Terror in Europe

It was sad to hear about the news of the London blasts. The somber aura surrounding the horrific blast reminded me of Sep-11. The reactions of people I've met were similar. Shock and horror. This, in general is the reaction when terrorism rases its ugly head. Yet I always get the impression that the lives of white people are more precious than those of others. It's interesting to see the reaction and anger (verging on fanaticism) of those around you when the blow is dealt to Europe. Nevermind that for a large section of humanity death, misery, poverty and war are their real life situations. Of course their realities are mere news items for us. A snippet between the local news and the sports updates.

Iraq has been under attack for more than two years now. The scenes of death and devastation have been a daily occurrence to the Iraqis. The smell of death greats them every morning. The body count of civilians is at least 22, 500, possibly as much as 25,800. Smart bombs in dumb people's hands is a lethal cocktail. We're so accustomed to being the bullies rather than the bullied that we have no clue about the misery that comes with war and death. Only when something like this happens do we start to feel the pain and the misery. How often do we stop to think that this is a way of life for a huge chunk of the human race?

Having said that I am in no way advocating, justifying or making excuses for terrorism. I think that terrorist acts are as bad as the wars carried out by power hungry bully nations. Any form of attack that targets civilians should be condemned unconditionally irrespective of who carries it and against whom it is carried.