Tag Archives: terrorist attack

InCity Yum Yums

Gordon Davis’ Paris column is posted here …

Paris and the Targeting of Civilians

By Gordon Davis

The killing of scores of Parisians on November 13, 2015, is sad and a symptom of the corrupting culture in which we all live.

Every premature death is tragic, especially when civilians are killed in wars in horrific ways. The people in Paris have my condolences and sorrow. The fascists who committed these murders should be arrested and punished.  ParisianLives Matter.

The targeting of civilians in war has its  modern beginnings in World War II. In 1937 the fascists from Japan committed the “Rape of Nanking.” This was followed by the bombing of Guernica by the German fascists in the Spanish Civil and then the so called blitz bombings of London. The Americans killed 100, 000 civilians in the fire bombings of Dresden. The atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima have been characterized as terrorist and crimes against humanity. CivilianLives Matter.

This year drone attacks have killed thousands in “collateral” damage. The civil wars in Syria, Nigeria, Kenya, Yemen, and Palestine/Israel have killed thousand more.  AllLives Matter. 

The civilians who died in conflicts outside of Europe and America, many connected to the Parisian attacks, do not get the same value as has the Parisians killed yesterday. ISIS kills Muslim people, too.

The price to pay for peace in the world is steep and the price to pay for the endless wars is steeper.

All of this talk of striking ISIS or some other group is useless rhetoric designed to placate an angry, nationalistic public. France, Britain, Russia, and the United States do not want to send in millions of soldiers to occupy a country for a generation,.as they did in Germany and Japan.

The American effort to build up an anti-ISIS Syrian rebel army was worse than a joke. The 5,000 fighters trained by the Americans joined ISIS. I don’t think a draft would be viable in the United States, despite the chicken hawks.

Even if these powerful countries wanted to occupy vast stretches of the Middle East, ISIS is being supported by Saudi Arabia, which sees it as a force against the Shia, and Turkey, which is using ISIS to fight the Kurds and other Turkish minorities.
 
The forces that could stabilize the world were defeated decades ago and have not yet redeveloped; progressive secular humanists no longer are a force in the Middle East and many other countries.

The forces needed to stabilize and reverse economic and political disparities, the forces needed to enforce tolerance of religious belief, and modernity for women were destroyed by the West in its fight against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. 

The CIA and others preferred the likes of Hamas over the seculars in the PLO and Al Qaeda over the Afghan socialists.

Six months from now there will likely be another 9-11 or another Paris or another attack by Boko Haran.

We will all say the same thing about how sorry we all are. This system we have now is madness. I suppose the oil companies will make money from it all.

It will take generations for progressive forces in the USA and the world to develop and bring an end to this madness around us.

InCity Voices

Paris Massacre

By Edith Morgan

This time, Paris took the hit: as I write this, on Saturday night, there are 129 dead, 352 injured – and among the injured, 99 are “critical”. The carnage was spread out over 6 sites in two Paris districts, and included various sites:

At 9:20 p.m., at the “Le Carillon “ bar, a witness heard an explosion. Ten minutes later there were two explosions just outside the Stade de France stadium, where a soccer match between Germany and France was in progress (France’s President Hollande was there and he was rushed out to safety immediately – though the game was allowed to continue)

At 9:30 p.m. the second attack took place, at La Casa Nostra restaurant on the Rue de la Fontaine, where four people died.

The worst part of this attack took place at the Bataclan Theater on Boulevard Voltaire, where up to 100 people were taken hostage by masked men with machine guns. Inside the theater, gunmen opened fire on the hundreds watching the American “Eagles of Death “ Metal group. It was at this theater that the largest number of victims died: the number is believed to be 89, at this time. One of the attackers was shot dead, and 3 blew themselves up.

Later we heard on the Sunday evening news that there were believed to be 8 terrorists involved, and seven had been killed, but the eighth was still at large. There was some mention that ISIS was involved, but it is really too early to have ascertained who was responsible, and even more difficult to answer , WHY it was done.

I am very much saddened by this, yet another attack on innocent civilians, and in a city that I have always loved – and which holds so many great memories for me: when we had to flee Germany in 1933, we landed in Paris, where we lived for three and a half years, and on the outskirts for another 3 years. We were there in June of 1940, when the Nazis invaded and threatened to destroy the city if it was defended; we (my brother, then 7, and I at 9 years  of age, and my mother) fled on foot – my father was in an internment camp somewhere in France –walked for 11 days just ahead of the invading barbarians until finally, when we reached Limoges, an armistice was signed.

I have since visited Paris in 2001 – and it is still the beautiful, vibrant, indestructible city I had remembered – despite the bombings, the occupation, the trials and tribulations of suffering through World War II: indomitable and indestructible. And I know it will be again, rising each time like the Phoenix from the ashes, and rebuilding better than ever.

Perhaps again before I grow too old I can revisit the Rue de Lacretelle, pick hyacinths and violets in the Bois de Boulogne, and see the stunningly beautiful Cathedrals Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur – and perhaps even climb partway up the Eiffel Tower.

But most of all I will remember to thank the French, who saved us several times over… and I will think of them now once again as they struggle to regain their balance. Few will try to do all we can to repay  our many debts in their hour of need.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Feeling “terrorized” …

I managed to eat a bit today … a handful of cashews, cheese and toast, a brownie. Traumatic news traumatizes me. Delivering InCity Times today, meeting all the great people of Worcester (like the sweet lady pictured below), pulled me out of my sadness and fears …

CAM00245

Our BEAUTIFUL diversity is our biggest weapon against the jihadists. More fearsome than the men who use wire to behead children. More powerful than the grenades wrapped girdle-tight around the scrawny chests of brutal, lost young men and sometimes innocent children and sometimes innocent developmentally disabled adults.

When will this global nightmare end – this “World War III, in piecemeal”?

The New York Times is OFFERING FREE DIGITAL ACCESS TO THEIR COVERAGE OF ALL PARIS-RELATED EVENTS. News stories, feature stories, videos, photos, updates, op-ed columns, editorials …

This is a gift to the world!

If you have a smart phone, e-book, tablet, laptop or desk top computer go to:

newyorktimes.com or CLICK HERE. 

Remember: YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY always has FREE INTERNET ACCESS AND WI FI

– text and photo by Rosalie Tirella