Entry 58, on 2004-09-28 at 14:41:05 (Rating 4, News)
I listened to an interview with Terry Waite this morning on the subject of terrorism, hostage taking, and what should be done about the current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Waite was a British hostage negotiator and was taken as a hostage himself in Beirut and freed after 5 years in 1991.
There wasn't much doubt about his opinion on the current state of Iraq. While he didn't condone the use of violent tactics, such as taking and killing hostages, he said that he could understand why it happened. The terrorists are fighting a war with the weapons they have available. They don't have the high tech hardware the Americans do so they need to use terrorist tactics instead.
He said, in the end, is there any difference in a hostage being killed by a terrorist and an Iraqi child being killed as a result of an American attack on a building. The Americans don't deliberately want to kill children but they know it will almost certainly happen when they plan the attacks and they go ahead with them anyway.
He suggested the Americans and British should plan to withdraw troops from Iraq and allow the UN to take over. Many experienced people told them not to attack Iraq to start with, and the situation isn't improving, and in fact the conditions in Afghanistan are worsening as well. Clearly, this is going to be a long term problem.
Unfortunately, this is like creating a disaster in Iraq against the wishes of the UN, then asking them to come in and fix the mess afterwards. And its mainly innocent Iraqis (as well as Westerners enticed by the big money) who suffer as a result of the mess Bush and Blair have got themselves into.
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