yes,
Cassini...........I thought if i speak up ...........i might get blasted.............

helen cheers, before I delete this can you show me the other thread since honestly i can`t see another one,

Sorry if I`ve done something to make you not wana comment, apologies in the highest.

I regret any loss of life due to terrorism. My condolences go out to the families of all who were killed.

It's interesting that the Saudi's have become a terrorist target now. They must be feeling very vulnerable, first U.S. based troops and jets are removed, now terrorist bombing.

So Al-queda wanted us out of S.A.... we are leaving.
They want a palestinian state....didn't Powell just start the process?
OK, so why are they bombing us now? Oh that's right we are all infidels and deserve to die.

To all of you who keep saying that these people are justified in these attacks.....F%$ that! Now they have no excuse. They are pure and simple just murderers.

Cassini............you haven't done anything!!!


I heard it from the news .....just normal T.V.
News papers.........

sorry if you got that impression!

Fry2 - I would never try to justify terrorist attacks. But as far as I can see there is no state of Palestine yet, we've had plenty of roadmaps in the past which have come to nothing. This one is politcally necessary right now, but will it be useful to keep it around in 12 months time? 24 months time? I hope the US will back it up in the long term, but the US has a habit of making big speeches about Israel-Palestine while actually achieving very little.

As for US troops in SA, well, they're on their way. But I guess the terrorists will just tell you that there's now a hell of a lot more US troops in Iraq than there ever were in SA. The war against Iraq was not popular in the Middle East, that will undoubtedly have helped in the planning of these attacks.

But once again, I'm not saying any kind of terrorism is justified, I'm just saying that the reasons for this are still present. I'll be interested to see what the official reasoning will turn out to be for this attack...

As far as Palestine goes...Rome was not built in a day. Honestly, I'm disgusted with both sides in the whole thing. They both say they want peace yet one side continues with suicide bombings and the other keeps flattening houses with tanks. It's getting REALLY old.

The Saudi issue i think is a HUGE mistake on the part of Al-Queda (or whoever is ultimately resposible).
Lets look at this logically for a minute.

Sept 11th, 15 of 19 psychos were from S.A. yet we went after Afghanistan (home base). Keeping Saudi Arabia as an ally and oil supplier. (Yes I said it )
Today, we are more or less in control of Iraq and preparing to pull the majority of our forces out of S.A.. As we prepare to do so Al-Queda decides it's a good time to target westerners in Saud itself. What now keeps us from going after Saud as the new home base of Al-Queda while having Iraq as an ally and oil supplier?
If they were looking for political change by using these tactics i think they may have very well shot themselves in the foot.....Again.

The thing is that the SA government is pro-American, even if publicly it's too dangerous to admit it. They basically risk a major revolution if the SA people decide that they want an Islamic government (which is what Al-Qaeda want), etc.. Anti-Americanism is on the rise all over the world, more terrorist attacks is a logical result of that, and anti-americanism is on the rise because of percieved American arrogance. i.e. War on Iraq = More Terrorism.

As for Palestine. You're right, both sides have acted pretty damn badly over this. Although I think it's likely that there is a majority of Palestinian people who would like peace with Israel, it's just that there's a very noisy minority who would like to bomb Israel into the sea. We just have to hope that both sides can come round a table and agree on a way forwards, certainly destroying the Palestinian authority and then claiming that all terrorist attacks are their fault is somewhat strange behaviour.

The point I was trying to make though, is that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has not been solved overnight just because Bush presents a roadmap. There's a long way to go, and right now, today, the Palestinian people are still living under Israeli occupation.

i have heard some very sceptical people say that this roadmap is an elaborate PR stunt by the US regime

they go on to say that this is an attemt to appease the general arab nation who were in general against the second gulf war. the person i spoke to asked 'isnt it funny that beforehand they (the usa) didn't give a $#iT what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians until now when the world is focused heavily on they actions in iraq'

i have to say people, it is a kinda strange coincidence

I've been thinking that myself. It’s so earnestly; almost naively optimistic it's stunned most experts on the Middle East. There's not much consensus that it could work, and I don't think it will. It could be said it is but lip service to the problems, and when it fails (as they my well want it to) and it has fallen out the spotlight again they can at least say 'well, we tried..'

I wouldn't say by any means the House of Saud is pro-American, they merely need us, and at the same time they have a tiger by the tail in as far as there citizenry.

As long as there is a terrorist group ensuring that no peace plan has a chance, you'll see the same thing over and over, a true display of insanity. As long as it is the Arab intent to drive the Jews into the sea and take Israel, no ageement means anything, anyway. Until the world stops buying into the Arab lie that has been spread so long it isn't even questioned anymore, then the Arab countries will never be forced to do their rightful part in the process.
In other words, don't look for that peace everyone wants.

Yep, there have been so many chances for a Palestinian State, are we still expected to believe that's the goal? There is only one goal, the genocide of the Israelis and the worst part is the major Arab counties forcing the Palestinians to live like that as a tool to do it. Why not just absorb these people into the other Arab countries if you all care so much about them? Looking at it geographically, seems Israel is but a tiny piece. Somthing tells me if Israel was on the arctic tundra, there would be Arabs there trying to strap bombs to themselves over there parkas.

Yes Thomas, change has to come from the Palestinians. But surely you can see that the Israelis also need to change tactics. An eye for an eye is not the best tactic in international diplomacy. What have the Israelis really succeeded in achieving in the past few years? Just about the only thing I can think of is that the Palestinian populace now give majority support to the suicide bombers because of the enforced poverty they live in.

The Israeli policy of assasinations is another good example of a poor strategy. Really, the senior people are the ones that you're eventually going to have to talk peace to. Killing them is hardly going to make their replacements any more liberal.

These terrorist groups need to come to the table. It is also possible to have a peace process while some terrorist groups remain active (i.e. continuity IRA and the Northern Ireland peace process). Basically dialogue has to happen. There can be no other solution except mass extermination of either side or ethnic cleansing.

As for the Saud family... they may not be militantly pro-American, but if they were anti-American they wouldn't be in power any more.

hmmm, interesting development is that America has decided to withdraw most of its diplomats from Saudi.

I also see the number of dead has risen to 29, with the number of injured (according to the Guardian) nearing 200. Quite a significant terrorist action.

[Edited on 14-5-2003 by cassini]

An amazing coincidence... can anyone remember Bali?

"yes,
Cassini...........I thought if i speak up ...........i might get blasted............."


ahhhh, I remember now. Keep the Bible quotes out of it and tell us what your heart and head say, then I promise not to blast you (sorry about that anyway)

"An amazing coincidence... can anyone remember Bali?"

Have to say can`t remember the sequence of events following the Bali blast. I take it the Americans pulled out there as well? or something else?