(The Australian) Barry Cohen - On May 18 last year the long, bitter war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government came to an end. After tens of thousands of deaths over decades, it is believed, 40,000 Tamils died during the final few days. On January 17 this year, in Nigeria, about 300 Muslims were slaughtered by Christians. In March 500 Christians were slaughtered by Muslims. On March 26, North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship, killing 46. On May 28, in Lahore, Pakistan, 95 members of the Ahmedi Islamic sect were killed in an attack on a mosque. A few days later six "police" machine-gunned the survivors, killing 12. Then there were the hundreds massacred after last year's Iranian elections and the 400,000 killed in Darfur in recent years. Did anyone notice? Which brings us to Gaza, and the flotilla of "peace activists." What was uncharacteristic was for the Israelis to believe that they were dealing with followers of Gandhi. If not, why had they chosen as their weapon of choice paintball guns? The miracle is that no Israelis were killed. The writer was a minister in the Hawke government.
2010-06-18 09:15:25Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive