Terrorism goes too far

[Karjalan]

Terrorists attack the Sri Lankan Cricket team bus

http://content-nz.cricinfo.com/pakvsl/c ... 93212.html

I mean terrorism has always been nasty, killing innocent people torturing military officials etc. etc.... But attacking a sporting team directly.... This reminds me of when the israeli olympic team was attacked in Munich. Unfortunately many lives were lost there. At least today only 6 were killed and all of the sporting officials (players, umpires, touring staff) were only minorly injured if at all.

It could have gone so much worse, the whole team umpires and officials could have been executed/murdered, a grenade thrown at the bus thankfully missed and the bus driver, risking his own life carried on driving towards the stadium after the firing started.

I think it was Taufnel, the Aussie umpire who was just in a normal car, watched his driver get shot/killed right in front of him... That's life altering stuff. I'm a strong believer of politics not being involved in sport, and this is taking that to a whole new extreme.

[Lellybaby]

The problem is that those countries take their sport even more seriously than politics.

Their Sportstars are Gods.

[Karjalan]

The problem is that those countries take their sport even more seriously than politics.

Their Sportstars are Gods.

This is why, up until now, most people were confident that cricketers WOULDN'T be targets, because the terrorists themselves love the sport. Effectively the terrorists are idiots, they have pretty much turned their friendliest nation against them. I'm certain this will do nothing but weaken their cause, they're lucky they didn't kill any cricketing officials otherwise they probably would have had 2 billion sub continent cricket fans stampeding them down.

[Vampirial]

When countries help fund terrorism this is what happens. Of course the countries cannot then control the terrorists. Scary thoughts for if/when the terrorists gain the upper majority in government.

[Johnnyrico]

then the US steamrolls then and democracy & capitolism wins, yay!

aside from that terrorism ftl, apparently it was supposed to be india playing, but they pulled out due to terrorist threats/activity that had been speculated...then sri lanka came on board, gg

[Karjalan]

then the US steamrolls then and democracy & capitolism wins, yay!

aside from that terrorism ftl, apparently it was supposed to be india playing, but they pulled out due to terrorist threats/activity that had been speculated...then sri lanka came on board, gg

So what we can assume from this is that Indians are generally smarter than your average bear.... Rico is just an Exception to the rule.


A sad positive for US to take out of this, is that Aus/NZ are the backup hosts of the world cup, and with the rebels in Bangladesh, Civil war in Sri Lanka, and India not even safe from terror attacks.... There is a high chance that the world cup could be brought over here (in which case my pants would be thoroughly creamed and need cleaning).

[Evilelmo]

did a terrorist group own up to the attack?

[Xact]

I heard about this on the flight back home (a lot of Indians/Sri Lankans on the flight) and couldn't really understand what they were talking about, because well this kind of thing hasn't really happened since Munich.

But its true what Lel is saying, these countries probably care more for their sports stars than their political leaders, I mean JFK was assassinated, their equivalence could very well be to kill a cricket team.

[Plexi]

did a terrorist group own up to the attack?

It is believed that the attackers may be linked to radical terrorist groups like the al-Qaeda and the Taliban. However, their identities are being kept confidential.

That isn't exactly concrete now is it. I would go for, not yet.

[dukkha]

Not to imply that you're terribly uninformed... but... one of their major political figures 'was' assassinated less than two years ago

Also Musharraf had a series of attempts on his life occur, several of which he barely survived and several cabinet members and generals were also attacked and/or killed. Sports may matter, but the people attacking sporting teams are just doing it for the chaos and fear it foments. <edit> To clarify, something like this attack is a matter of using high profile international targets, it doesn't matter if it's a cricket team or a pop star, the attack on something seen as fairly 'sacrosanct' strikes fear into the local population and also into the international community, reducing the likelihood of international visitations and increasing the chance of inducing a failed state, behind closed doors.

I heard about this on the flight back home (a lot of Indians/Sri Lankans on the flight) and couldn't really understand what they were talking about, because well this kind of thing hasn't really happened since Munich.

But its true what Lel is saying, these countries probably care more for their sports stars than their political leaders, I mean JFK was assassinated, their equivalence could very well be to kill a cricket team.

[Cartollomew]

To build on what Dukkha said:

Hence the "terror" part of "terrorism".

The C.I.A. for example, might car bomb a foreign official; the distinction between that ("assassination") and Hamas blowing up a car bomb in a crowded market is the intention to induce terror in the public.

It's not necessarily an argument I embrace whole-heartedly, but where one chooses a target for assassination as a kind of surgical excercise, one chooses targets for terror as an excercise in pandemonium.

A successful assassination might go unnoticed by the general populace; a successful terror attack is highly visible. The more outrage, shock etc, the "better" the attack.

Logically, one might consider terrorism to be ultimately counter productive - but I suspect logic doesn't play a huge part in these people's plans.

[Evilelmo]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/764208 ... tan-attack


further on the matter...