Thursday, January 8, 2015

A few words about the attack...

By now the world has learned of the horrific attack in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper here in Paris.

I hate to see this kind of thing happen.  It's a very nasty business, this.

Twelve people died. 

All because of a cartoon. 

Think about that a moment.  People are dead because of a cartoon.

"Charlie Hebdo staffer Laurent Leger told BFM-TV in 2012, "The aim is to laugh.... We want to laugh at the extremists — every extremist. They can be Muslim, Jewish, Catholic. Everyone can be religious, but extremist thoughts and acts we cannot accept.""

While I was at first loath to draw any link between these Paris events of January 7, 2015 to anything coming from the United States, Jude just read me something rather interesting.  It's from the Local.

"The New York Times first reported on Cherif in 2005. It was reported that he had become inspired to fight in jihad due to the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses. Prior to the emergence of those abuses, the Liberation newspaper reported, Cherif was not a devout muslim. He had girlfriends, smoked and drank alcohol."

One of the shooters had been inspired to Islam in response to US torture of prisoners and the incredible (still un-punished) abuses at Abu Ghraib during the invasion of Iraq. 

Think about this, too, for a moment. 

Here are my questions -

Why is American press censoring itself?

Has America created the terrorism it vowed to fight? 

Has American policy started a war that will never end? 

Has America created serious problems for other countries, even for countries that refused to back the US invasion of Iraq?

Has America destroyed our chances of living peacefully overseas?


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