How has terror changed in 50 years?
A thoughtful article by veteran BBC reporter Peter Taylor, who has covered terrorism for fifty years; it is not easy reading, partly as he asks should we be talking to terrorists?
The opening passage:
Quote:
The threat from terrorism is always evolving, but some things remain constant - the emotions of loss and the risks taken by those who want peace, writes Peter Taylor. When I first started working in television 50 years ago, I never imagined that I would spend much of the next half century reporting the phenomenon of terrorism.From those early days I have tried to understand the roots of violence and explain not what happens but why it happens.Gradually I got used to reporting death. But I never became insensitive to it
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39432041
This passage from 25yrs came as a shock:
Quote:
In Lebanon, 25 years ago, I talked to Col Bill Cowan, the US undercover soldier sent to identify the masterminds behind two devastating truck bomb attacks carried out by Islamist suicide bombers in Beirut in 1983....He warned: "Unless we find a way of working with Islamic fundamentalism, we are going to face much, much greater threats over the next decade."
This needs to remembered, amplified by the Nazi salutes in a few places ince the programme was broadcast earlier this year:
Quote:
Although victory over IS may be declared in Mosul and Raqqa, the final victory lies not in crushing its armies on the battlefield but in defeating its ideology.
