Terror at a Moscow Airport

[filkertom]

I really want to post some light, funny stuff, but I can't get past this:

MOSCOW (AP) — A suicide bomber carrying a suitcase walked into Moscow's busiest airport and set off a huge explosion Monday, killing at least 31 people and wounding nearly 170, witnesses said.

The international arrivals terminal at Domodedovo Airport was engulfed by smoke and splattered with body parts after the mid-afternoon terror attack sprayed shrapnel, screws and ball bearings at passengers and workers in a loosely guarded area. Hundreds of people were in the area at the time.

Horrible. I will never understand how people can do this.

Comments

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I can understand how people can do this.

* Desperation- wanting to strike back against a hated regime, but not being able to hurt the ones actually in power

* Cruelty- taking pleasure from the pain and suffering of others, especially members of a hated group

* Power-lust- seeking to control others through any means available

* Despair- the urge to have one's death mean something when there is no hope of advancement or achievement in life

Any or all of these things I can understand. I don't agree with any of them, but I can see the viewpoint.

What I don't understand is how any person can do this and expect it to result in any advantage for their cause. Whatever terrorist group did this, it puts them that much farther away from their stated goals (political independence, democracy in Russia, neo-imperialism, or whatever it ends up being- we'll find out soon enough I expect). You don't gain sympathy or support by slaying innocent noncombatants- and if you're insurgents you need both to succeed.

This wasn't just bloodthirsty and evil. This was stupid.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I can see the viewpoint. I just can't bring myself to actually, y'know, hurt anybody. Let alone blow up an airport. Especially for, as you say, no advantage.

Hundreds of lives fucked up, dozens lost, because Attention Must Be Paid.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

One of the CDs I have here is a best-of-Harry Chapin album. His song "Sniper", about the University Tower shootings at U. Texas at Austin, is one of, if not THE, most disturbing pieces of music I've ever heard.

He said Listen you people I've got a question
You won't pay attention but I'll ask anyhow.
I found a way that will get me an answer.
Been waiting to ask you 'til now.
Right now!

Am I?
I am a lover who's never been kissed.
Am I?
I am a fighter who's not made a fist.
Am I?
If I'm alive then there's so much I've missed.
How do I know I exist?
Are you listening to me?
Are you listening to me?
Am I?

Disturbing, and profound. And, alas, only more applicable today.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Brrr. You have heard both "Family Snapshot" by Peter Gabriel and Sondheim's Assassins, right?

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

The former, no. The latter, yes- Ben Rodriguez (bar1scorpio) gave me a rip of the soundtrack, and if I ever spot a performance in Houston I'll go see it.

[batyatoon]

Yup, "Sniper" always reminds me of "Family Snapshot".

Assassins is, if you will pardon the pun, of a different caliber altogether.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Have you heard Kinky Friedman's Ballad of Charles Whitman? Now THAT'S disturbing!

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Haven't heard any of Kinky's music, actually.

[kirylyn.livejournal.com]

I cry everytime I listen to Harry Chapin's What Made America Famous for the same reason.

Harry is sorely missed these days.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

It can result in advantage tho.

Eventually, in the case of things like separatist groups that're being ignored by those in power, the public pressure of those living in fear becomes such that the authorities can no longer ignore or repress grievances.

It's ugly, but true.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Last I heard they were pretty certain that the bomber wasn't Muslim. Instead that he was from the Caucasus area & most likely some sort of separatist.

Well, he's separate now, but the people who convinced him to do this are the ones that I, & I suspect the Russian government, are concerned with now.

People who are willing to make a young man go & die for a belief are, unfortunately, too common. However, I still feel that it must take a deep spiritual necrosis to actually do that.

How many children died today?

My prayers to all of the victims, living & dead, & their families: And further, prayers that the crazy will stop.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

People can do this primarily by ceasing to see their targets as fellow people.

That's also how they fail to realize that it is unlikely to aid their cause - they have lost the empathy required to understand the impact on real people.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

May those spirits who passed in this brutality find peace. :-(


I am really tired of stuff like this. There's no reason to ever kill innocent people to make your point. Ever.

*sigh*

Unfortunately this will only fuel the security theater monster both abroad and here in our country.

