3296 days ago
Naturally my thoughts are with the victims and their families. What happened in Paris last night was an atrocity and those responsible are evil. However, tying in with yesterday's article on Jihadi John, I suggest that the actions of our leaders in bombing Syria and Iraq have not only destroyed those countries but have made we in Paris or London or even Bristol not safer but less safe. Before you shout "bomb the bastards back into the stone age" consider that this is exactly what we have been doing and it is not either just or doing any good at all. Au contraire.
3297 days ago
Don’t misunderstand me: Jihadi John, the Brit who cut folk’s heads off for ISIS was a bad man. The world is no worse off for his death. He will now be discovering that there are no 72 virgins and I rather hope that he is burning in a Judeo-Christian hell for eternity. Having said all of that…
The man was executed without trial. The US – our ally in our idiotic Middle Eastern meddling – targeted him and executed him from the air without trial, no doubt with the blessing of the British Government. Should we really be celebrating the fact that State can execute its own citizens and is doing so repeatedly without trial?
Does this not set a rather dangerous precedent? I shed no tears for Jihadi John. But state organised extra judicial executions are bad things. They were bad things when we executed Irishmen in Gibraltar thirty years ago. Yes those Irishmen were members of the loathsome IRA but as British citizens they deserved a trial.
We should not be celebrating
