Sitting back and doing nothing is not a choice

Gwynne Dyer’s opinion ‘Shackled to the warlords’ (Cyprus Mail, August 18) is the kind of non-opinion that I used to hear from the local barber, who would often lament that people should mind their own business and stay out of trouble. Perhaps everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but if it comes with the pedigree of having a 45-country audience, then I believe it deserves some observation.

The fact is, that Afghanistan was a failed state that was allowed to nurture the likes of Osama Bin Laden. Every major country minding its own business found that out to their peril. To have done nothing about it would have allowed the possibility of Pakistan turning into a failed state as well, with all its nuclear and biological weaponry falling into the wrong hands.

These terrorists, who have no respect for their own people, will have even less for the rest of us. Whose country’s citizen would I have to be to avoid the possibility of becoming a victim of a terrorist attack? Where can one be safe? An Australian tourist in Bali? A Greek tourist in Egypt? A German family in Yemen? A street vendor in Kenya? A beggar or businessman in Mumbai?

They say that Hitler spend 24 hours in agony waiting for the response to his invasion of Czechoslovakia. When it never came, Poland was next. Imagine how many million people would have avoided the gas chambers if the Allies had stood their ground much earlier on.

I disagree with Mr Dyer, because I believe in life we have to take moral and honourable choices – some ones harder than others. Maybe at the end of it, we may find out that we are not the liberators, but just another passing conqueror.

But at least it will for the sole purpose of giving these people a fighting chance in self determination from all the entities who make it their purpose in life to turn their country into a safe harbour for terror.

Demetris Ioannou,
Larnaca