Tim Blair

"But I will not shed tears when those responsible for the countless terrorist bombings in Bali, Jakarta, New York, Washington and Baghdad are put to death."

Pop Quiz! Spot the missing city in his list.

If you said "Jerusalem", go to the head of the class.

heh. good point, iowa

Yes I was thinking the same thing..

On a side note.. You eastiest have probably just woken up.. I haven't gone to bed yet :\

I noticed as well that Israel was missing from his outrage. What a humanitarian.

Jose Ramos-Horta is a politician like any other and because of all the islamic countries in the world (and the vulnerability of east timor) he probably intentionally deleeted israel from that list.
With lots of angry islamic terrorists running around in the area it jsut isn't prudent to get involved in critisizeing hamas etc like that.
But on the whole from what I have heard Jose is on our side and not Pilgers.

Just because he didn't mention every country that has been attacked by terrorists doesn't necessarily mean he is therefore singling Israel out to be ignored.

Then again (I posted this before Scottie commented) he could have decided not to do so for the reason Scottie cited.

The first few posters seem to see anti-semitism or some such in leaving Israel off the list. Jumping to conclusion perhaps? Of course, like Freud said "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar", don't try and read more into it than what is there.

On a brighter note, thank God he made the statement public and has taken a position that shows more than a left/right political mind-set.

Supporting the death penalty? Won't they revoke his Nobel for that?

It's funny how having someone they knew get murdered will frequently change the opinion of the anti death penalty crowd.

Yet until then they tend to dismiss the opinions of the next of kin.

It always good to see victims of terrorism who aren't evil Americans and Jews. After decades of turning a blind eye to terrorist states, maybe the UN might wake up to itself.

I couldn't believe my ears last night on SBS news ... Richard Butler being interviewed by Mary K about the Baghdad bombing.

He was aghast at the killings and said there were 2 sets of people in Baghdad, the Coalition and the UN. Terrorists will kill people he said, but with this bomb they had "killed the wrong people".

Astonishing! Who are the "right" people to be killed by terrorists? If not UN personnel, he must mean the Coalition forces.

So here we have the designated Governor of Tasmania accepting that Iraqi terrorists will kill, and implying that because the UN forces are the good guy, they should be left alone whilst it is understandable and preferable that Coalition forces (which include his own countrymen) are killed.

Horta did support the coalition of the willing in the Iraq conflict and from memory spoke out against the UN for not supporting it. I don't think he has much sympathy for Islamic lunatics.

I suspect leaving Isreal off the list was inadvertant or accidental. He does not mention Barcelona, Northern Ireland or the Shining Path either. To make his point he has highlighted a number of recent terrorist attacks. I don't believe it is necessary to list every terrorist attack in the world ever when you wish to make a point about terrorism being bad. I don't think we need to read into the omission of Isreal.

Then Butler is a king sized idiot. It as if these people seriously believe that the "jihadists" are just a bunch of over excited socialists who only hate people officialy sanctioned by the socialist collective.

Butler is correct in saying that the UN are the wrong people to kill, as they're trying to help Iraq. However, by the same logic, killing coalition forces would also be killing the wrong people.

Why can't they kill Saddam or Assad or Mugabe or ...

So many targets, so few bullets!

Harry Tuttle: "It's funny how having someone they knew get murdered will frequently change the opinion of the anti death penalty crowd. Yet until then they tend to dismiss the opinions of the next of kin."

Yeah, I'm sure Ramos-Horta didn't know anyone who was killed before. East Timorese only had that gentle occupation by Indonesia to contend with.

Anthony: If i'm not mistaken Ramos Horta's son was killed by pro Indonesian militias a couple of years ago. Not to mention the death of several of his brothers during the occupation by the Indonesians.

While he may have inadvertently left off Israel, the places he did list have all been hit once, but Israel has been hit time after time after time. I think it is more a matter of those hits not being thought of as terrorism but as acts in a noble cause. Look at how the media treated the 2 incidents. The UN gets hit and the media are all over it, but on the same day little children get blown up in Jerusalem and you don't hear the same wailing and gnashing of teeth, just another day in the neighborhood.

PortugueseGuy: Uh, yes, I know. I was being sar-carsick.

Richard Butler? isnt he related to BEN BUTLER the demon spawn (son) of a former socialist federal labor parliamentarian? Keep working the system Ben. Funny how you got that scholarship to study music at Berkley when there were heaps more deserving people than you. It's great to be a tosser socialist when you can fall back on your family's money and influence isnt it?