Friday, June 13, 2008 Escudero: The world's first terrorist By Edcer Escudero Wit or without
HOW do you solve a world problem like Osama bin Laden? Erase him from the face of the earth!
That's exactly what US President George W. Bush tried to do months after Osama's apostles of terror obliterated America's tallest steel structure, the 103-storey World Trade Center on September 11, 2003.
His pride badly hurt and seething in righteous anger, Mr. Bush unloaded tons of America's mighty bombs and missiles on the mountains of Afghanistan where the multi-millionaire Al-Qaeda leader was believed to be hiding in an air-conditioned cave.
When the gun smoke thinned out, Bin Laden was out of sight. He reportedly fled to nearby Pakistan. Mr. Bush failed to erase Osama bin Laden from the face of the earth, but he nearly erased Afghanistan from the map of the world.
Terrorism is not an exclusive phenomenon of modern times. Varied types of terrorists have sprung from all corners of the earth since the beginning of civilization, and each employed different methods of terror.
There were the pirates who attacked and robbed ships at sea. The earliest pirates surfaced in ancient Mediterranean - Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Cilicians, and Greeks.
Pirates ruled the high seas and terrorized travelers in Europe and Asia from the 6th to the 19th centuries. The Vikings, Scandinavian seafarers terrorized Northern and Western Europe for 200 years (8th-10th Century).
In 75 BC pirates captured Julius Caesar, then 25 years old, while he was on his way to Rhodes province, and demanded ransom money. That was probably the first KFR case in world history.
Then, in the first two decades of the 20th century, it was the turn of hijackers to spread terrorism. They seized transport vehicles on land, in the air, and at sea. Hijacking became infrequent by the turn of the century, but the 9/11 incident in New York is too fresh for comfort.
In the 14th Century AD, the Mongols from Mongolia terrorized most of Europe and part of Asia. They ravaged nations and enslaved people. From them we came to know the term barbarian.
The Roman emperors and soldiers were the terrorists of the ancient civilization until the Christian era. They had absolutely no respect for human lives.
Killings were just a game as they threw slaves to the lions for entertainment. They executed criminals by hanging them on wooden crosses.
Today, in this third millennium, the next terrorists are the suicide bombers who spread terror to gain eternal reward in the after-life. The known terrorist groups are Al-Qaeda, based in the Middle East led by mystic bin Laden, and the Jemaah Islamiyah based in Indonesia.
In the Philippines, there is the Abu Sayyaf operating in Western Mindanao. They specialize in kidnap-for-ransom, a criminal activity they did not invent, but have transformed it into a lucrative cottage industry. The US government has declared Abu Sayyaf a terrorist group.
Osama bin Laden is not the most evil of terrorists. There were others before him who were more brutal, more depraved, and debasing. They committed monstrous carnage and inflicted unimaginable psychological devastation on their fellow humans.
In the 13th Century, Mongol ruler Genghis Khan "flattened continents like a tidal wave" and butchered most of Asia, Europe, and Prussia. His army used "death as a form of discipline and looting as a reward."
The next century, a man from Samarkand, Uzbikistan named Tamerlane (originally Timur-i-leng), slaughtered 70,000 people who defied him and piled their heads in the shape of pyramid.
Six centuries later came Adolf Hitler, Germany's "Der Fuhrer" who killed people "not for what they did, but for who they were." Bin Laden kills in God's name; Hitler thought he was God, and killed in the name of his housemate, Eva Braun.
He killed six million Jews because they belonged to an inferior race and, therefore, had no right to live. Hitler was the ultimate megalomaniac.
Communist leader Josef Stalin killed "enemies of the state" and rumbled his way through half of Europe. Saddam Hussein made himself president for life, and held his countrymen prisoners in their own homeland.
Terrorists are inhuman humans. They do not value human life; hence, they do not care a bit about human rights. They have no conscience, no mercy, no pity, no remorse, and utterly insensitive to human sufferings. The best way to deal with terrorists is to annihilate them all. Their inhumanity to man has forfeited their right to exist in this world.
Fact or fiction: The world's very first terrorist was a man called Cain who stoned to death his own brother out of jealousy. His father, Adam, was so terrified that he temporarily lost his sanity, and forgot to procreate. But cave mate Eve took matters into her own hands and restored Adam's senses back to normal. And they procreated happily ever after.
Humor Dept.: This one is sourced from an incurable wit, Pio Velasco - The good old days, remember when: jeep fare, soft drink - P10; body tattoo - seen only in jailbirds; earrings - worn by girls only; top tunes - Volare, Day by Day; favorite stars - Clark Gable, Ava Gardner; comedy duo - Jerry Lewis-Dean Martin; cinema fare - double feature; top noon show - Student Canteen. Now, if you remember all these, you are "gurang" already; if you don't, you have Alzheimer's disease.
