28 November 2005 Blog Home : November 2005 : Permalink
While the killing of innocent people is to be condemned without question, there is something rather repugnant about some of those who rush to renounce acts of terrorism.
They rather remind me of trembling slaves all scuttling forth for the approval of the boss class in the hope of receiving a few crumbs from the big man's table ... oh, if only they knew how pathetic they really are.
I was reminded of such a vision just the other day when family members of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi renounced the terrorist leader after he claimed responsibility for the November 9 bomb attacks on three Amman hotels that killed 61 people.
I doubt the statement will be regarded as a serious blow to al-Zarqawi. I know he loves his mum - let's face it, we all love our mothers but who could really give a flying fig about some great, great aunt or ancient uncle once removed from a half cousin's wife's mother? OK, so he will no longer enjoy the protection of the tribe ... well that's not going to be a big deal either because they don't sound like the sort of tribe which would head off to help him in Iraq.
I mean he is hardly likely to bump into his cousins in downtown Fallujah or Ramadi to repel the foreign invaders and occupiers (that's the Americans and Brits to you and me).
It would seem to me that Yvonne has forgotten that his tribe is rather influential in Jordanian society with members in all sorts of government and military positions and may have intervened to get him released from prison in a 1999 amnesty. Furthermore her description of Zarqawi's activity as "repel[ling] the foreign invaders and occupiers" is not one that stands up to close examination since Zarqawi is cheerfully killing Kurdish and Shi'ite civilians who are not in anyway foreign invaders or occupiers (lest one worry that this claim be considered merely American propaganda, Juan Cole, a notable critic of the Bush administration, notes that Zarqawi is doing this and that it is is unpopular).What I can now tell you is that according to my man in the local Amman souk these demonstrators were Jordanian troops out of uniform as well as government lackeys. Their numbers were swollen with Christian and Muslim bedouins, all funded by the government ... no doubt courtesy of the boys from Virginia (CIA).
Now it may very well be that the government approved the protest and ensured that it received appropriate permissions, security etc. but it is quite a stretch to move that into "funded" and no evidence other than hearsay from "some bloke down the souk" is presented to gainsay it.In fact, to be brutally frank, Jordan provides backing, support and intelligence to the American military which is carrying out genocide in neighbouring Iraq. Thousands of residents have been wiped out in the cities of Tal Afar, Qaim, Karabila, Haditha and Husayba, as they had done earlier with Falluja. Masjids, schools and hospitals have been trashed, but not one peep of criticism comes out of Jordan or its mealy-mouthed media.
How on earth can these malignant rulers and corrupt journalists sleep at night? Hmm, I suppose when you have no backbone or conscience then it doesn't matter how lumpy the mattress is.
As I said earlier in this column, it is very hard to justify the deaths of innocents. But you know, I wonder if you see that attack on the Jordanian hotels in a different light now?
I really think that Yvonne should consider who is killing the civilians in Iraq. Why just last week the "insurgents" managed to kill and maim dozens of women and children outside a hospital and a week earlier they killed 74 worshippers at two Mosques in Khanaqin:On Friday, the suicide bombers wandered into the Sheik Murad mosque and the Grand Mosque during noon prayers and detonated explosives strapped to their bodies, police and survivors said. The blasts ripped down part of the Grand Mosque's roof and heavily damaged the other place of worship.
I am indeed forced to turn the questions at the end back on Yvonne, how can she sleep knowing that the people she supports are killing hundreds of Iraqi civilians? And I agree it is hard to justify the deaths of innocents but I would look on a report of the killing of Ms Ridley in a different light now.