..and ideas are bulletproof
Sep. 14th, 2001 09:23 amI caught last night's Question Time special on BBC1, and the UK reaction shown was strangely reassuring. Yes, there were a few "eye for an eye" crazies in the audience, and admittedly the Question Time audience isn't likely to be an accurate snapshot of British views... but, on the whole, people were talking sense. Justice, not vengeance. No more innocent dead.
One of the points that was raised several times is that if someone is prepared to lay down their life "for the cause", killing as many perceived enemies as they can, only high security and a lot of good luck is going to prevent them.
I agree. Anyone reading this who wanted to become a suicide bomber probably could, successfully, if they had the extreme mindset that's required. Because that mindset, the worldview that justifies the actions, is the really important bit. That's the motive and the weapon. That's the real enemy that you have to defeat. And you can't do that with bullets.
Which is the one thing that worried me about that Question Time show - the ex-US Ambassador to the UK, looking surprised and perplexed at the thought of "dialogue" with terrorists, shocked and offended at the suggestion, at a time like this, that US foreign policy might have somehow failed. He may not be typical, and he was probably filtering his words for public consumption, but he sounded as if he believed this was a problem that could be solved, once and for all, with trial and jury or military force.
I wish.