Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(Summer 2002)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
A different point of view.
Somewhere along the line, I believe I may have mentioned
that the British and American military had skeletons in
their own cupboards, when it came to what I perceived to
be terrorist actions, and perhaps quoted a couple of instances!
I was brought to task by one reader of the newsletter, who
stated, that I was mixing up the definition of military
force with terrorism, and that the British never used terrorist
activities, but did use "military force to subdue recalcitrant
natives"!
 So
in return, I countered with, "I fully agree that there
is a subtle difference between war and terrorism",
and gave an opinion that the battle between the Israeli
Jews and the Palestinian Arabs has been given the misnomer
of a "Middle Eastern War", as I believe that in
general a war requires two fairly equal combatants and that
unfortunately this is not the case in Palestine.
The Israeli Jews have heavy armour and modern day fighter
aircraft and the Arabs have sticks and stones and suicide
bombers.
When it comes to "terrorist activities" of the
past century, my research discovered that a British massacre,
(which cannot be classified as an act of war), occurred
on the 13th of April 1919 in Amritsar, the second largest
city in the Punjab province of India, which involved the
indiscriminate shooting and killing of unarmed Indian demonstrators
by troops led by British Officers.
Apparently a large number of Indian pilgrims gathered
in Jallianwalla Bagh, a walled garden, to listen to speeches
and celebrate a religious festival. Unbeknown to them, Brigadier
General Reginald Dyer had issued a proclamation prohibiting
processions. On his orders, his troops blocked the only
entrance to the garden and fired for ten minutes into the
defenseless crowd of some ten thousand men, women, and children,
killing nearly four hundred and wounding up to twelve hundred.
Dyer was forced to resign in March 1920. His defense for
the shooting was that he intended to teach a moral lesson
to the local populace.
 Then
of course, there was the infamous My Lai village incident
in Vietnam.
A United States Infantry company under the command of Lieutenant
William Calley massacred a large number of peasants, (including
women and children), in the village of My Lai, situated
in Quangngai Province, Vietnam, in March of 1968.
Two different situations, two different protagonists, two
different time frames, two different theatres of war, shall
we say similar occurrences. !!!
I'm sure that we would all like to forget these terrible
incidents, but in passing I felt that it would be of historic
interest to point out that each and every country has dirty
linen to wash, which it would it like to sweep under the
rug, (if you do not mind my mixing of metaphors), and so
in all fairness, I have singled out Great Britain, (the
land of my birth) and the United States, (the country of
my adoption), to illustrate my point.
May I also state that everyone has a right to criticize
the contents of the news letters I write, and I welcome
constructive criticism or comment.
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A
Different Point Of View
