Quote:
Originally posted by Abstract@Jul 20 2005, 08:06 PM
I dont know if by the nice comeback remark you thought i was trying to be smart by making that point, thats wasnt the case. Often with this kind of thing people dont read things the way they you write them if that makes sense?
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I thought it was a good comeback and congratulated you. They are indeed British citizens. Nothing more or less than that. Good point, but, as I noted, probably not the relevant point.
While the Mayor may have meant the tea on the lawn, cricket loving Englishman etc thats a very old fashioned view of Britain today so i'd hope he doesnt see that as the average man on the street. Also whether someone is Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, Jew etc whatever they are still British and that to me is the scariest thing about this. Its not people being shipped in to do this to us, its people who were born here and grew up here. Sleeping with enemy is a lot scarier than wondering if he's landing on the next flight.
A typical multi-generational Englishman of whatever colour and even whatever religion, probably isn't going to blow himself up deliberately in a subway.
I just thought that was a stupid exaggeration on the Lord Mayor's part and was really unnecessary to his follow-up political comment on Iraq/etc.
Are you taking exception that people who are part of a western culture could be terrorists, or just that they could be suicide bombers
If it were true, I wouldn't take exception to it. Its not true, a gross exaggeration and an unnecessary addition to his political statement.
The FLQ and IRA are examples of Western society people who felt hopeless enough to resort to terrorism that included bombings, although not suicide bombing I guess. I don't know that the distinction between suicide bombers and regular terrorists is an important one though.
There's quite a bit of difference. The FLQ guys didn't blow themselves up, which is the only point we're arguing about. They arranged to fly themselves to Cuba in one instance. Maybe I missed something, but I certainly remember indiscriminate IRA bombing (although they tended to phone in warnings generally) but certainly not suicide bombings.
The Lord Mayor is completely off his rocker if he thinks ordinary multi-generational Britishers or Europeans would be lining up to blow themselves up under occupation.
That's not a criticism of Muslim extremists by the way. Simply an observation of the difference between the two cultures.
It just seems like semantics to me, and is missing the Mayor's point.
The Mayor's point was that if Britain was under occupation, common multi-generational Britishers would travel to the occupiers home country and deliberately, with forethought, blow themselves up while attempting to kill as many around them as possible.
That's just an idiotic thing to say and supported by absolutely nothing that we know of in western European culture.
Its an unnecessary exaggeration that didn't need to be attached to the rest of his political statement. I know if you are of the same opinion as the Lord Mayor regarding Iraq, it would be nice to make that attachment because it gives your argument a little "oomph" but really, its just a silly assertion and supported by nothing.
The IRA and Israel practically perfected the techniques that make the "Muslim" suicide bomber so successful.
You know of IRA and Israeli suicide bombers?
Cowperson