A somber anniversary

35 years ago today, Palestinian gunmen seized the members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich. Two were killed in the initial assault, with 9 being taken hostage. A rescue was attempted at the Munich airport resulting in all 9 hostages being killed, along with 5 terrorists and a policeman.

I've written before about historical blind spots, that history which occurs as current events when you're too young to be paying attention, and becomes history too late to be studied when you're in school. This is another of those events that falls into that category for me, though I have dim recollections of it happening (I was 9 at the time.) I do believe that this event was one of the key motivating factors behind the Israeli governments decision to raid the Entebbe airport four years later.





To the best of my knowledge, this particular bit of Islamic terrorism did not take place because they were mad about George W. Bush's illegal war for oil...