In response to Sambou,

Sambou: <<You see, where you sit depends on where your feet are planted.  I
think we, in the comfort of our peaceful environments should really pause
for a minute and try to put ourselves in the daily livings of a people under
siege and no hope for any future.  Is Nelson Mandela and the ANC
"Terrorist"?  Was'nt their defense against Apartheid done by "Any Means
Necessary"?>>

The question becomes: did Nelson Mandela ever send out teenage African girls
on suicide bombing missions - i mean premeditated murders on civilian
targets, which included pregnant women, babies, children and the vulnerable
who have little or no say in the direction and implementation of Apartheid?
Supposing you are a Palestinian under seige by the IDF in the Occupied
Terrorities. Further, let it also be assumed that you have a 17 year-old
daugther. Are you saying that in the name of freeing yourself from Israeli
subjugation you are willing to let your teenage daugther "matyred" as a
suicide bomber to go into Israel and engage in an act that equates with the
premeditated murder of innocent Israelis who have little or no say in the
direction of the current crisis? Are you saying - in extremis - that it
might OK one day for Gambian teenagers to be exhorted by the Opposition to
become suicide bombers in the event that Yaya resorts to what Sharon is
currently engaged in? You need to clarify youself.

Suicide bombing, regardless of how one wishes to slice/explain the rationale
behind it, is barbaric, uncivilised and cowardly. Each suicide bomber that
goes out and target the civilian populace in Israel goes a long in morally
undermining the Palestinian cause - a cause which the vast majority of the
peoples of this diverse universe we inhabit identify themselves with as
legitimate and just, and worth our full support. One need not live under the
Israeli seige to understand the plight and predicament of palestinians; you
can be residing as far afield as sedate and tranquil rural England to under
the plight of the Palestinians. All one needs is to be a human being with a
conscience: an affirmation of common humanity with your fellow man and a
leap of imagination that grants you the powers to imagine oneself at the
receiving of the abuse that the Palestinians are constantly are subjected to
in their own land. To make a good example, take the heinous incidents of
April 2000 in the Gambia. Most people who were moved by that tragedy did so
not because they were direct or indirect victims of those heinous crimes
against the students. Or because they happen to be living inside the Gambia
or are Gambians. They are simply human beings with a conscience. This is the
same context for world sympathy with the Palestinian plight.

Yet, that can never make suicide bombing a right thing to resort to; or,
indeed, something we ought to condone simply because we realised that they
are aggreived. Suicide bombing by teenage girls is a wrong and cannot help
further the legitimate cause of Palestinians in the eyes of civilised
peoples. Suicide bombing - regardless of the motivation behind it - is
premeditated murder. It is inexcusable and reprehensible.



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