We have suffered as the US has, but we look worse

The appalling and destructive events have exposed the hidden nature of Thai people - that behind the easy smiles there is a pure brute and murderous instinct, not much different from tribes that engage in warfare and genocide.

Though not yet a civil war in the true sense of the word, it is a shock for Thais to realise that they have the capacity to kill countrymen on a large scale. Judging from the armed confrontation, just short of a conventional war, what we have experienced and witnessed was urban terrorism under the cloak of a campaign for "democracy".

The red shirts - financed in the tens of billions of baht by Thaksin Shinawatra and his cronies in a bid to topple the Abhisit government and seize power - have gone to the fullest extreme of terrorism. More than 30 buildings were set ablaze and the CentralWorld complex collapsed as a result of premiditated arson.

The red shirts have become a real peril in this land. They are a serious threat to national security, with or without Thaksin being around to finance their future destructive campaigns. Such horrible scenarios could be prevented if the ringleaders and their network of extremist supporters are uprooted once and for all.

As witnessed by foreign diplomats and military attaches, the war weapons captured from the red shirts are truly formidable, not to mention the cars and trucks fully laden with improvised bombs and explosive devices, powerful enough to kill thousands of people.

The red-shirts' arsenal includes grenade launchers, assault rifles, other firearms, bombs and hand-grenades. These were stockpiled around the stage at Rajprasong for a planned battle with the military on the day of the crackdown.

The police, as we all know, maintained a ceremonial presence, and played no meaningful role in quelling the riots. It was disgraceful that they simply stood and let the terrorists and arsonists burn down CentralWorld, the Siam Theatre and surrounding buildings. Sadder still, it is common knowledge that up to 90 per cent of the police, if not more, are red-shirt sympathisers.

The violence and tragedy - with up to 100 dead and several hundreds injured - captured headlines around the world, and news networks had a field day, some with fair reporting. However, a few major news organisations showed how they could be biased to make the country's administration look much worse than in reality.

In many ways, what has happened in Thailand over the past decade has put us on par with the US in sharing similar predicaments and misfortunes.

We had the "tom yum gung" disease in 1997, sparking off a worldwide financial collapse, with Thailand taking the blame for crony capitalism. The US has had real estate mayhem and a Wall Street collapse called the "hamburger disease."

The US saw 9/11, and the bringing down of the World Trade Centre. We just suffered May 19, with the CentralWorld complex, earlier named the World Trade Centre, going up in smoke. A "ground zero" on a smaller scale.

The US has an enemy by the name of Bin Laden, who has eluded capture for years. We have an enemy named Thaksin Shinawatra who deserves the title of public enemy number one, and has already been branded a terrorist by the government. These two fugitives are both wealthy, but fighting for different causes. What Thaksin and his network of cronies have been doing is self serving and based on personal greed.

The Americans have seen the Black Panthers and other urban terrorists, freak groups led by the likes of Jim Jones, and violent incidents like Waco. We have the red shirts, who are mean and lethal, comprising thugs, thieves, looters, assassins, saboteurs, vandals and charlatans campaigning for "democracy" on Thaksin's payroll.

America had an excellent newscaster named Dan Rather, but now we have the new-rich Dan Rivers of CNN, who lives here and gives Thailand a bad name it does not deserve.

The US has Obama and we have Obamark. Their political futures remain open to conjecture.