as president of the Balochistan Bar Association. Later that day, when his friends, family, and colleagues gathered at the emergency room where Kasi was taken and later died, gunmen burst in and killed 70 people. This was a two stage plan the kind I wrote about in June of 2013 in piece titled Terror Cubed. To me, the planning and carrying out of such a plan is another level of evil and hate that I cannot comprehend.
The worst case, and the one that prompted this post, happened in Gaziantep, Turkey on August 21. A young boy, like 11 or 12 according the reports, became a suicide bomber killing 54 of which 22 were children and injured even more. This happened at a wedding. I was shocked and sickened by this twist of a happy life affirming day that was turned into hell. It prompted me to post the following
on Facebook:
Really? A wedding party? The biggest problem with terrorism is that innocent people die. The kind of people are dying in such terrorist activities are the vast majority of folks who just want to live their lives, work, raise families, and have some peace. It doesn't matter on the political persuasion or what the nationalities involved, terrorism is a crime.
I am sick of it. Note that I did note who the perpetrators were in these crimes. I don't care and it doesn't matter. In most of these cases, innocent people are the victims. It doesn't matter if it is in Israel, Paris, Brussels, Antep, or Quetta. It doesn't matter if it is a mass shooting like we seem to have cornered the market on in the US. I do not care if the victims are Christian, Jews, or Moslem. Almost everyone that loses their lives in such attacks are just everyday people. What seems to matter to me is that the victims are innocent people who are killed in the name of some cause or by some maniac. They are killed in buses, airports, shopping, at marathons, children in schools, movie theaters, and now at a wedding. The are killed doing everyday things and lately at major life events like a funeral or a wedding. It is very disturbing.
Wars, to me, are quickly becoming no different. They are state or wannabe-state sponsored terrorism on a larger scale with a bigger budget and thus a larger body count. Who got killed in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq? The vast majority are indeed folks who just want to live lives, work, raise families, and have some peace.
There are three religions intertwined in all this. All believe in one God. All claim to profess peace. What am I missing here?
Yeah, yeah, yeah... the are socioeconomic factors, evil leaders, and other reasons and excuses. But really, what are we all missing here?
Sadly, you are exactly right...this is the world we live in now.
ReplyDeleteIn 1981 a movie was released called Rollover and it starred Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson. In the movie they introduced the term "overworld" to describe the obscenely wealthy and anonymous individuals that independently or collectively exert an inordinate influence on world events for purposes that only they are aware of. If events make no sense then perhaps something or some things are operating of which we are unaware.....
ReplyDeleteMy father was extremely upset with the trade center attack. He felt that wwII was to end all of this nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThe world and our local community struggles are at a near full circle since I graduated high school.
Can't blame current government on this entirely, or can you?
When more and more people feel insafe, then what?
As far as being numb to it all, apparently the US media is already there and seemingly, they only challenge those wanting to do something about it. They're certainly not challenging the govt.