A chara, - Several of your correspondents have described the Beslan atrocity in similar terms - e.g., "a new low in evil and sheer depravity" (Anthony Redmond September 9th); "new and previously unimaginable depth in the slaughter of innocent children" (T. Fanthom, September 8th).
While it is hard not to sympathise with the anguish of those moved to write to your newspaper in these terms, it is equally difficult not to feel frustrated by their naïveté.
Crimes against humanity, tragically, are nothing new. Innocent people - children included - have been slaughtered in their thousands in (to name but a few) Rwanda, Germany, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Congo, China and Sierra Leone, and they continue to be killed, notably in Sudan.
One difference between those atrocities and Beslan (as with 9/11), is that Beslan happened before the eyes of the world on television. Otherwise, the fact that one crime is perpetrated by terrorists and another by State sanction is irrelevant. The challenge we face is to recognise the circumstances under which evil may flourish, and the kinds of people who exploit them.
Indeed, John Waters (Opinion September 6th) asks that we "recognise the enemy", but then suggests that "in the horror of Beslan we see again the face of the enemy we first encountered three years ago".
This latter statement ignores what people have done to each other throughout history, and will continue to do until we find other ways to resolve conflict. It ignores acts of evil committed in the killing fields of Cambodia, disappearances in Argentina and even murders committed on our own troubled island. In short, it ignores the fact that human nature is the enemy. Declaring war on terror or evil is every bit as fatuous, vain and self-destructive as declaring war on war itself.
Mr Waters goes on to say that "once again we receive a reminder as to the nature of this foe, unlike any we have known before". But of course we have known this foe before, just as the world, tragically, has known this level of violence before.
Part of the horror of Beslan is that it was a crime committed by human beings, just like Mr Waters and just like this correspondent. This foe is nothing new, but our reaction to it is. We have become shrill, fearful and despairing when we need strength the most. This tragedy will not define our times, but how we react to it might. - Is mise,
STEPHEN D.COLLINS,
South Circular Road,
Kilmainham,
Dublin 8.
... ...
Madam, - Kevin Myers says that fundamentalists (although he really means terrorists) are "supported by their cretinous,whinging groupies in the West" in attempting "to justify their terrorist deeds" (An Irishman's Diary, September 8th).
Apart from being irritated by the tired old trick of associating liberalism with inaction and amorality, I was angered by his suggestion that anyone could support the vile and inhuman acts that took place in Beslan.
People who try to understand the motivations of terrorism are not sympathisers; they are trying to understand the enemy, so that more of their kind are not created. "Evil" is not a good enough explanation.
As usual, Mr Myers offers no answers to a terrible situation, but uses it to score political points. - Yours, etc.,
ENDA KILROY, Whitehall, Dublin 9.