Darts & Laurels: June 30, 2016

So, here we are, dear readers: the end of June. For those of you experiencing your first few days here at UF, we at the Alligator would like to welcome you. And for those returning for Summer C, sorry break was only a week. We realize our opinions editor failed to greet you all warmly and probably frightened you a bit Tuesday by jumping straight into a bleak look at the political scene… Damn it, David… you had one job. Anyway, in the words of The Black Eyed Beans — or whatever they’re called — “Let’s get it started (ha).”

Darts & Laurels

We start today with pornography: the substance we college students constantly abuse, aside from Ramen and caffeine — and Study Edge packets come finals week. An anonymous Pornhub user posted a video of prominent pro-Brexit advocate Boris Johnson delivering his Brexit victory onto the porn site and entitled the video, “Dumb British Blonde Fucks 15 million People At Once.” We give a shining laurel to this anonymous user for his beautiful contribution to the industry.

Though, in all fairness, the Brexit hasn’t come into effect, as we said in Tuesday’s editorial. So Johnson hasn’t really fucked 15 million people yet. At best, what we’re seeing is a bit of foreplay now that Johnson’s whipped out his referendum vote, which turned out to be way bigger than anybody expected.

And now, this Brexit energy is spreading. U.S. Congressman Thomas Massie, R-Ky., renewed his call for the U.S. to leave the United Nations, following Brexit’s lead. Former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin also holds the same position – in case you needed some solid evidence to confirm how horrible of an idea this is.

Clearly, we give the “Amexit” a dart. Our leaders must understand pulling out isn’t the answer. We need to stay in and go all the way, even if things get a little hairy.

And lastly, all kidding completely outside, we want to say a few words on Turkey. As many of you may know by now, the major airport of Turkey’s capital city Ataturk was attacked by three suicide bombers Tuesday night. According to BBC, the attackers killed 42 people, including 13 foreign nationals, and injured 239 people, with 41 in intensive care. Early signs suggest the attackers were connected to the Islamic State.

In times like these, words are difficult to come by — very few can relate to or even fathom the trauma the people of Ataturk and the deceased’s families currently endure. Nearly 300 families are, now, forever changed, forever tormented, all because of these presumably jihadist attackers.

In times like these, vengeance is understandable — something must be done quickly. But we must also be reasonable. Terrorist attacks from both the Islamic State and the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) have devastated Turkey for months now, and Turkish President Erdogan has responded militarily against PKK members within Turkey’s borders, as he should. However, in the process, countless ethnically Kurdish citizens have been killed.

As The New York Times reported in December, the Turkish president seems to heighten his rhetoric and orders of a swifter military when his political appeal is at stake. It’s no secret that appearing “tough on terror” is politically appealing, but we’re dealing with military operations that have far too little regard for Kurdish civilian life.

We must be duly vigilant: Of course, we must combat terrorism wholeheartedly. But, we must delegate strategy that prevents civilian death (which breeds future terrorism) and is not overwhelmingly politically motivated. Otherwise, we’ll see the same mistakes and outbreaks of preventable war repeated.