{"id":264127,"date":"2010-02-02T08:01:04","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T13:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/papundits.wordpress.com\/?p=30700"},"modified":"2010-02-02T08:01:04","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T13:01:04","slug":"suicide-bombers-%e2%80%93-a-personal-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/264127","title":{"rendered":"Suicide Bombers \u2013 A Personal Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

I spent more than 25 years serving my Country in the Royal Australian Air Force. Any promotions became effective on the first day of the month, and you were always given two weeks notice of promotion. The move in rank to Sergeant was always the big step. It was the first step into Senior Non Commissioned (SNCO) rank, and because of that, you then you moved away from being ‘one of the men’ to a position of middle ranking ‘leader of men’, and because of that, there needed to be some form of detachment. You still stayed as friends, but now it was from a position of responsibility, and one of man management and administration. You also then had the added responsibility of being in control of the work those under you did, because, especially in the Air Force, and working around Military aircraft of all sorts, then the work done on those aircraft, and their equipment that kept them flying,\u00a0 just had to be perfect, and because of that it needed to be independently checked as being done correctly, part and parcel of SNCO rank, again a form of detachment from the personal association with those lower in rank, not a form of elitism, but a form of separation.<\/p>\n

Upon promotion to Sergeant, that very first day was spent on an introduction to life in the Sergeant’s Mess, called that, but in reality the gathering place for all those ranks above that of Sergeant. On a large operational base of two thousand or more men and women, there would only be a couple of hundred men and women of that rank at the most, and the Mess, even though a place where they ate their meals, was more of a Social place where members of those ranks could gather. Each month there was a Members Dining In night where all members gathered on a Friday evening for 6 hours in a semi formal way for a meal. It may seem like a ritual, but those gatherings were always very well thought of not as a ritual, but where we could gather and have a great night together. We had to be attired in our Mess Kit, a special uniform only for these Mess gatherings. Every second month there would be a Mixed Dining In night, where those married members could bring their wives with them. It was basically the same, only less formal. These gatherings were always looked forward to by the ladies, as they could dress up and gather with good friends, and in fact, the wives usually looked forward to them more than the SNCO’s themselves. There were also the Summer and Winter Balls, more formal again, and also highly looked forward to by all members. All these gatherings were always well attended, but the Members Monthly Dining In nights were compulsory, and you needed a pretty good reason to not attend.<\/p>\n

Upon promotion to Sergeant, on that first day of the Month, all new Sergeants had to attend the Mess for start of work on that day until time to go home, Stand To to Stand Down, a period of 9 hours. There were usually six to ten new Sergeants, and this day was a day of intensive orientation. The Chairman of the Mess Committee, (CMC) a senior Warrant officer, was the guide for the day, and it was a crash course on how things went in the Mess.<\/p>\n

Where does this fit in with Suicide Bombers?<\/p>\n

<\/span>The very first thing done on that day of orientation, after the necessary paper work was a morning tea. CMC then told us the first rule of The Mess. When gathered together, on any occasion whatsoever, three things were NEVER discussed.<\/p>\n

Politics, Religion, and Sex.<\/p>\n

Even work was sometimes not discussed, but in the main, those three things were absolutely verboten. Not only was this the first thing he mentioned, he then further reinforced it numerous times throughout the day. This was a place of relaxation for SNCO’s away from everyday life, where we could gather as friends and not be subject to the requirements of rank in the workplace, and the semi detachment that the SNCO rank required while at work. It was also a place for relaxation, for not getting into heated arguments, something that these three things normally entailed, so the talk was always friendly and done in a friendly environment with no underlying things that might detract from that relaxation.<\/p>\n

It was something that actually worked too, because in all my time, as member of four different Messes on four bases, and in my visits to Messes on half a dozen other bases, those things were very rarely mentioned, if ever. It was just not done.<\/p>\n

Because of that, it has carried over into my life outside the RAAF, since retiring.<\/p>\n

At a Blog like this, I am free to make any and all comments about Politics that I wish, but when I am out in Company, then I never even mention those three things. It’s something that, while at first a discipline thing that you had to carefully keep in check, has now become second nature.<\/p>\n

