Terrorists look for vulnerable targets

THE EDITOR: I remembered shortly after 9/11, I wrote an article that was published in your newspaper about the possible consequences of unilateral decisions taken by the Bush administration in retaliation to the senseless terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre buildings a few Septembers ago. I want to make it abundantly clear, as I did then, that I am not a supporter of terrorism, myself having been a victim of the actions of quasi terrorists in 1990.

Today I reflect on that simple warning in light of the blowing up of a Baghdad Hotel, which targetted officials of the United Nations and naturally some innocent bystanders. What happened in Baghdad cannot be right and will not be sanctioned by law-abiding citizens and right thinking people around the world. I recall the Pakistani Prime Minister recently referring to suicide bombers as actions that are disgracing Islam and quite opposite to the teachings of the Holy Quran. How many American soldiers have been killed since the US invasion of Iraq and many families are now traumatised over those killings? It cannot be that a suicide bomber decides that he wants to go into a hotel in Baghdad and detonate a bomb. Quite naturally this type of action requires careful planning by those who see the United Nations as a global body siding with America. Perhaps they view the UN as enemies. This attack cannot be interpreted as anything but a direct assault on a supposedly independent global body that is paying the price for its “role” in the US led invasion against Iraq.

I have friends who perished at the World Trade Centre and it pains every time I think of that incident and how 9/11 robbed a little girl of the father she loved so much who had a world of plans to make her into a model citizen and to take her to Disney and the top of the Himalayas and to rent a cabin cruiser and travel from Florida to Alaska during vacation time. I have read in newspaper articles and seen on television similar stories about families that are on the brink of destruction because they too lost loved ones in 9/11. Today we revisit 9/11 all over again particularly because of the nature of the Baghdad hotel bombing during which 20 persons died. When will this human tragedy end and who is prepared to surrender pride or power first.

Quite naturally the temporary stringent foolproof security arrangements in the US and England are preventing the terrorists from attacking in those first world nations. Instead it would appear that they are now concentrating on vulnerable targets that they believe are anti-Saddam propagandists. Whatever the reason, with the spate of attacks on American interests in Iraq, it would appear at first glance that the whole issue of security to protect anti-Saddam loyalists is not much of an American priority. What’s sad about this is the consequences to those caught not on the side of Hussein or Bush but those trapped in the middle. Trinidad and Tobago has maintained a non-aligned stance ever since the movement was formed and we became signatories to its charter but does that protect us from a possible onslaught of terrorist attacks in this peaceful but America-friendly island?

HANOOMANSINGH
Port-of-Spain