Saturday, March 13, 2004

Have we as a nation willfully forgotten the threat of terrorism?

This is a serious question. Have we as a nation willfully forgotten the threat of terrorism?

On Thursday 3-11 Spain was rocked by terrorist bombings in Madrid. Evidently 13 bags stuffed with explosives were placed on trains in Madrid set to go off during the busy morning rush hour.

This act was similar in scale for the population of Spain to the 9-11 attack in the US. 200 have dies and over 1200 are injured. For a nation of roughly 40 million people this is a major blow. Last I read there among the dead were citizens of 11 nations.

What makes me think that we in America have 'willfully forgotten the threat of terrorism' is the fact that in the American media there is very little coverage of the events in Spain. With a major attack like this I go into full 'news junkie' mode and I have found that every time I try to watch the news instead of reports about Madrid there are stories about Kobe, Martha or Scott Peterson. This is making me crazy! Thank God for blogs because the blogosphere is the only place that I can seem to find any actual reporting on the attacks in Madrid.

On September 12 I would never have imagined that our nation would be able to ignore a massive terrorist attack again - no matter where in the world it occurred but... events of the last days have shown that our nation is only too able to turn our eyes away from a terrorist attack. Yet I find that my friends and work associates are not talking about the terrorist attacks in Spain at all.

Why aren't we talking about terrorism anymore? Why aren't we talking about the attacks in Madrid? Is it because we think that perhaps it is a result of Spain’s internal politics (ETA)? Why should that matter... in the end terrorism is terrorism regardless of who perpetrates it.

If the attack in Madrid is found to be Al Queda do you think that we in America will become interested... or do you think that we just don't care because of the fact that it happened so far away.

Sorry for the rant but I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the fact that nobody is discussing these horrible attacks. I am sure that most everyone in the blogosphere has read the moving A Sad Postcard From Spain at Tim Blair’s blog
The images and testimonies that we’ve been watching are absolutely heart wrecking. Last night some of the people who were working in the mass morgue that was improvised in a convention center needed medical sedation because they couldn’t cope with what they were watching: dozens of people inside black plastic bags whose mobile phones kept ringing all the time. Several children in a school nearby one of the explosions were waiting for their parents to take them home. Their parents never came.

A woman who survived the blast has lost her husband, her two sons, and her grandsons. The radio reported this morning that she was so overwhelmed with the loss that she later tried to kill herself. In one of the destroyed trains they rescued a seven month old baby. They haven’t been able to find his parents and he has just died while in the ICU. The attack has killed people from eleven different nationalities.


I just can't get the image of body bags with ringing cell phones out of my head.

The attacks have been so terrible that the hospitals in Spain are struggling to cope and the funeral homes in Madrid have had to use staff meeting rooms for funeral vigils.

Spanish blogger Iberian Notes reported that the Spanish paper La Vanguardia will be publishing biographies of the deal like the NYT 'Faces of grief' series. The first translated couple I read moved me to tears
Ana Isabel Gil Perez, office worker, 28, Torrejon de Ardoz. Ana was married and seven months pregnant. She died in La Paz hospital after suffering five heart attacks. Surgeons performed an operation to extract Ana's baby, but he died too. Ana was looking forward to her son's birth and to her sister's wedding.

Inmaculada Castillo Sevillano, office worker, 39, Alcala de Henares. Inma was a widow; her husband had drowned when he was 31 and she was 29. She leaves two orphan children, a girl of 19 and a boy of 15. Inma had a hard road, working non-stop to support her children, to whom she was very close. Despite her misfortune, she was a lively and cheerful person, say her friends.






On Friday 10 million Spaniards marched in protest to the acts of barbarous terrorism that occurred.


In the end it does not matter why these attacks happened, or who perpetrated them. It could be any number of terrorist groups - ETA, IRA, UDF, Black September, Al Queda, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, PLF, or any of the 387 organizations listed HERE. In the end what matters is that it was an act of terrorism against a democratic, pluralistic, free nation. It was just another in the chain of events for which the goal is to destabilize the west.

This was an act of unmitigated evil committed by men of evil. That’s right, I am willing to use a ‘simplistic’ term like EVIL – because it is in the end a simple equation. Killing innocent civilian men women and children going about their every day lives = EVIL. No matter what the 'cause' there is no explanation that can forgive the placing of 13 bomb filled backpacks on busy commuter trains during the morning rush hour.

Why is our nation not talking about this? Why are we not marching in solidarity? Why are we so consumed with Kobe, Martha and Scott Peterson?

WE MUST NEVER BOW TO TERRORISTS DEMANDS OR FORGET THE THREAT THEY POSE TO US ALL

Monday, March 01, 2004

Troop 448 supports the troops

Girl Scout troop #448 of Texas is working to send a bit of home to troops ... Girl Scout Cookies!

The troop is working to collect funds to ship cookies to ship out to troops. They have a generous former Army officer who will pay all of the shipping costs. If you want to buy cookies to be shipped to the troops check out their website

I love the quote from their site
Troop 448 is very proud of our Men & Women who are serving to protect our Country. We hope the cookies we ship out to them will let them know that we think about them everyday.
I was a Girl Scout for years and know that selling cookies can teach girls many valuable skills (initiative, public speaking, salesmanship) but this troop is going a step beyond using it as a great opportunity to teach the girls patriotism.

I have sent a check for a few boxes of cookies and I hope that troop #448 is able to reach their goal of 200 boxes... perhaps with the blogospheres help they can surpass it!