French Terrorist Attacks

[J70]

It's human nature. I don't think anybody would say the deaths in the Middle East, Africa, and other places around the world are not terrible events. I know the events in Palestine touched people, and I think we have seen the empathy and sympathy for the Syrian Refugee crisis. However, with all the best intentions, apart from a few people like GHD who have given a lot of their lives in support of the people over there, (for which they should be applauded and lauded) it is naturally remote from our every day lives. We don't really understand (and God help us I hope we never do) the conditions that those poor people live and die in. It doesn't excuse our leaders and our politicians from doing all they can to make the world a safer and more just place for everyone, but it does explain, I think, the different reaction when London, New York, Paris etc are hit.

There's a visceral reaction when we see places we know, or feel we know, intimately being attacked like this. A lot of us know those cities and have been there. There's a lot of 'there but for the grace of God' in peoples' reactions when a major western city is hit, and that of course is the exact reason these groups do it. They try to shake the general population and grow fear and uncertainty. Affect international markets, spook investors, cause major disruption and generally try to ensure that people are afraid.

So while no one life should be worth more than another, and while most people understand that the killing and dying in the conflict areas is terrible and that politicians are dicks, it is still understandable that the sight of the WTC or Paris under attack would, and should, evoke an outpouring of emotion and solidarity.

Nicely summed up.

[seafoid]

Jesus Christ the internet falling over itself to give off about people showing support to France and not to Kenya. . .

Yeah because that's the bigger issue at play here. I think we can all agree that atrocities of this magnitude are abhorrent anywhere in the world but rather than misplaced anger at perceived sleights on a particular Country or creed can we not try and come together for a proper solution as to how we can deal with IS?? Surely if we can stamp them out altogether then incidents like Paris or Kenya won't happen at all!!!

It's good to see Anonymous getting involved as we have to cut off the ISIS propaganda machine and as well as that if there is any way we can cut off their cash that's bound to be a huge help!

Majority of facebook posts I saw were from people giving off about people supporting France and not other countries where recent atrocities have happened, really sickened me.  A quick read through  their previous few week's statuses showed that they weren't too vocal in commenting on the issues they were now highlighting.

But the point isn't that everyone should be making a statement about every wrongdoing. It's that if you witness two/three atrocities on a relatively similar scale, carried out by the same group in pursuit of the same goal and you decide to highlight one, then it begs the question why you chose that one.

Have a rattle at the media then for not covering these things then, not people showing solidarity with Paris. If people were more aware of the shootings in Kenya/Beirut I'm sure they'd be outraged at them as well as I and I'm sure everyone else on here is.

My Facebook feed is clogged up with 'activists' giving out to people for filtering their profile photo with the French flag "Why not the Lebanese flag, why not the Palestine flag, why not the Kenyan flag!"

How about we focus on the grave situation we're facing rather than misdirected outrage at regular people wanting to stand with France.

I doubt it but anyway I think I've covered this general point enough.

I'll take your advice and focus on the main issue, although I think I've spoken about that enough too.

Ah I'm not having a go at you in particular but there are some people going way over the top with criticism about it. Anyway How are we going to cut these lads off at the knees?

Is there any way to make their oil redundant? Going after their assets in dodgy banks? If we do that it would go a long way to crippling them for a start but I think boots on the ground has to be the main option and try to help these Countries recover in some way with the end goal being democracy.

The Saudi and Qatari businessmen funding them should be arrested and tried , at the very least.
The Middle East needs to be reshaped anyway. Give the Kurds and Palestinians a state and deal with Sunni grievances.
Syria is majority Sunni but ruled by a Shia and Iraq is majority Shia with very little going for Sunnis. 

[give her dixie]

It's human nature. I don't think anybody would say the deaths in the Middle East, Africa, and other places around the world are not terrible events. I know the events in Palestine touched people, and I think we have seen the empathy and sympathy for the Syrian Refugee crisis. However, with all the best intentions, apart from a few people like GHD who have given a lot of their lives in support of the people over there, (for which they should be applauded and lauded) it is naturally remote from our every day lives. We don't really understand (and God help us I hope we never do) the conditions that those poor people live and die in. It doesn't excuse our leaders and our politicians from doing all they can to make the world a safer and more just place for everyone, but it does explain, I think, the different reaction when London, New York, Paris etc are hit.

