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This from Tony Carp … I worry about America's war on terror. Terrorism is a funny old game and its victims are not the best or most objective people to judge it. One example is the late Menachem Begin, Israeli Prime Minister, International Statesman and, with Anwar Sadat of Egypt, joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. But hang on, isn't this the same guy who in 1946 planned the bombing of the King David Hotel? The hotel housed the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and Headquarters of the British Forces in Palestine and Transjordan. Ninety-one British military personnel, civil servants and local civilian staff died in the attack. Menachem Begin at that point became Britain's most wanted - and it was "dead or alive" in those days. Thirty years later he's in London taking tea with the Queen and Margaret Thatcher. Talking of Margaret Thatcher, she once thought Gerry Adams was so dangerous that his voice could not be broadcast on TV. Actors were employed to speak his words to camera (though no-one took the opportunity to use comical voices, which was a opportunity missed!). Today, doesn't this dangerous man have an office in the Palace of Westminster where he prominently displays an Irish tricolour? The first war on terror that America got involved in was a very different story. If you were representing the dominant world superpower at the time, as were Lord North and George III, Americans were the most dreadful terrorists. They were part of an "axis of evil" with the French, Spanish and Dutch. Britain, with some help from coalition partners like the Germans, Canadians & loyalist colonial Americans, tried to put down the antics of violent criminals who destroyed property, threatened lives and used violence against officers of the Crown as they went about their lawful business. Sound familiar? Tell any American that George Washington was a terrorist, that Benjamin Franklin was a terrorist fundraiser, that Sam Adams and Paul Revere were insurgents and that John Paul Jones was a pirate and murderer and they would be outraged. But if the outcome of the American Revolution been different, that is precisely how history would have recorded them. The GOS says: Thanks, Tony. Couldn't have put it better myself. either on this site or on the World Wide Web. This site created and maintained by PlainSite |