ANKARA, TURKEY – The wide variety of targets chosen by terrorists never ceases to amaze: if only they could turn their creative instincts elsewhere!
Do you like paying taxes? Hands up everyone who can’t wait to send more of your hard-earned dollars (or euros or whatevers) to the city, state, or nation. Take your time: I am a retired intelligence analyst and I can wait to collect all the responses.
Waiting….waiting…waiting….OK, I don’t think I am going to see any hands waving in the air any time soon.
There may be only two things that are certain in life, i.e. death and taxes, and I am not sure which is worse (hint: they are both not good). Yes, taxes can do some good in our societies, such as feed and clothe the poor, but we are all too aware of massive – and comical – wasted spending of our money as well.
We periodically hear of lobby groups that protest about tax increases or the introduction of new taxes – I remember when the Canadian government under Brian Mulroney brought in the Goods and Services Tax in 1990 only to suffer a catastrophic defeat at the polls three years later when the party was reduced to two (yes, two!) seats in Parliament – but these actions rarely turn violent.
Tell that to the terrorists.
On this day in 2018
PKK terrorists in Turkey bombed a tax office in the capital city of Ankara injuring three people. Eight members of the PYD, seen as part of the KPG and by extension the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), were later arrested: a ninth was killed in the police operation. Thankfully the office was not open at the time of the blast and the only people on site were security officers.
So yes, we may dislike taxes. But that is no excuse to bomb a tax office. Write that down, terrorists.
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