mahathir speaks sense

  1. 2,070 Posts.
    War on terror 'not very clever': Malaysian PM

    Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the global war on terror was "aggravating the situation" and that terrorism would remain a threat for a long time to come.

    Mr Mahathir said that the worldwide assault on terrorists was "not very clever".

    "At the moment, the handling of these terrorist attacks is not very clever. They (those combating terrorism globally) are aggravating the situation," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

    "When people don't feel safe travelling or flying, business cannot be done and that affects the world economy," he said.

    Mr Mahathir warned terrorism could continue to be a problem as long as the fundamental reasons behind it were removed.

    "The fact is if you don't try to remove the reasons, then this (threat) would continue and if you make matters worse, of course we are going to live with terrorism for a very, very long time," he said.

    Mr Mahathir said acts such as the Israeli military killing Palestinian civilians promoted terror acts.

    "For example, you see the Israeli army killing civilians and the world never stops Israel," he said.

    "But they want to stop the Palestinians but not Israel. Children are being killed. If a house is suspected of having a terrorist, the whole house is demolished together with all the people in the house.

    "At one time they (Israel) at least picked on the terrorists, they identified (them) but now they pick on the house. They also select the whole settlement, destroy the settlement. If there are two or three suspected terrorists in one town, they destroy the whole town," he said.

    Mr Mahathir said such actions made the people angry, "and when people are angry, it is very difficult for them to stop expressing their anger in the only way they can and that is by terrorist attacks".

    Malaysia has called for the need to define terrorism and resolve the causes of terrorism.

    Mr Mahathir has in the past criticised suicide bombers.

 
arrow-down-2 Created with Sketch. arrow-down-2 Created with Sketch.