On 04/21/2013 11:55 AM, turquoiseb wrote: > I spent two rather formative years -- between the ages > of 14 and 16 -- in Morocco. Living there on Air Force > bases, but spending as much of my time as was feasible > in Marrakech or Casablanca because...well...they were > just more interesting, I encountered terrorism long > before most of you had ever heard the word. > > There was little of it in Morocco itself, because *as > a result of terrorism* it had gained its independence > from France some time earlier, but it was a rare cafe > or bar in which I didn't meet people who had seen it > and felt its effects. > > Then I ventured with a friend to Algeria over a long > school holiday, naively telling our parents we were > going elsewhere, but instead (even more naively) head- > ing into a certifiable War Zone. Algeria was still > fighting for its independence, in a three-sided war > (the French, the Arab Algerians, and the "Pied Noirs" > or "black feet" -- third- and fourth-generation > Europeans who knew that they would be thrown out of > the country if it gained its independence) that was > bloody and awful. > > My friend and I were sitting at an outdoor cafe in > Algieria one day when a truck rolled by. It was one > of those trucks with a sheet of canvas covering the > back of it, and as it passed our cafe, the canvas > was thrown back to reveal a tripod-mounted machine > gun, with two guys manning it. It opened fire on > the cafe we were sitting in, and we dived for cover > behind quickly-overturned marble tables, as did the > other patrons. > > As it turns out, no one was hit by the flying bullets, > and after the truck passed, my friend and I got up, > righted our table, and looked around. What I saw made > a BIG impression on me. > > The French and Arab patrons sharing the cafe with us > had not even spilled their drinks. They "took them > down with them" when hiding beneath the tables, and > then emerged with them still full after the incident > was over. > > THAT made an impression. > > These people lived with a level of everyday terrorism > that makes the things JohnR and other fearful Americans > worry about pale by comparison. But they *didn't let it > fuck up their day, or change their lifestyles*. > > I have seen the same thing in many other European > countries I've lived in since. I've been in Paris after > bombs exploded, and watched the city in the days after- > wards. Nothing changed. No one altered their schedules > or adjusted their lifestyles in any way. I've been in > Spain after the train bombing there. Not only did no > one succumb to fear and paranoia, several *million* > people marched in protest, and brought down the govern- > ment that stupidly first tried to blame the attack on > Basque separatists. > > What makes terrorism WORK is becoming TERRORIZED. > > The goal of terrorism is not to kill people. It's to > instill fear in those who survive, and make them so > fearful that they no longer feel capable of living > their everyday, fulfilling lives in the ways they > want to live them. > > Smart people do not fall for this. Dumb people do.
And I recall some folks on those excursions that MMY sent teachers on back around 1978 or 79 like to Iran, Venezuela, etc. I seem to recall a friend on the Venezuela course saying the were marched out into a courtyard and surrounded by guys with machine guns. On my TTC some of us were shipped from Vittel, France to Biarritz where they were having bombings by Basque separatists and we were warned about that. My reaction? "How interesting." You have more chance of being killed in an auto accident than by terrorists. Especially the way folks drive around here. And remember when people are broke they don't get their cars maintenanced like they should and it might fall apart right in front of you on the freeway. Talk host Karel, who is not a conspiracy theorist nor a conservative by any means, pointed out that in Long Beach, where he lives, on Monday three people died from gun incidents and where is the outrage over that? Because of the Internet our world has shrunk to the size of a nanosecond so you heard about news you wouldn't have 30 or 40 years ago. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
