More on Lockerbie and blowing people up in general

More about Lockerbie from the consistently excellent London Review of Books, simply the best periodical on this planet (and I remind myself once more to read it more regularly -- perhaps I should subscribe to encourage myself to). Miles outlines the basics of the case, giving the reasons that no one who has the least clue has ever believed al-Megrahi did it. He asks some interesting questions about the money that the Libyans paid. I always thought it was rather odd that we had allowed them to pay their way back into our good favour, and doubly odd that they would do so when they weren't responsible. But of course they never admitted guilt, simply stating that they were willing to pay to get back into the good books.

I think our willingness to allow them to go so quickly from pariah to good buddies had a lot to do with our knowledge that they weren't at all responsible for it.

The sadness for the families and partners of those killed, when al-Megrahi walks, is that they will not have any justice. It is unlikely that anyone will ever be punished for this terrible crime.

***

Colbert had some new segment or other that he led into with pictures of H-bomb explosions, and it got me to thinking about whether anyone could be villainous enough to use one on a major city.

But of course they could. There are people killing themselves and others in Iraq for ends that seem quite nebulous. They seem motivated purely by hatred. I suppose they are trying to bring about the supremacy of their particular grouping, and because they think that their grouping is the only one that follows Allah's will, that means they are following his will in blowing up other groupings' members.

These people have a different moral compass from mine. But so do people on our side. The same kind of man who convinced himself that there was a cause worth destroying the mediaeval city of Dresden for and who convinced himself that murdering a hundred thousand Japanese with one bomb can convince himself that it would be okay to wipe away London, Paris, New York or Tel Aviv. Just thinking about it makes you feel like weeping. That there are men with the means and the will to wipe away some of our great achievements, and many many lives with them!

Of course, those men convinced themselves that it was okay to murder civilians because they were fighting a "total war", between societies, involving everyone. This is just one more reason for forcefully saying no. No, I want no part in it, I do not support it, and will not be involved in it. That will not prevent me from being killed, naturally, and it was not sufficient to save the people of Iraq when millions of us said no, but I still think it is worth letting these bastards know that they are not doing it for us or with us.

posted by Dr Zen @ 4:12 pm