FARC didn't murder these, but they did murder thousands of others

Wednesday March 05, 2003 19:47

by Joe Ranii

FARC didn't shoot down that helicopter in Colombia, so they shouldn't claim "credit" for killing over 20 young men. But they do have lots of other atrocities to answer for !

It's a shame to see someone taking pleasure in
the deaths of the working-class and peasant young
men who make up the bulk of the Army of the
Colombian Republic. It's the same kind of
attitude as we may shortly see among warmongers
who will take pleasure in death and mayhem in Iraq. There is something a little disgusting about cheer-leading wars from thousands of miles away, though it is something Irish people often tend to do.
As a matter of fact, there is no evidence that
this was a FARC attack; in fact the pilot was
reporting engine trouble for several minutes
before he went down. But it doesn't really matter
whether or not the FARC killed these people--we
know that they have killed thousands of Colombians
over the past year or two, the great majority of
them workers and peasants. They have rejected
the offers by the Colombian state to work towards
a peaceful settlement, and remain further from
winning their "war" than any time since they were
founded in the 1960s. They have nothing to offer Colombia except death and despair, and that's why they have no popular support and could not survive except for the drugs trade.