Koizumi swipe at 'terrorists' downplayed

[modaya]

Government officials tried to play down allegations Wednesday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has prolonged the crisis over three Japanese being held hostage in Iraq by calling their captors "terrorists."
The kidnappers apparently decided against freeing the three civilians after Koizumi said Friday that Japan would not yield to "terrorists," Sheikh Abdel Sala Al-Kubaissi of the Islamic Clerics Association said Tuesday in Iraq. The sheikh's statement was widely reported Wednesday by Japanese media.

"I know of the reports, but I'd like you to consider whether discussing the matter is positive for realizing the hostages' release," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040415a1.htm

[mobuto]

1. Nonsense

People who kidnap civilian aid workers and threaten to burn them alive, on camera, are nothing if not terrorists.

Koizumi is right.

[el_gato]

3. that what happens when you invade and kill, it gets ugly

but hey you were a cheerleader for this invasion and now
you get upset when the people who live there play hardball
Maybe you'd feel different if it was your family being gunned down.

[mobuto]

4. I was not a cheeleader for this invasion

I opposed it. You can continue to promote your silly, dishonest strawmen and you can continue to promote a lawless act of terrorist banditry, but I have hopes you'll change.

>>Maybe you'd feel different if it was your family being gunned down.

Why? You're saying you think I'd burn civilian aid workers alive? Shame on you.

[el_gato]

6. Kinda strange

people trying to repel an invasion are not bandits

Are you saying if people came in and gunned down your family you wouldn't want to get revenge?

[bpilgrim]

5. timing is EVERYTHING

and it WAS STOOOPID like most things the neoCONs do.

peace

[On the Road]

2. In the Case of Kidnappings and Death Threats,

the term "terrorist" becomes more appropriate.

For some reason, journalists, politicians, and the general public seem unable to make the most basic distinctions among very different kinds of actions.