Reply To: London

[Strega]

You know, I grew up in London.  I had my first bomb scare drill at school when I was six years old. This was in the mid sixties.   The IRA was the terrorist group of my time.  I have had my office bombed twice in two years – the first time, thankfully I was the last to leave, 20 minutes before our office exploded. This was in the late nineties.  The period between these two occurrences was fully and frequently interspersed with bomb related events, scares, or similar aggressive acts.

For forty years, I lived in London under this terrorist threat.  When the American 9/11 event happened, it pretty much coincided in timing with the IRA disbandment, so London had one continuous flow of terrorist threat.  London doesn’t know what it’s like to NOT have a terrorist threat of some sort in the air.

The IRA were not muslims.  They were allegedly fighting a Christian denomination sect war – Protestants versus Catholics.  You could call them Christian terrorists if you wanted to.

In reality, most of the wars fought under the pretext of religion are territorial or mineral wars.  The ‘radical’ terrorists are not so different.  If we provided food, education and financial stability to regions, we would have a lot more chance at success in dissuading suicide bombers, for example.  Instead of giving them something to die for, maybe it’s time to try giving them something to live for.