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Falling under the devastating terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001, the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York have since
become a symbol of destruction for some and a symbol of creative effort
for others. The West saw 11/9 as an act of unprecedented barbarity.
The East, which views the non-Islamic world as one big game park, saw the
fiery attacks as an indisputable act of a new wonderland being build by
Allah’s will.
Terrorism, however, was born long before the 20th century.
There were ample attempts to bully the powers that be into making certain
political concessions in the 19th century and Russia is certainly no exception
here, to say the least… Members of the People’s Power movement were among
the most active terrorists and the shots fired by Vera Zasulich at the
St. Petersburg Governor-General Trepov, Emperor Alexander II’s assassination
by the a group led by Andrei Zhelyabov and Sofya Perovskaya were the beginning
of a long and blood-stained spate of terror attacks.
The gory practice then spilled over into the 20th century
where it was readily picked up by a flurry of radical groups the world
over. Probably the best known of them all was the 1914 assassination
of the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand by Bosnian ultra-nationalist
Gavrilo Princip that actually triggered the First World War.
In 1934 an unnamed Croat in Marseilles shot and killed the
Yugoslav King Alexander and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou. After
World War Two the Basque separatists took the terrorist center stage blowing
up Francisco Franco’s right hand man, General Carrero Blanco in 1973. In
1976 members of the Italian Red Brigades abducted and killed the Christian
Democratic leader Aldo Moro and in 1979 Lord Mountbatten died at the hands
of the Irish Republican Army. In 1984 the Sikh radicals assassinated
the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and a few years later her son,
Rajiv Gandhi, also fell victim to terrorism that was now spreading like
a brush fire…
However, the new wave of terrorism was becoming essentially
different from the attacks on power-wielding individuals as was before.
This new brand of terror now targeted large numbers of civilians, first,
because the authoritarian regimes had increasingly been on their way out
since the end of World War One, making politicians directly dependent on
the people. Meaning that any major terrorist attack against the people
could send the whole Cabinet packing. Secondly, over the past few decades,
human life had considerably gained in price in the more civilized parts
of the world. When human blood flew freely during the world and regional
conflagrations of the past, there was no need for assassinating individuals,
but now that the death of just one human being could plunge millions of
people in a state of shock, murder per se was generating public fear of
a bunch of elusive criminals. This mass-scale terrorism that became so
characteristic of the 20th century spawned a motley mix of politically
or religiously motivated killers, from Aum Shinri-kyo in Japan to Sendero
Luminoso in Peru. And still, Arab, Iranian and Afghan Islamists played
a key role in organizing all these atrocities.
It all began during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany
where the Arab terrorists took hostage and killed 11 Israeli athletes.
From then on, terror ruled supreme… Palestinian hijacked a French airliner
with 83 Israelis on board. The Israeli commandos rushed to the rescue
releasing all the hostages, but failing to prevent further attacks. Shortly
after, a group of US diplomats were taken hostage in Israel and pro-Iranian
radicals blew up 241 US Marines and 58 French paratroopers in Beirut. In
the late-1980s the terrorists blew up a disco in West Berlin frequented
by US soldiers and a Boeing 747 jumbo was blown out of the skies over Scotland
killing all 258 passengers aboard…
The advent of the Nineties ushered in the world’s number
one terrorist Usama bin Laden. Usama wants to change the world, just like
dozens of “evil geniuses” did before him. All these ill-famed people
came with the sword and died by the sword. Which means that the world nations
should join hands and get rid of this ugly scourge once and for all…
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