Of those three things, the touchiest by far would have to be that of religion. Even here at a Blog, it is still something I assiduously avoid talking about. That in the main is a discipline (now second nature) reinforced from that earlier time, but in these days of political correctness especially, as soon as any form of religion is mentioned, you immediately open yourself up to being labelled as racist, or other things along that same line, and that is one thing I most definitely avoid, because in a way it tends to colour what people may think of you by so blatantly and obviously taking a positional stance on the subject.<\/p>\n

However, sometimes it is actually worth mentioning, not out of bloody mindedness, but to make a salient point, and this is one of those occasions.<\/p>\n

This story was in the news media today<\/a>, and even though the mention of suicide bombers has become almost a daily thing that has tended to take the edge of such stories, and after hearing of so many similar stories, virtually on a daily basis, they tend make us a little more immune from the horror we felt at the first time we became aware of them, so now, it just seems to be another daily news story.<\/p>\n

This story is of a woman in Northern Baghdad who strapped explosives to her body under her clothing and then blew herself up in a public place, taking the lives of 54 innocent people going about their daily lives. Another 117 people were badly injured. Among the dead were 18 women and 12 children.<\/p>\n

This was not a case of an attack on what is perceived as foreigners who have supposedly invaded their Country. This was not an attack on Western influences. This was not an attack on soldiers of an Army. This was an attack on ordinary people, and in fact, her own Country men and women, and children. People in the same situation as she herself was.<\/p>\n

What it was however, was an attack on a gathering of Shi’ite pilgrims, all of them. The woman in question was most probably from the Sunni following, one of the branches of the same Muslim religious following.<\/p>\n

So this was Muslims killing other Muslims. Not one religious faith with different followings arguing openly as is sometimes the case. Not agreeing to disagree, not openly criticising the other following, but strapping explosives to her body and then going amongst unsuspecting people and killing them en masse. She hid the explosives under her Abaya,<\/a> a complete, black, head to toe covering, with just a slit at eye level, and sometimes referred to in other areas as a Chador or a Burqa. Whilst waiting to be checked for explosives, she detonated the bomb, causing this mass havoc.<\/p>\n

The comment I wish to make here is this. Some of you readers may attend Churches of different faiths in your own Communities. Tell me, when was the last time you were in a meeting with your Minister or Pastor, or Priest, and he exhorted you to kill members of any, or all other faiths? When did that Church leader explain to you how to go about doing this. When did that Church leader actively tell those gathered with him that this would result in your immediate ascension into Paradise. When did that Church leader tell you that as women you would be less suspected in matters like this. When did that Church leader actively recruit people to do this sort of thing. When did that Church leader tell you that was acceptable, and in fact necessary. When did that Church leader tell you that if you did this, you would be a martyr and have the respect of others for doing it. When did this Church leader tell you that you, as followers must do this, not him as a Church leader, but YOU as his followers. Point me in the direction of one Christian Church that does anything that even remotely approaches this.<\/p>\n

When a religious faith has as its creed ‘Death to the infidel’, and when everybody outside their religious faith is considered an infidel, then this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with religious faith.<\/p>\n

This is murder, plain and simple, and most definitely not a religious faith.<\/p>\n

Filed under: Crimes Against Children<\/a>, Crimes Against Humanity<\/a>, Fanatics<\/a>, Fear-mongering<\/a>, Iraq<\/a>, Islam<\/a>, Islamic Terrorists<\/a>, Middle East<\/a>, Personal<\/a>, Politically Correct<\/a>, Propaganda<\/a>, Public Opinion<\/a> Tagged: Islam Atrocities<\/a>, Islamic Extremism<\/a>, Islamic Faith<\/a>, Shiite Muslims<\/a>, Suicide Bombers<\/a>, Sunni Muslims<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent more than 25 years serving my Country in the Royal Australian Air Force. Any promotions became effective on the first day of the month, and you were always given two weeks notice of promotion. The move in rank to Sergeant was always the big step. It was the first step into Senior Non […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}