Paris & Beirut

Paris, France. On the Boulevard Beaumarchais, there was shock on Friday over a siege at a concert hall. By Stefania Rousselle November 13, 2015.

I blame the Paris bombing on ISIS, the scum of the Earth, fed and coddled by Saudi Arabia, a good friend of the USA. Shit. I don't like that way that turned out. The big money guys are pushin' and shovin' trying to get their way, and if a few hundred thousand people get turned into paste, well, these things happen. Bastards.

Lebanese army soldiers and security forces gather as Lebanese and Hezbollah flags are erected at the site of the two explosions that occured on Thursday in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut, November 13, 2015. Reuters/Aziz Taher

Looking around I came across a story about a bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that happened about the same time as the attacks in Paris. While not as many people were killed, damage was roughly the same magnitude and you can bet it was carried out by the same scumbag organization. In Elephant, Elyane Youssef was wondering why Beirut doesn't get the same level of media attention as Paris, which prompted me to try to explain. My comment:

My perspective from the other side of the world:
1) Lebanon is one of a dozen countries in the Middle East. It is hard to keep track of which one is which. Lebanon might be special, but who can tell? It's in the Mideast, it's doomed.
2) A big problem, judging from how much it gets mentioned in the media over here, is Israel. Seems like every other country in the Mideast has gone to war against Israel and/or declared that Israel must be destroyed. That attitude pretty much negates any sympathy from any Western country for any Arab country. Whether any of the arguments people bring to bear on this issue have any merit is irrelevant. The issue for us has been decided and if you disagree you are the enemy.
3) Moderate Musselmen need to separate themselves from the Jihadists. When the terrorists call themselves Muslims, and the moderates call themselves Muslims, how can anyone tell them apart? Christianity had its own sectarian conflicts, still do in some places, but you could tell which team a player was on because the teams had different names. Do the terms Protestant and Catholic ring a bell? Moderate Muslims need to develop a separate identity, a different brand, if you like, to differentiate themselves from ISIS. If not, you're all going to be lumped together, and likely suffer the same fate.

Looking around for verification of the Beirut bombing, the only story I found was in the Alaska Dispatch News.