The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Monday, 2 May 2011

Actually, I am saying he deserved it

In the days after 11 September 2001, I got used to hearing one particular phrase from the right-thinking people who surrounded me in London. I heard it from my parish's "justice 'n' peace" type priest, from a British civil servant I was working with (who, by the way, was supposed to be politically neutral on the job) and from every other friend, neighbour and journalist who embraced the anti-Americanism of the trendy British left. It went like this:

"I'm not saying anyone deserved this, but --"

(Yes, that does sound an awful lot like "I'm not a racist, but." And it has pretty much the same meaning.)

Well, I doubt any of those people are reading this blog, but just in case they are, allow me to edify them: this is what someone who "deserves it" looks like.

A couple more thoughts while I'm here:


  1. It's possible that the government might feel the need to release photographs of bin Laden's body, to prove to his followers that he's really dead. I suppose I understand that, but I hope this time the British papers manage to restrain themselves from putting the photos all over their front pages, the way they did with Saddam Hussein's sons. Maybe Kate Middleton can lose a few more pounds and distract them.
  2. Is it silly to say that I'm pleased for Christopher Hitchens that he lived to see this day?

2 comments:

Lillian the Ponderer said...

Regardless whether he deserved it or not, I take issue with the fact that he did not answer for his crimes (in this life at least). Surely the world deserves answers and explanations? Killing him means that he will never be called to answer for his actions.

Disposing of his body at sea so quickly (within hours not 3 days as would be the requirement for a muslim - I don't think they were disposing of it quickly out of respect for his "muslim faith" or they would have buried him in an un-marked-undisclosed place but facing Mecca) is suspicious to me -I am not saying that I think the grave should be a known place to become a pilgrimage site (- which is the official explanation of the buried at sea story) that would be wholly unacceptable.

Laura Brown said...

I doubt he would ever have allowed himself to be taken alive, unfortunately.