While most major American news outlets are obsessed today with Britney's shaved head or the identity of Anna Nicole's inseminator, they all missed this awesome and, arguably, relevant story about a quick-thinking airline pilot who thwarted a hijacking of his plane. Maybe the indifference is because this happened in Mauritania, which most navel-gazing Americans have never heard of, and if Americans have never heard of something, I guess that officially means It Doesn't Matter.
But you know, considering how we're supposed to be in this "war on terror" or somesuch, you'd think a positive and even hilarious story such as this one would be good for everyone's morale.
Short version: An Air Mauritania plane was hijacked by some dink who somehow managed to board the plane with two loaded handguns, which I sincerely hope means someone in airport security is out today job-hunting. The guy demanded to be flown to France. It transpired that the pilot learned the hijacker spoke no French. So the pilot brazenly announced, in French, to the entire plane, over the PA system, his plan for foiling the hijacker, encouraging crew and male passengers to shift to the front rows to be ready to pounce while women and children were asked to move to the back. Then the pilot made an intentionally rough landing, knocking the hijacker on his ass, whereupon he was dogpiled by no fewer than ten men.
How to Rock, 101.
Perhaps another reason this is being ignored stateside is that what this pilot and his passengers accomplished does not redound to the credit of Bush and his cronies, whom we are all supposed to keep believing is leading the charge against global terror wherever it may rear its ugly head. I mean, if we really were under the yoke of a Liberal Media in this country, with a simple partisan agenda of looking for anything at all to show that there were other folks out there getting done what Bush continues to fail pitifully doing, this would be a pretty irresistible story. Ya think?
My favorite part:
ReplyDelete"The pilot, named by Air Mauritania as Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine..." {i.e., the guy everyone in an American airport would assume was the terrorist.)
I love the irony.
If it wasn't on Fox, it didn't happen.
ReplyDeletecheckit, you've kind of made my point for me. This was a real (if inept) terrorist, and he was dealt with by real folks, while the Bush administration has spent four years, billions of dollars, and thousands of lives chasing after phantom terrorists while not only ignoring the real ones but giving them a rallying cry over the Iraq debacle. That's what I was on about.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you expect of people in general?
Better. It's a character flaw.
How do you keep up the enegery needed to post so angery all of the time?
I pay attention. It's another character flaw.
Maybe I missed the blog point, but I took the post to be saying that if this were, for example, an American or British pilot, it would have been headline news due to our current fixation with anti-terrorism. But instead of a thwarted terrorist hijacking, I was watching a dog save idiot mountain climbers, who practically begged to get themselves into a potentially deadly predicament, on this week's headline news.
ReplyDeleteThe "war on terror" is not just about Iraq or Al-Kaeda. Bush has made it abundantly clear that it's terror _anywhere_ he finds it--until the world is safe. In no way have I seen or heard any indication that he is limiting the war on terror to one country.
That's part of what's so scary about his speeches. Since "terrorist" is not a strictly defined term, it's anything we want it to be--and any assault becomes justified in a "War on Terror" (as opposed to a War on Iraq or on Al-Kaeda or what-have-you) if we just point a finger and yell "TERRORIST!"
The bullets and bombs the solders are being hit with are not phantom.
ReplyDeleteBut by your own admission, the weapons of mass destruction, the links between Saddam and Al Qaeda, and every other reason we were given for going to war in Iraq were. Terrorist movements who are now active in Iraq setting off roadside bombs to kill our troops (for whom the admin refuses to provide adequate body armor and support) are active because we gave them a reason to be active. Their actions are a response to our invasion. Like it or not, Bush has handed radical Islamists the greatest rallying battle cry since "Remember the Alamo!"