Sunday, 16 August 2009

Justifying Terrorism

From Obo's blog, it seems Millipede has come out and said that terrorism can sometimes be justified.

As a fan of V for Vendetta I can hardly disagree. Although it seems odd for a minister to say it, it is at least refreshing to see a New Labour zombie say something other than the usual meeja-friendly, beige, lets-not-be-controversial crap.

Millipede says:
“Yes, there are circumstances in which it is justifiable, and yes, there are circumstances in which it is effective.”
In the UK we are a tad touchy over terrorism, mainly over the problem with Northern Ireland and, more recently, the likes of Al Qaeda. But then we're not justifying them, others did - parts of the US happily funded the likes of the IRA, and you can find any number of anti-west types cheering on loony fundies.

It's been said before, one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter - we even use semantics, trying to differentiate by saying 'insurgent' which is a Less Scary Word than 'terrorist' - 'surge' sounding like a dynamic, heroic charge, vs 'terror' which invokes Dracula with an AK-47.

Never though I'd find myself defending a Millipede, not least over a subject like justifying terrorism. In light of unpalatable realities, I may do a post next week on torture and where it is actually of use. First, I'm off to London.

Hopefully no nutjobs are planning anything bad whilst I'm down there, after all getting killed by a terrorist after posting this would be horribly ironic.
Posted by Obsidian at 23:37
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2 comments:

  1. Hmmm interesting pov. Maybe I'll put a collection of thoughts together and see how it turns out. Maybe.

    I sincerely hope your not blown up, maimed, beheaded, etc by some lunatic fundie nutjob. That wouldn't do at all.
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  2. Managed not to be blown up by anyone! :D

    Thing is with terrorism, we all generally agree its a bad thing, but I'd like to think if we'd lost WW2 then we'd have made Al Qaeda look like the Womens Institute, as we made the Nazis governing the UK entire existence one of unmitigated terror by any means necessary.

    An alternative reality with Margaret Thatcher and Gerry Adams as comrades-in-arms against the Nazis stretches the imagination close to breaking point...
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