At times a response I get from anyone column simply boggles my mind. Such is the case concerning Maria Amin, the five-year-old girl from Gaza who is now a quadriplegic due to an Israeli rocket.
In that column, I clearly stated that I would not delve into the world of politics, but simply focus on her pain and suffering in the aftermath of that horrific event. I also did not focus in on terrorism or terrorists for that matter.
So, when one person responded to my column stating, “The problem of this world we have too many of your kind and terrorists you sympathize with.” First I would like to know what kind he means. Secondly, I have never sympathized with terrorists since I believe they are abhorrent monsters who choose out of cowardice to pick on innocent victims.
Any terrorist that decides to blow him/herself up in a crowded restaurant as was the case in Bali, Indonesia, a subway in London, a busy market place in Israel or fly jets into buildings, in all cases those that took the lives of these innocents are cowards. A brave madman with a bone to pick with those that they are angry with, would decide to take their argument right to the person they have a grievance with.
While Maria was an unintended target as I stated in my previous piece, those masked men who acted like terrorists by pouring gasoline on a defenseless child in Youssif are as cowardly as they come. Come to think of it, Youssif is showing far more bravery as he faces many surgeries it will take to heal him. By doing that to Youssif, it was Youssif who won the day since he rallied people around him in which we all rejected and condemned his very attackers. If we were taking score, it would be Youssif who scored thousands upon thousands of supporters and those that attacked him would score zero.
Many of these terrorists think they are martyrs and that is laughable at best. The ultimate martyr in my book is St. Joan of Arc who tried to unite France and go up against the crown of England. She fought on the battle field and chose not to attack innocents. She was even captured by the enemy and tried for heresy and burnt at the stake with her convictions in tact. Terrorists only choose to escape earthly judgment and there is no martyrdom in that move. They are not looking into the faces of their enemy as they die for what they believe in. Next time you read where a terrorist said he or she blew up innocents out of martyrdom, the jokes on them.
Also terrorists are nothing more but your common mass murderer who will think nothing of going into a crowded class room as was the case with Cho Seung-Hui. They are as common as was Timothy McVeigh but with one distinction. Timothy McVeigh looked in the faces of those who were judging him. He did not get to choose the day or time he died, we the people did.
The person who emailed me also stated, “I really wonder if your family got killed by terrorists operating from a neighboring harboring country what would be your reaction. In fact I don't.” My reaction would be that I would want the person or persons responsible captured, tried and punished for taking the life of my family. That has not been the case when President Bush said he would capture Osama bin Laden “Dead or alive” At a later date, President Bush even said concerning the capture of Osama bin Laden, “I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not important. It’s not our priority.” To my detractor, write a letter to President Bush instead. Don’t expect an answer, but you may find yourself on some Secret Service watch list.People may think that I am a terrorist sympathizer because of my outspoken nature against the Patriot Acts and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and it is with good reason because it subverts our Constitution. It is the very document that all of our laws are based on. With the passage of those acts signed into law, the terrorists won. We told the terrorists, we will subvert the rule of law of this land because you attacked us. That is backwards thinking, but what else do you expect from our turnip-truck government?
I have been outspoken in my nature when it comes to detaining alleged terrorists without due process. Again, due process is the very bedrock of our judicial system. It is there for a reason.In a previous article, I relayed how Indonesia deals with terrorists: Sydney Jones who is of the International Crisis Group “has been tracking Jemaah Islamiyah for the last ten years” As a result of these open trials, Indonesian government “have made 300 arrests, and have held dozens of open trials. More than 100 hundred men have been convicted; three are on death row.” Imagine that, they convicted over a hundred men. How many have we convicted in an open trial? Three are on death row and again, it is not they who decide when they die, but the Indonesian government.Jones also went onto say, “Unlike the United States, which lets these people linger forever in Guantanamo or elsewhere, the Indonesian government has tried every single terrorist suspect in open and public trials in a way that serves as an incredible public information tool," By the way, Indonesia has been making inroads against Jemaah Islamiyah.I have also been outspoken in our use of torture on alleged terrorists since it goes against the Geneva Convention. David Corn cited in one article, “Not only do water boarding and the other types of torture currently being debated put us in company with the most vile regimes of the past half-century; they're also designed specifically to generate a (usually false) confession, not to obtain genuinely actionable intel. This isn't a matter of sacrificing moral values to keep us safe; it's sacrificing moral values for no purpose whatsoever.”So to my detractor, you will see I am far from being a terrorist sympathizer, I just prefer to use logic. Logic is something that this country has not used in a long time. I would go into our deplorable foreign policy in place for decades which has been the cause of some of these terrorists attacks, but that is a topic I have already touched upon. It is called the blow-back affect. Who better to ask then the Republican presidential candidate, Congressman Ron Paul as he confronted former Mayor Giuliani in a previous Fox News debate. I would say that Ron Paul won that one.Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net
