Explosions in Istanbul

Al Jazeera, like all printed media, is guilty of problematic headlining, but I'm surprised at this one:

Explosions at two Jewish sites in Istanbul have reportedly left about 23 people dead and more than two hundred injured as car bomb attacks rocked the heart of the Turkish city.

It's not till way down the page that you read this:

[M]any of the dead and injured are believed to be Muslims. "The districts where both bombs went off are predominately Muslim areas."

As La Belle and I have both found out in our web forum participations, most people don't read past the headline. A few will read half of an article that is more than two short paragraphs. Very, very few people will read through an entire article of any length.

The Al Jazeera article is also set up with inner sub-headlines, which allows you to quickly check the who, what, when and where. That's nice, but what happens there is the same scenario.

For instance, at the subheading: Responsibility, the first thing we read is:

A Turkish group called the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front (IBDA-C) has claimed responsibility for the bombings.

The group wants to overthrow the secular Turkish government and replace it with an Islamist administration.

But then some further distance down:

Turkish police are not convinced that the IBA-C are responsible for the attacks.

''The security department in Istanbul has told me it doesn't believe the IBDA is responsible for the bombings. It is pointing the finger of blame at al-Qaida. The simultaneous bombings of targets is a classic al-Qaida tactic.''

Okay, going off the track here a bit - this is not Al Jazeera's fault - they've just quoted some "official". But what I want to know is, how can anyone know who does anything any more? Speculate or investigate, you can only come to a conclusion based on the evidence and your belief. And both can be misleading.

So, maybe it is Qaeda, but can another group not mimic Qaeda tactics? Are there not double agents and triple agents and bazillion agents in every country with an economic or political stake in the world? Mossad, Hizb'Allah, CIA, Sinn Fein, on and on and on, terrorist organizations, infiltrators, top secret intelligence gatherers and black ops. Only the most sheltered or heavily socio-politically drugged persons do not know that secret operations by factions of several of the world's top governments are involved in just such tactics all around the globe. From the smallest of gangland operations to the largest of global wars, there are open tactics and covert tactics. Wars are started by such things as attacks on friendly targets made to appear as if done by an enemy. Even a smart kid knows how to get away with stuff by laying the blame on somebody else.

There is no way for the average person to know who's doing what to whom. Just pick your side and your belief.

We are so goofy. Straw men and shadows.

Don your helmet and grab your fiddle, though, because it's getting worse.

So, the conclusion of the article:

Condemnation

The Israeli Foreign Ministry Silvan Shalom called on the international community to fight against ''the forces of evil'' following the attacks.

Indeed.

How does one fight "the forces of evil"? But I know what he means: kill all the Muslims.

We are so goofy.

So, let's boil this article and my lunatic rant down to the essentials of what we know:
1) the world has gone smegging mad; and
2) two serious blasts just "rocked" Istanbul - the "domino theory" is working quite well, thank you.

More bombs. That's the answer. Bring 'em on.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.