Bully for Christiane Amanpour !

Bully for Christiane Amanpour ! I saw on CNN her interview with Hamas leader (name not registered), asking his views on the Israeli elections. Since the Israeli government and apparently the new US administration will not talk with Hamas because they are 'terrorists' the world at large cannot form an opinion on what sort of people these 'terrorists' are - so it must be up to people like CNN, BBC etc to fill the gap. People generally do not go about killing indiscriminately because they like killing. They are sending a message. And I for one am not clear what the messages of Hamas, Iranian government, Al Quaeda, Taliban etc are. The common element is that they are all muslim, so religion obviously plays a part, but one feels that Islam is the glue which binds these people together, and that the root cause lies in political, social, economic grievances. Taliban may be an exception. But political, social, economic etc grievances must be assessed in a totally objective manner ; and solutions proposed which will almost certainly not fully satisfy all parties, but could be acceptable in the interests of peace. And this can only be done by listening and talking - certainly not by dictating from a position of economic and military supremacy. To be a 'devil's advocate' and hazard an assessment of views on 'terrorism' : the 9/11 event and bomb attacks in Madrid, London and elsewhere resulted in the deaths of some 4,000 innocent civilians and barely more than the material destructions of some prestigious offices in Manhattan, all carried out by 'civilians' not identifiable as 'enemies' through lack of uniforms and advanced weaponry. What was the message ? Do we really know ? Hamas' use of thousands of simple uncontrollable missiles with an explosive charge, apparently, of little more than a large hand-grenade was a great nuisance to the Israelis and resulted in a death-count and material damage the extent of which I do not know. What is Hamas' message ? The riposte to these attacks of 'terrorism' resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the displacement of hundreds of thousand of households ; and the almost total destruction of Gaza. All done with uniformed troops dressed as if from another planet and supported by identifiable tanks, aircraft and artillery. Being dressed in uniform and being identifiable apparently makes these actions legitimate in non-muslim eyes. The message is "Don't mess about with us". But in muslim eyes Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza are acts of terrorism carried out by vastly superior forces backed by wealthy economies against people without the means to defend themselves and whose grievances will not be heard. So they must resort to terrorism. What a ridiculous situation ! Surely intelligent, objective minds can sort this mess out ? So, CNN, BBC and others please talk with 'terrorist' leaders so that we can assess objectively the legitimacy or otherwise of their grievances, and hope thereby to persuade our leaders to listen as a start to solving the problems. Tell the terrorists that the world is watching and listening to them ; and therefore to think hard before talking, and to produce reasonable, intelligent, objective reasons for their attitude. From John Davenport, British octogenerian round-world yachtsman presently in Philippines with nothing better to do than to try to put the world straight.