A BRIGHT Saturday afternoon in Warrington, and two little boys go
shopping.
Three-year-old Johnathan Ball was jingling pennies in his pocket as he
and his friend searched for Mother's Day gifts. Tim Parry, (12) wanted a
pair of Everton shorts.
Then came unimaginable horror as two Semtex bombs exploded at waist
height maiming and killing the unsuspecting shoppers. In a split second
angel-faced Johnathan lay dead, his body torn apart by the blast. Tim,
his face blown off, hung to life by a thread.
Nearly sixty others were injured. Some lost limbs. Others suffered
terrible wounds.
But it was the senseless, savage brutality towards the innocents,
Johnathan and Tim that sent a shockwave of repugnance coursing through
the nation.
Two little boys without a care in the world. Johnathan, far too young
to comprehend the legacy of hatred that drives terrorists to acts of
pointless carnage. Tim, his only thoughts on football.
For their devastated families there is the torment of the
stomach-churning hypocrisy of an IRA message of 'sympathy.' Nothing
could be more certain to add to an already unbearable burden of grief
and pain.
This was a cold-blooded and calculated outrage carried out by
professional terrorists against the softest of soft targets.
There can only be one response. The war against these evil men must be
waged unrelentingly, till every last one is brought to justice.
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