ces moves into Iraq, according to The Jamestown Foundation. …[T]he US, European Union, Arab states, and Iraq would all oppose an incursion, though, which Ankara must weigh heavily.
The Kurds and Kirkuk
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Mick,
Off topic, but you may be interested in John Derbyshire’s take on the VT attack, given your comments on his take on the Iranian hostage situation. The man is clearly unhinged.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzllOTU0MDUzY2NhZDE2YmViYmRiNmE5ZjM1OWQxYTU= -
Is it really a matter of opinion that the PKK are bad folks?
Anthony, what’s “unhinged” about jumping the guy with the gun instead of just standing there wetting yourself like a castrato and waiting to die? You do realize that Derbyshire’s view on that one has been the norm for the human race — not counting those few people too infantilized by wealth to imagine being able to solve their own problems — since we learned to walk upright? -
I don’t know about unhinged, but I’d certainly agree that Derbyshire’s comments are offensive, with that implication that somehow the dead were wimps. That’s pretty disgusting.
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Mm. Setting aside the tone of his remarks – easier for me to do than the families of the dead – he’s right in one regard. It might be wise for people to try to think through what their options will be if they should suffer a violent attack. I was mugged once by a chap who tried to stick his knife into my heart. So I disarmed him. That’s the easy bit: I simply reacted unthinkingly and proved to have faster hands than him. (Recommendation #1: spend summer hours standing in the slips.) But then what to do? I had never thought about it and, I can tell you, that left me foolishly standing with a knife in my hand wondering what to do next while he retreated to his weapons stash and returned with something bigger.
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Well, I’m not sure what I’d do if someone burst into one of my lectures with a gun. Presumably, I’d be the first to be shot before having even the option of rushing him.
He wasn’t slowly taking aim, but rapidly firing into people. Derbyshire is hardly qualified to give any opinion on how people should have reacted in the circumstances. Who’s to say people didn’t rush him and die in the process.
Derbyshire cites United 93 as an example of how to react, apparently forgetting that the passengers were initally cowed by the unexpected violence, before later making the decision to attack after coming to terms with their doomed situation. This isn’t downplaying what they did, but being realistic about how people react.
If your calculation is that the gunman is just going to merely randomly shoot a few people or is after a particular person then you try and get out of his way to avoid being the next victim, if you knew he was going to shot everyone in the class then perhaps you may have made the calculation to be at the head of the line to jump him. Who knows? Few of us are equipped to deal with intense and fast violence, and we don’t know how we would react in any given circumstance. Some of the amateur psychology made by P Froward even mirrors the gunman’s reasons for the attacks, the victims were “infantilized by wealth”. The bodies arn’t even in the ground and people are criticising them.
What next? Iraqis killed in sectarian attacks ought to stand up for themselves, I mean how could someone allow themselves to be captured and shot in the back of the head?
Derbyshire is an utter disgrace.
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