ANOTHER SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS

From the Age editorial, December 18th 2014.

The phrase 'man's inhumanity to man' appeared in the Robert Burns poem Man was made to mourn: A Dirge. The bitter truth of those words was underscored this week as news emerged of the slaughter of more than 140 innocent people, including 132 children, in the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan. It was reported that there were seven attackers, all wearing suicide jackets, and that they issued no demands but sought only to kill students. It was a planned operation whose only intent was mass murder...................

The idea that the taking of innocent lives can be justified in any way is absolutely abhorrent, and must be condemned outright........

As Australians continue to seek to come to terms with tragic events at home this past week – the senseless killing of two innocent people in the lone-gunman siege at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney's Martin Place – this heinous crime against humanity in Pakistan forces us again to look upon the grim face of terrorism in its true sense. This was an attack upon children for warped and depraved aims – and for revenge. It was an affront to our common humanity...................

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, the young Nobel prize laureate, herself a victim of Taliban violence, said this week that she had been 'heartbroken by this senseless and cold-blooded act of terror...