Nelson Mandela: A mass murderer and terrorist

Yeah, fair enough.

 

Rollingalong clearly stepped over the line, but most people acknowledge and praise Nelson Mandela for unifying South Africa. I know it’s difficult for you to empathize with others but just for a moment try to put yourself in his place; it’s 1961 in apartheid controlled South Africa and his 10 yearlong non-violent campaign isn’t working; the oppression continues, he’s repeatedly arrested for misdemeanor crimes, close friends of are being killed or imprisoned: so he formed the SACP and leads a sabotage campaign against the apartheid government.

Hotwater

 

This is the internet, you're required to pick an extreme position and argue it despite any facts presented to the contrary. There is no grey area allowed here.

 

I have been reading more about him the last few days and, in all fairness, in his later years it appears as though he became a stand up dude. Like I said earlier in this thread, I'll give him credit where credit is due.

But I will never look past the killing of innocents no matter what the so called justification may be.

The argument was made that there were no innocents because all whites benefited from apartheid and wanted to see its continuance. Yet when NM became a lawyer he was forced to deal with people on both sides. He said himself that many of the leaders of apartheid, the people who enforced it, we're definitely not supporters and were only doing what was required of them by law.

Now if the people who was enforcing apartheid were sympathetic to his cause why then would he have to take the route of terrorism, planting bombs in shopping malls? I understand the greatness of his struggle and can appreciate what he accomplished..... but in my eyes a man who is worth idolizing would never strike the hammer of violence onto crowds of random civilians.

 

Yeah I agree

 

awful

 

Thats such a cop out.

Lets do nothing, Lets stick our head in the sand, if we are not directly responsible, theres nothing to feel guilty about and its someone else fault.

Even though often that inaction means more of those innocents are killed. A lot to do with whats wrong with the world

 

The two main reasons why this thread is totally useless:

A) Much of what PR described didnt happen till after Mandela was imprisoned, he was in prison before 1964. Before that its not like he was ever head honcho.

He was charged with inciting strikes the later sabotage and leaving the country and the evidence for those charges were a little sketchy, but he was never charged with murder or terrorism cos their was simply nothing to link him to that. PR just didnt do his homework.

Yes he did help form the Spear of the nation, but initially to attack government sites, government forces, not civilians.

He was put in jail long term for sabotage and leaving the country, cos at the time thats what he was doing, off to try drum up finances and allies for what seemed like an inevitable fight with a nasty mofo white led government. He was the accountant guy, many others far more militant at the time were tried and hanged or given life sentences, that where more "in charge' back then, but no one knows their names because they didnt end up getting world famous. Mandela in the end was relatively innocent because his role was pencil pusher, he was never going to be the guy building a bomb or leading a guerilla attack

B) Back in the 50s and 60s, the whole world was paranoid about the spread of communism. At the time blacks werent allowed to own land, so many of the people the ANC alligned with where white communists. It all wasnt just as simple as black vs white. The government just as worried about Communist or Fascists taking over, black or white or both. And it wasnt really until Communism fell in Russia hence most of the world, that the SA government started to get a bit relaxed and thus released Mandela.

If born after 1980 and reading up on all of this, still hard to get a grasp on the real politics of the day, cos the world apartheid comes up so often, so it seems like all about race.

If the USSR had still been going strong 1990 - 1994, and therefore communism still strong around the world, unlikely Mandela would have been released, or even if he had, many black voters might have gone for someone more democratically minded over a guy that had a big admiration for Castro. The Mandela Castro link didnt mean as much at the time cos Communism was dying

 

^ lol

 

In that case I think once fat always f f f fat!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgcTvoWjZJU"]The Specials - Nelson Mandela - YouTube

 

The only people in that say anything about inaction are those who justify terrorism. They seem to pull that card pretty quick, as soon as anyone criticizes the specific actions taken by the ANC and their affiliates.

 

Yep!