There's a visceral reaction when we see places we know, or feel we know, intimately being attacked like this. A lot of us know those cities and have been there. There's a lot of 'there but for the grace of God' in peoples' reactions when a major western city is hit, and that of course is the exact reason these groups do it. They try to shake the general population and grow fear and uncertainty. Affect international markets, spook investors, cause major disruption and generally try to ensure that people are afraid.

So while no one life should be worth more than another, and while most people understand that the killing and dying in the conflict areas is terrible and that politicians are dicks, it is still understandable that the sight of the WTC or Paris under attack would, and should, evoke an outpouring of emotion and solidarity.

Well summed up AZ, and thanks for the compliment.

I can see why people are changing their profile pics, and I can also see why people are criticising them for it as well.
Facebook took full advantage of the attacks to roll out for the 1st time the "Safety Check" feature which is usually used in natural
disasters, and they gave everyone the option to change their profile pics to the French flag. Naturally, people changed theirs, because
as they scrolled down more and more of their friends had probably done so, and the option was easy to use.

Rather than criticise them for it, I see people who have in some way awakened to the realities of what is going on elsewhere.
I'm sure a lot of people got to read and see a lot of information over the past 72 hours that they had no clue was going on.
In a similar way, the body of Aylan Kurdi washing up on the beach woke people up to the refugee problem.

I honestly believe that it shouldn't happen, and it sets Facebook up for criticism the next time there is a mass killing somewhere else.
We shouldn't differentiate between deaths, and the media should play a better role in covering attacks further afield.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

9/11?
Forget for a moment that ireland and new york are closely linked, it wasnt that long ago that there were more irish born living around the city than left in ireland. Forget for a moment that we lost several of our own citizens in the attack and forget that the most famous victim was father mychal judge just one of many many irish americans to die.
9/11 was such a huge event with casualties from around 70 different countries (again not just white folk) i think its pretty to save to say that everywhere around the globe sat up and took notice.
A fairer comparison would be one of the big college campus shootings which usually does involve a lot of white affluent kids and guess what within a day noone over here could care less

WTF?  When was this? What are u smoking??

Ok so I got my facts wrong the old quote I got muddled was more Irish born in NY than lived in Dublin not Ireland sorry. Still in 1900 Half a million Irish born lived in and around NY that doesnt count their children/grandchildren recently born in the states who would probably end up doubling that number whilst in Ireland at the same time the population had crashed to nearly 2.5 million so my original point still stands

[armaghniac]

This idea that people shouldn't mark the killings in France because they might not have marked other ones is complete nonsense. My neighbour died recently, I went to the wake and the funeral. I did so although several hundred other people died in Ireland that day and I did not go to their funerals.

[trileacman]

This idea that people shouldn't mark the killings in France because they might not have marked other ones is complete nonsense. My neighbour died recently, I went to the wake and the funeral. I did so although several hundred other people died in Ireland that day and I did not go to their funerals.

There is a difference though. You were personally connected with your neighbour and not the several hundred people who died in Ireland that day. A comparable analogy is going to the wake and funeral of a complete stranger in Cork because Facebook told you they had died. And if you had people might naturally question why the f**k you went to a random wake and funeral ahead of the several hundred others on that day.

I'm not trying to belittle your previous assertions but I do find the outpourings on social media recently to be quite contradictory. I think that Lebanese doctor put it best;

"When my people died, they did not send the world in mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world."

[muppet]

This idea that people shouldn't mark the killings in France because they might not have marked other ones is complete nonsense. My neighbour died recently, I went to the wake and the funeral. I did so although several hundred other people died in Ireland that day and I did not go to their funerals.

There is a difference though. You were personally connected with your neighbour and not the several hundred people who died in Ireland that day. A comparable analogy is going to the wake and funeral of a complete stranger in Cork because Facebook told you they had died. And if you had people might naturally question why the f**k you went to a random wake and funeral ahead of the several hundred others on that day.

I'm not trying to belittle your previous assertions but I do find the outpourings on social media recently to be quite contradictory. I think that Lebanese doctor put it best;

"When my people died, they did not send the world in mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world."

I think part of the answer is in your post.

Familiarity and all that.

[armaghniac]

There is a difference though. You were personally connected with your neighbour and not the several hundred people who died in Ireland that day. A comparable analogy is going to the wake and funeral of a complete stranger in Cork because Facebook told you they had died. And if you had people might naturally question why the f**k you went to a random wake and funeral ahead of the several hundred others on that day.

