Most terrorists die a violent death. They die fighting the government they oppose, or they get killed by people in their own group, or they kill themselves. A few will be rerouted into crime.
But sometimes they live. We can see in East Timor what happens then. They run for office against each other. With speeches and rallies and icky promises and no ability to shoot your opponent. Not if you want to win the election.
Click on the title to this post to see an article describing what violent rebels turned politician looks like.
3 comments:
East Timor got lucky.
We can also see, in Gaza, the West Bank, Southern Lebanon, Sudan, and Iran what happens all too often when terrorists create a "government."
Let's not forget the United States, Israel, India, Pakistan, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, et al.
What about them?
Mexico's government was born in a revolution; Venezuela and Brazil I don't know much about; India and Pakistan were created by a compromise division between themselves, after a (mostly nonviolent) revolt against the British.
The US and Israel I do know about, and the situations there are different.
In the US, there was a genuine political revolution, accompanied by a war that the participants tried (mostly successfully) to keep on the battlefields.
In Israel, there was a guerrilla war on several fronts: Jews v Brits, Arabs v Jews, Jews v Arabs, followed by the withdrawal of the British and an invasion by several Arab armies with the intent to "kill the Jews."
In all of the countries you have listed (US, Israel, India, Pakistan, Venezueal, Mexico, Brazil), there was one important similarity: They all tried to build a gov't before the fighting ended, to provide for the needs of their people.
In the PA especially, but to a lesser extant in Lebanon, Sudan, & Iran, there hasn't been much concern for the people's needs. In these places, the terrorists took over and created a "gangster's paradise" of violence and mob/thug rule.
The results? The recent Gaza sewer catastrophe; the slaughter in Darfur; public amputations and stoning in Iran; mass weapons smuggling south Lebanon.
Your examples were of countries that play an entirely different game.
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