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The fearless father who threw himself on a suicide bomber, saving ‘hundreds’ of lives in Beirut

cigaretteman

HB King
May 29, 2001
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A story that deserves to be heard amid the aftermath of Paris. People are grieving elsewhere as well:

A father, with his young daughter watching, sacrificed himself to save others when terrorists struck Beirut last week.

The day before the horrific massacre in central Paris left the world reeling, two attacks during rush hour in Lebanon’s capital city killed 45 and wounded more than 200 others.

If not for the heroic actions of one man, the death toll would have been much higher. And now, days later, his heroism is being recognized.

Adel Termos was walking in an open-air market with his daughter, according to reports, when the first suicide bomber detonated his explosives. Amid the instant chaos, Termos spotted the second bomber preparing to blow himself up, and made the quick decision to tackle him to the ground. The bomb went off, killing Termos, but saving countless others, including his daughter.

“There are many, many families, hundreds probably, who owe their completeness to his sacrifice,” Elie Fares, a blogger and physician in Beirut, told Public Radio International in an interview last week.

“In a way, Adel Termos broke human nature of self-preservation. His heroism transcended his own life to save others,” Fares told The Washington Post in an e-mail Monday. “To make that kind of decision in a split second, to decide that you’d rather save hundreds than to go back home to your family, to decide that the collective lives of those around you are more important than your own is something that I think no one will ever understand.”

Fares had immediately shared Termos’s story, and it was covered by local media there, but it went largely unnoticed by the international community, especially as news of the Paris attacks quickly consumed the news cycle.

But in Lebanon, Termos was instantly famous, memorialized in Facebook posts and conversations, Fares told PRI last week.

After the Thursday attacks, Fares, on his own blog, wrote about Termos:

“Tonight, Adel is no longer of this world, but his legacy will live on for years, and the repercussions of his heroism will become a tale to tell: Adel is the reason we are not talking about fatalities in the three digits today, he is the reason some families still have their sons, daughters, fathers and mothers, he is a Lebanese hero whose name should be front and center in every single outlet.”

Then Sunday, Fares gained attention, and by extension attention for Termos, when The Huffington Post shared a post he’d written: “From Beirut, This Is Paris: In a World That Doesn’t Care About Arab Lives.”

“When my people died, they did not send the world in mourning,” Fares wrote. “Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world.”

That is why, Fares said in his e-mail Monday, it took several days for Termos’s story to be known, and shared, outside Lebanon.

“When the attacks in which his heroism manifested are not heard about or highlighted enough, the details of those attacks will also get pushed to the side,” he said. “Adel included.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ndreds-of-lives-in-beirut/?tid=pm_local_pop_b
 
What is sad is he died for nothing and now his daughter will not have a dad. Because this trash just keeps bombing, killing and slaughtering individuals and groups and has NO interest in peace. But let's not hurt their feelings!!
 
What is sad is he died for nothing and now his daughter will not have a dad. Because this trash just keeps bombing, killing and slaughtering individuals and groups and has NO interest in peace. But let's not hurt their feelings!!

All the more reason not to let the terrorists win through knee jerk Islamophobic attitudes and policies that appear to legitimize the terrorist's characterizations of the west as being at war with Islam, such as the wrongheaded policies barring refugees being promulgated many on the right and on this board.
 
All the more reason not to let the terrorists win through knee jerk Islamophobic attitudes and policies that appear to legitimize the terrorist's characterizations of the west as being at war with Islam, such as the wrongheaded policies barring refugees being promulgated many on the right and on this board.

Tell me again, why do we need refugees? Why do we need them? Why is it OUR JOB to take them? Would they do the same for us? I'll hang up and listen.
 
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Speaking of refugees. Are we working on a plan for our own?

12122903_10153598129081163_3417522377319298415_n.jpg
 
Tell me again, why do we need refugees? Why do we need them? Why is it OUR JOB to take them? Would they do the same for us? I'll hang up and listen.

It's not 'our job'.

It's the humanitarian and Christian thing to do.
At least, for those who actually follow the teachings of Christ, and not the politicians who wear the Bible on their shirtsleeves just to pander for votes.
 
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Speaking of Beirut, they have open carry laws and that sure didn't protect them from the attackers. Just saying...
 
It's not 'our job'.

It's the humanitarian and Christian thing to do.
At least, for those who actually follow the teachings of Christ, and not the politicians who wear the Bible on their shirtsleeves just to pander for votes.

South America is mostly all catholic. How many are going there? We're helping others all over the world and the teaching of Christ say nothing about sacrifice yourself and your future to the point that you are not sustainable.

The guy in the story did a good job and when I said "died for nothing", i meant his life was lost for no good reason. We'll continue to not change our ways and continue to be too politically correct to work on the root of the problem. Sadly, some other young father will be forced to become a 'hero' (much like the 'heroes' of 9/11, etc) because of the lunacy of the way we handle this problem.
 
South America is mostly all catholic. How many are going there? We're helping others all over the world and the teaching of Christ say nothing about sacrifice yourself and your future to the point that you are not sustainable.

OH....you're RIGHT!!!

Jesus said to help others, but only if the Hittites, Canaanites, Phillistines and Moabites are pitching in; don't help those in need if the rest of those lazy F'ers refuse to lend a hand.....:confused:
 
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Tell me again, why do we need refugees? Why do we need them? Why is it OUR JOB to take them? Would they do the same for us? I'll hang up and listen.


Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
 
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