It is striking that some of the most revered and oft-quoted figures in our Western political tradition have been capable of the most vicious acts of savagery – and yet all we ever hear about is how much the Middle East has to learn from us. Winston Churchill wanted to gas more women and children than ISIS; President Obama’s various planes and drones have dropped bombs on as many schoolchildren as ISIS; President Reagan and his aides’ Central American policies disembowelled more children than ISIS; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in an infamous interview, said the deaths of half a million Iraqi children were a necessary price to pay for “stability in the Middle East”; Henry Kissinger and Margaret Thatcher happily assisted in the torture and disappearance of thousands of Chilean students and labour activists. The list is endless. We know that ISIS is evil, but why are we so good? We know that the slow beheading of human beings on video-clips is grotesque—why is the gradual electrocution of writhing human bodies in the basements of Santiago any better? We know it’s terrible to throw bombs at people—why is it any better to drop bombs on them? - Ian Almond
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 07:43:49 +0000
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