I'm not trying to belittle your previous assertions but I do find the outpourings on social media recently to be quite contradictory. I think that Lebanese doctor put it best;

"When my people died, they did not send the world in mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world."

Well let's take a GAA example. Say some person who gave the GAA good service in some county dies, there might be a minutes silence in that county at games and clubs in that county might send people to the funeral. In other counties there would not be much impact. France is in the same "county" as Ireland, Kenya or Lebanon are not.

[trileacman]

There is a difference though. You were personally connected with your neighbour and not the several hundred people who died in Ireland that day. A comparable analogy is going to the wake and funeral of a complete stranger in Cork because Facebook told you they had died. And if you had people might naturally question why the f**k you went to a random wake and funeral ahead of the several hundred others on that day.

I'm not trying to belittle your previous assertions but I do find the outpourings on social media recently to be quite contradictory. I think that Lebanese doctor put it best;

"When my people died, they did not send the world in mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world."

Well let's take a GAA example. Say some person who gave the GAA good service in some county dies, there might be a minutes silence in that county at games and clubs in that county might send people to the funeral. In other counties there would not be much impact. France is in the same "county" as Ireland, Kenya or Lebanon are not.

Your analogies just keep getting more bizarre.

[give her dixie]

Last Thursday in Beirut a hero gave his life to save others. Following the 1st suicide bomb, Adel Termos who was with his daughter,
saw a 2nd suicide bomber heading towards a crowded area. He ran at the attacker and fell on top of him on the ground.
However, the bomb still went of killing them both. Due to the selfless actions of Adel, the lives of many people were saved.
What a man.

https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10153336910056939/?pnref=story

[Farrandeelin]

I haven't been on facebook since the end of October so I don't know who has changed their pics or not.

Anyway, could anybody tell me in plain English what the major powers should do now? I wonder if they all stopped meddling in the Middle East, would ISIS stop their 'meddling' in western countries? Has there been too much wrongs done in the name of 'oil/whatever else' for the Islamic terrorists to continue their campaign of hate? I don't pretend to know the Sunni- Shia conflict, is it worse than the West v them conflict we are now seeing?

[screenexile]

Sinn Fein being called out badly this evening for this . . .

http://m.newsletter.co.uk/news/northern-ireland-news/sf-s-failure-to-back-isis-motion-condemned-1-6636745

This is going to look really badly on them now and rightly so. They need to give a plausible reason for this but I doubt they have one!!!

[muppet]

I haven't been on facebook since the end of October so I don't know who has changed their pics or not.

Anyway, could anybody tell me in plain English what the major powers should do now? I wonder if they all stopped meddling in the Middle East, would ISIS stop their 'meddling' in western countries? Has there been too much wrongs done in the name of 'oil/whatever else' for the Islamic terrorists to continue their campaign of hate? I don't pretend to know the Sunni- Shia conflict, is it worse than the West v them conflict we are now seeing?

US Republican hopefully Mike huckabee on the subject: "Its time to wake up and smell the falafel".

http://fusion.net/story/233696/mike-huckabee-paris-comments-falafel/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=FusionRSS

While he almost certainly meant it as a derogatory remark towards Arabs, he might accidentally have a point. Because falafel is just as popular in Israel as anywhere else in the Middle East.

And I personally see no solution to anything in that part of the world, until Israel stops its slaughter as well as ISIS and all the others.

[armaghniac]

Sinn Fein being called out badly this evening for this . . .

http://m.newsletter.co.uk/news/northern-ireland-news/sf-s-failure-to-back-isis-motion-condemned-1-6636745

This is going to look really badly on them now and rightly so. They need to give a plausible reason for this but I doubt they have one!!!

SF does not engage in the politics of condemnation, don't you know.
All they are doing is isolating themselves from the average European.

And I personally see no solution to anything in that part of the world, until Israel stops its slaughter as well as ISIS and all the others.

In this context Israel is like one of the former regimes, distasteful at times but you know what they are going to do and they are organised enough to trade off interests so as not to piss off people too much. The Devil you Know, and not likely to some under much scrutiny when such savagery exists nearby .

[Aaron Boone]

The Stade de France incidents could have been a huge massacre.