Thursday, September 06, 2007

Root causes

German police have arrested three Islamists who allegedly planned 'to ram "massive" car bombs into Frankfurt airport' and/or 'to blow up hundreds of people in German airports, discotheques and restaurants' and/or 'to blow up US targets in Germany'. Two of the people in custody are German nationals who converted to this particular version of political Islam.

Now remind me, if Madrid was caused by Spanish involvement in Iraq, if 7/7 was caused by British involvement in Iraq, what was the attitude of the German government to the war?


Anonymous said...

doesn't the "blow up US targets in Germany" suggest they wanted to blow up US targets in Germany.

Larkers said...

This saving clause, that the alleged 'real targets' were Americans will be seized upon. How attacks of an indiscriminate nature such as car bombs in public places could be so targeted is problematic, unless of course, like me, you instinctively feel that such considerations carry little weight with such bombers, based on previous evidence. (The London bombs killed right across the spectrum of race, colour and creed and were judged a success.) It is a feature of such arguments ('they are only going after Americans') that they contain the belief that those who are not the intended victims on this occasion will be spared in the future. This I doubt.

Another argument which is being developed in this case is that the original bomb material had been replaced with inert material by German investigators without the bomb makers realising it. This allowed the authorities to covertly observe the proceedings without fear that the bomb making material could ever be used to create explosions. The argument therefore goes that there could be no viable explosions and the authorities knew this. The circumstances are similar to the London fertiliser bomb plot where the police switched the bomb making material during surveillance.

This pattern, of denial and discredit is a widespread weapon for those to whom any attempt by open societies to defend themselves reveals the 'true nature' of what is in fact tyrannical government. By this reasoning only closed societies, those to whom the concept of any sort of rights and libertarian values are alien or frankly disavowed, could hope to survive. Over to you, Rita.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Isn't Lufthansa flying to London? Case closed.

sackcloth and ashes said...


Frankfurt airport was one of the 'targets'.