[gorgeousgary]

Unfortunately this will only fuel the security theater monster both abroad and here in our country.

Indeed. I'm reminded of when those two female bombers blew up two Russian planes with explosives hidden under their clothes. Ever since then, at many US airports we've had to strip off sweaters and sweatshirts. Makes flying in winter even so much less fun than the rest of the year.

[elektra-h.livejournal.com]

This has been on my mind a ton. For purely selfish reasons. I'll admit it--I'm kinda scared. One of the things on my todo list is buy plane tickets for trip to Moscow. We need to be there March 6th & 7th . . . .

I've been to that airport and I have friends in Moscow. And I will do it again. But this time I'll be quite a bit more wary.

'nuf said.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

You're not being selfish. You're feeling what people all over the world are feeling. I applaud your courage to continue with your trip. I hope it will be safe and you will be able to enjoy yourself.

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Horrible. Madness, desperation, hatred...who can tell the difference anymore?

And yet, the lead story on YahooNews is an NFL quarterback crying. Lead on MSNBC is Rahm Emanuel not being able to run for mayor. FauxNews, it's whether John Roberts will skip out on the State of the Union.

America's got some really screwed up news priorities, y'know?

Oh no, wait...it didn't happen here, so it doesn't matter, right? Right?

/sarcasm (it's been that sort of a day.)

[sdelmonte]

At least the NY Times has it as the lead.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I just checked out the Chicago Sun Times online. The main story is how a man got fired from his job today for wearing a Packers tie. The terrorist attack was part of the headline section, but after a headline about an injured football player and a longer section for Emanuel.

It was also before a headline about 2000 post offices closing.

[sidhecrowe.livejournal.com]

::shudder:: Awful. Just horrid. We are the warriors that fight the monsters, and we are the monsters under the bed.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, this sort of thing was bound to happen, when they lock down the favorite target of the actual airplanes hard enough, the terrorists realize that they can get just as many people, if not more, without even getting to the gate. Hopefully they won't realize that there are crowds everywhere...

As to how, most of these people are brainwashed, I think. You never see the LEADERS of whatever movement with explosives strapped to them, it's always some kid.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

With a suitcase full of explosives, apparently.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Fear has become a tool of war. If you create fear in the populous, the government will have to listen and do things to get the fear to stop. The terrorists want that "thing" to be what they want, so the mass murder of innocents is the means to an end, a sacrifice to whichever goal has become god-like in their eyes. Large armies aren't necessary anymore. They're only good for fighting other large armies. Now 20 people can instill a greater fear than a thousand armed soldiers.

Terrorists destroy something else too, trust. Trust in your fellow man. Trust in the government who is trying to protect you. Trust in civilization itself. For a while, now everyone who goes into a crowded airport will wonder if the person next to them is a terrorist who will detonate themselves to kill without discrimination.

Sometimes I think Stephen Hawking is wrong. Intelligent life on other planets wasn't wiped out by stellar accidents or asteroid impacts. Sometimes I think they were destroyed by terrorists who finally got what they wanted.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I personally agree with Calvin & Hobbes: The biggest proof that there's intelligent life out on other planets is that none of them have tried to contact us. We are a foul and filthy species, and I'm frankly not going to be too upset if we wind up drowning in our own garbage and self-extincting.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

That is very sad news.
It's entirely possible that the bomber doesn't even really know themselves why they did it. Some of the explanations of recruiting bombers in the Occupied Territories sounds like taking confused kids and convincing them what you want them to do--but notice that the recruiters never waste themselves in these attacks, only sacrificial lambs.
There's also a clear understanding in some circles that "people won't revolt and bring about change unless conditions are getting really terrible, so our revolutionary efforts are bent toward making things even worse, pushing people toward that glorious day."
Really.
It's even sadder that very little of the media over here is really covering it, either--because we have Russian-speaking folks working in our building, folks who have relatives there, it's not just strangers when stuff like this happen to people you know or to their families.
I understand the Israeli security starts way the airport, beginning with with the arrival road, looking at the cars coming in. I also know that places like SD and LAX just aren't designed for that kind of staggered, overlapping security, they'd have to make major changes, and of course it's costly.
I also really, truly hate having the ineffectual security theater nonsense ratcheted up by events like this.