| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Kidnapping "peace team" members is "bad terrorism" |
| 2005-12-05 |
| by James S. Robbins, National Review EFL'd to get to the good part. . . . CPT friends and fellow travelers have rallied around the effort to get the hostages released. . . . Maybe the abductors will see reason; but there is no reason to believe they would recognize reason if they saw it. Ouch! I do not even think they are good at what they do. Double ouch! These kidnappings are simply bad terrorism. The targets are all wrong. The point of taking hostages is to gain publicity, to bring issues and demands to the public eye whether they are realistic or not. If you can also raise money, so much the better. And if you execute people who are working on rebuilding projects or aiding Coalition forces, you might scare others away. However, you do not abduct the âuseful idiotsâ on the other side who support you. This serves no purpose whatsoever. A sensible terrorist political warfare strategy tries to drive wedges into the enemy society by isolating the groups you will never be able to win over and appealing to as wide a base as possible. The Swords of Truth Brigades should not be threatening the CPT team; they should be holding a joint press conference to denounce the Coalition. The way they are behaving is comparable to the North Vietnamese shooting Jane Fonda with a firing squad instead of a camera in 1972. "Of all sad words of tongue or pen/The saddest are these: "It might have been!" The terrorists really do not know who their friends are. They kidnap humanitarian workers. They target journalists. They bomb the U.N. Lenin must be spinning in his tomb. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 you do not abduct the âuseful idiotsâ on the other side who support you. This serves no purpose whatsoever. I'm all for kidnapping the "useful idiots." It made my day. In fact, I would have been in favour of "North Vietnam shooting Jane Fonda!" |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-12-05 19:59 |
| #2 I know it's so obvious but did he have to come right out and say just how the terrorists can improve their PR campaign? Mockery is a form of constructive criticism. |
| Posted by: Danking70 2005-12-05 19:51 |
| #1 If Arabs used common sense and intelligence, they....well, they wouldn't be Arabs, or Islamists at least . Back to the 7th Century! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-12-05 19:14 |