British MP demoted for suicide-bomber remark (Globe and Mail)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040123.wbritisra0123/BNStory/International/

London — The leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats demoted a member of Parliament on Friday who said she could imagine becoming a suicide bomber if she had to live like Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy said he had asked Jenny Tonge to step down as the party's spokesman on child issues in the House of Commons. She made the remark Wednesday at a meeting of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

“Her recent remarks about suicide bombers are completely unacceptable,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement. “There can be no justification, under any circumstances for taking innocent lives through terrorism.”

Ms. Tonge had said that life can be intolerable for Palestinians.
“This particular brand of terrorism, the suicide bomber, is truly born out of desperation,” she said. “Many, many people criticize. Many, many people say it is just another form of terrorism. But I can understand and I am a fairly emotional person and I am a mother and a grandmother.

"I think if I had to live in that situation, and I say this advisedly, I might just consider becoming one myself.
“And that is a terrible thing to say.”

[legin]

1. Having just watched the Stargate episode

where they are stuck in a timeloop and end up living the same day over and over again aka Groundhog Day, then logging on and almost first thing seeing this thread is kind of apt.

[louis-t]

2. True compassion comes from understanding why..

seemingly rational people do irrational things. Something neocons will never have. They don't want to understand.

[Holly]

3. And because they don't

want to understand, they will never learn. Violence and terrorism will never be overcome, without first correcting the conditions that allow it to flourish. Agreeing with violence, and understanding why it happens, are two different things. Neo-cons aren't capable of critical thought. People entrenched in their ideology usually aren't.

[Grey]

4. I've had the same thought,

more than once myself. I understand the sentiment, praise goddess, a smart, compassionate woman speaks up. How clever, a spokesman on Child Issues speak truth and gets slapped down. Would you want your child to live like a Palestinian?

[non sociopath skin]

5. Me too.

I don't know much about this lady but a politician who does empathy is to be cherished.

The Skin

[aquart]

7. God, no.

Would you want your daughter to grow up in a situation where her husband encourages her to strap a bomb to her waist to regain her "honor" after she's "betrayed" him?

Or where she believes it's a great honor if her children blow themselves to bits as long as they take someone else's children with them?

Definitely don't want kids growing up like that. Yet, they do.

[aquart]

6. Intolerable?

She hasn't taken a look at Africa, has she? Anyone cutting off the arms of Palestinians?

Are they starving?

She has one hell of a delicate notion of intolerable. They mass murder. The Israelis destroy some houses?? Oh, and assassinate the guys in charge of the murders. That's so wrong. We'd never do anything like that.

They want what they can't have. So do I. They're going to murder everyone in their way to get it. I won't.

Is my life intolerable? Or does it only become intolerable if I start choosing murder as the best available option?

[lumpy]

8. How many children were murdered in the

attempt to 'have' Saddam?

[Voltaire99]

9. Ah, how insightful

Yes, Aquart, that's it. The Palestinians "want what they can't have" -- their homes, their fields, their economy.

This is not even remotely the same as you, say, coveting a new car.

When you have been deprived in a manner as violently thorough as that which has befallen the Palestinians, then you may compare yourself; not before.

And yes, it is wrong to destroy houses, and it is wrong to kill civilians as routinely and predictably happens in such assassinations. The US indulges in these immoral practices, too; we're no better.

[Karenina]

10. Another "Truth Teller"

beaten down for simply telling the truth.

[bvar22]

11. Terror, mass murder, maiming, destruction...

...are only acceptable if they are delivered by an F-16, an Apache helicopter, an Abrams Tank, or a bulldozer.

What's the matter with this silly woman? Didn't she get the memo?