Bomb Blasts in Spain, Violence in Haiti

Posted byYan Sham-ShackletonPosted inSocio-Politico Rants

Socio-Politco Rants

I but have two quotes as comment

“Nonviolence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Nonviolence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Nonviolence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Nonviolence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering. Perfect nonviolence is the highest bravery. Nonviolent conduct is never demoralizing, cowardice always is.” -Gandhi

“If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.” –Martin Luther King Jr

And those two men won their causes at great speed, much faster than those who took up arms and history has bestowed them much respect.

Published by Yan Sham-Shackleton

Yan Sham-Shackleton is a Hong Kong writer who lives in Los Angeles. This is her old blog Glutter written mostly in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2007. Although it was a personal blog, Yan focused a lot on free speech issues and democratic movement in Hong Kong. She moved to the US in 2007.

4 thoughts on “Bomb Blasts in Spain, Violence in Haiti”

  1. I wish I could say that I advocate non-violence in the case of terrorism, but I cannot; b/c in the short term it won’t have any effect, and in the long term the best to expect would be a slowdown in bloodletting. And the killing of innocent people must end as abruptly as possible.
    But the question arises, how can terrorism ever be eradicated? It can strike anywhere, perpetrated by anyone, with simple, easily-gotten materials. By political groups, or by psychopaths.
    It is one thing to track down and eliminate a known terror network. Or to track individuals known to engage in terror support. It is another to ferret out groups that go completely underground. A few individuals could get the know-how, the materials, create explosives, leave them in strategic locations (like backpacks on trains), and detonate them from a safe distance. If no one talks, and they cover their activities, it would be extraordinarily difficult to catch or kill them.
    The war on terror is necessary. But it is going to be a long, protracted war of intelligence and strategic strikes, which could ripen into larger inter-state conflagrations. But it must be prosecuted, because to permit this sort of nonsense is to endorse it.

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  2. But the question arises, how can terrorism ever >be eradicated?
    Stop oppressing people both politically, socially and economically where they feel that they are so unheard they must resort to violence as a means to an end.
    It’s useless to break down terror networks to prevent the next attack, the next blood letting of innocent people, because if that gets shut down and the problem remains. And a new generation of those more angered by what was done to their forefathers, will merely be more violent, more angry, learn the lessons of those before, and be more cunning in their approach.
    Listen, Learn, allow people to say their piece and understand that they may have reasons for their hatred, and address those problems.
    We keep smashing the symptoms and not the cause. It’s neccessary to prevent further atrocities, but unless we deal with the problem at the very core, anger, disenfranchising methods of our governments and our economic structures. None will change, some causes cease and new ones born.
    Yan

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  3. how can terrorism ever >be eradicated
    Why did the Rote Armee Fraktion, Cellules Communistes Combattantes, Red Brigades or even the Irish Republican Army stop their killings?

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  4. I think the communist organizations gradualy lost support from Moscow, the decay of the communist model, et al; and the IRA was engaged in discussion by the British government. These organizations stand sharply in contrast to muslim extremist terrorists. Very sharply. Their classification as terrorists and some of their methods are similar, but otherwise they are very different, in ideology, zeal, committment, and disregard for the sanctity of human life.
    Muslim extremism is a “grassroots” intitiative with growing impetus. No dialogue can be entered with zealots who make unreasonable demands and continue to kill innocent people. It’s simply not practicable, nor rational.
    Islamic extremism is not losing support – it is gaining momentum. Extremist terror is gaining momentum as a viable way of expressing dissent. As a viable way of making oneself heard.
    The problem is, it is by murder, chaos, and treachery.

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