I cringed in disgust over the intellectual dishonesty and shallowness shown by those who must know better and by those who are flooding the various media arms with criticisms over Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's lending T&T's support in co-sponsoring an American resolution dealing with foreign terrorists fighters last week in New York.
Occasion was the meeting of the United Nation's Security Council at which the US President Barack Obama called on the nations of the world to join forces in coming to grips with such terror groups as the recently-formed ISIS which has been engaged in horrendous acts of terrorism.
Their favourite method as of now is the public beheading of foreign journalists, aid workers and others as they seek to prosecute their evil and most inhumane, vile deeds on civilians in a most barbaric campaign, while perpetrating vicious crimes against humanity.
Women and children are not immune from suffering the same horrible fate by ISIS, a group which has been able to fill its ranks sadly, with ideologues from around the world, most notably the United States, England and the Middle East, with frightening ease.
Obama quite resolutely made it absolutely clear that this fight was not America's alone and the rest of the free world could never be sure that their citizens would not one day fall victims of the hellish modus operandi if these people are not corralled before it is too late.The US resolution speaks of an international ban on fighters (I prefer to describe them as brazen-faced criminals of the worst kind,) enlisting in overseas wars.
Obviously not forgetting our own experience here in T&T, our Prime Minister noted there were many advantages to the resolution but even so, this country had legitimate reservations about implementation of the decision by smaller states such as this country.
Expressing a bit of hesitation about accepting to be a co�sponsor, based on news reports from NY, Persad-Bissessar took wise counsel from her advisers and agreed in the affirmative. And although we are not members of the UN Security Council we did become a co-sponsor.It should be noted that it was one of the most important global issues given the state of the international community on anti-terrorism.
Like the rest of the world we do so at our own peril, if we decided to plant out our head in the proverbial sand and pretend that we could never experience a full-scale attack on our people such as others are facing in these global hotspots.God forbid!
At the time of writing, some 90 countries threw their support behind the Americans, realising that their countries are all under the heinous radar of the zealots who are bent on overthrowing mostly democratically elected governments in order to impose their brand of governance in which people's freedoms must conform to theirs and enforced by any violent means possible.
Unconfirmed reports have already suggested that at least 50 nationals of T&T are involved in the frontline of fighting in the Middle East, and if that is proven to be correct, that by itself, is sufficient to have our leaders take a pragmatic look at anti-terrorism strategies as PM Persad-Bissessar has demonstrated by aligning T&T with the American offensive.,
When the PM's announcement was made one heard the usual suspects jumping on cue, out of their boxes making all kinds of silly protestations, claiming "Kamla cyah fight crime in East Port-of-Spain, but she gone quite Syria to fight terrorism," and similar unadulterated crap.But the one that took the cake was our loyal Opposition Leader Keith Rowley who sounded as if he had only recently arrived in T&T after a very long leave of absence.
I was amazed that he could not recall 1990 when our innocence was brutally raped and in the process some 24 people were innocently murdered by insurgents who tragically demonstrated hallmarks of terrorists. I don't think Rowley even knew of the bombs that mysteriously exploded in the capital city, those incendiary devices which exploded in a telephone boots in St James, close to a popular bar.
I refuse to believe that Rowley on the altar of political expediency could display such a pedestrian and callous attitude towards our national security in the face of clear evidence which shows quite clearly this country is an easy target for terrorists and we need to take all practical and sensible measures to protect our country and its citizens.This is exactly what our Prime Minister did by co-sponsoring resolution number 2178.
Finally, is Rowley planning to rescind all the major decisions on crime-fighting, foreign relations and others taken by the PP administration should the PNM be voted into office, and shouldn't he let us know before the 2015 general elections?