Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDarkness in Paris. (Charlie Pierce)
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a39723/paris-terror-attacks/There is no question that it will get worse as they move toward dawn in Paris. There is no question that it will get worse as the days turn into months and the months into years. Barbarians have laid siege to an entire European city for one of the first times since Rome fell. The body count will climb. The retribution will be swift and harsh, as will the inevitable reaction, and as will the retribution for the reaction. And the events of the day will be fed into the armored, blind triviality of the ongoing American election, and into the utterly corrupted American political system, and into the carefully cultivated timidity and faithlessness that all of these things have combined to make out of the American democracy over the past 15 years. Something awful has happened in Paris. Out of it will be born something awful in the collective mind and the collective heart and the collective soul. I wish I weren't so sure of this, but the planet looks awfully black from up here, and it doesn't look any different if you close your eyes.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
10 replies, 2912 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (58)
ReplyReply to this post
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Darkness in Paris. (Charlie Pierce) (Original Post)
MH1
Nov 2015
OP
now is not the time-- but there are always questions about why such things happen
Fast Walker 52
Nov 2015
#9
TeeYiYi
(8,028 posts)1. French radio reporter Julien Pearce was inside the Bataclan theater...
...when gunmen entered. Two men dressed in black started shooting what he described as AK-47s, and after wounded people fell to the floor, the two gunmen shot them again, execution-style, he said. The two men didn't wear masks and didn't say anything. The gunfire lasted 10 to 15 minutes, sending the crowd inside the small concert hall into a screaming panic, said Pearce, who escaped. He said he saw 20 to 25 bodies lying on the floor. The hostage situation at the Bataclan continued early Saturday. One of the explosions at the Stade de France outside Paris appears to be a suicide bombing, a Western intelligence source receiving direct intelligence from the scene told CNN's Deb Feyerick. A dismembered body, consistent with the aftermath of an explosion from that type of device, was found at the scene, the source said.
TYY
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)2. The money line
"Barbarians have laid siege to an entire European city for one of the first times since Rome fell."
Yet even here, people seek to explain away, if not quite justify, the barbarians and their barbarism.
I prefer to remember the victims.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)5. I haven't read anyone here
trying to explain this away or even remotely justify it. Where did you get such an idea?
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)6. There have been some pretty clear insinuations
that this is all the fault of the West. Which it may be in some part. And there was one kook speculating that it was a false-flag operation by Western states.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)8. Here on DU?
There are always people who will make such claims. Their assertions are subject to the crucible of evidence just like anything else stated as fact.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)9. now is not the time-- but there are always questions about why such things happen
and who benefits.
Renew Deal
(81,860 posts)10. Here you go
Overseas
(12,121 posts)3. K&R. So sad...