Osama Bin Laden

So America have finally killed Osama Bin Laden, but as usual I think they have gone about it all wrong. The World is not the Wild West and America has no right to go trampling on the sovereignty of other nations. Yes they have killed a man that deserved to die, but by shooting him in this manner they have given him not just a martyrs death, but have raised him to be a hero in the eyes of young muslim fanatics. They can now say that Osama died fighting the Great Devil America, that he never gave up.

I believe that terrorism is a crime against humanity,  it is a crime against all of us, whether the bomb goes off in New York, Marrakesh, Bali, Baghdad, Madrid or London matters not, we are all involved. We all have the right to travel where we will and so could be involved whether we like it or not. Hanna and I once missed being killed in a terrorist attack by  less than 24 hours. We had stood in the same place where later French tourists and others were killed.

Terrorists are therefore criminals and MUST be treated as such. They should not be treated like enemy soldiers in a conventional war. Doing so gives them an honour they do not deserve, for they tend to hide behind innocent people,  and they use and kill women and children. America should have copied Israel, for here they showed the way when they kidnapped Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and took him back to Israel to stand a public trial. Osama Bin Laden was a criminal and should have been captured alive, taken to New York and put on trial for his crimes there. Found guilty he should have been hanged by the neck until dead and then buried in the prison cemetery in an unmarked grave. This is they way one deals with criminals and it is not a martyrs death to die in this way. Yes he would have been able to speak his mind, but should a great democracy fear rhetoric? I say no. Remember how sad Saddam Hussein, and Adolf Eichmann looked at their trials, they did not look like martyrs or heros, they looked exactly what they were criminals, deserving of the full punishment of the law.

It is sad and pathetic too, to watch people dancing in the streets at the killing of one man as if the war is over. It is not over, it is perhaps, as Churchill might have said, not the end, it is the end of the beginning. Insha'allah!

Civil War

One hundred and fifty years ago this month the American Civil War started and four years later ended. It was the  first modern and total war and cost 2% of the American population in lives alone. By to days standards that represents over five and a half million men. I say total war because it also involved for the first time, the destruction of the civil populations infrastructure when Sherman's soldiers raped and pillaged and burned cities and farms, on his march to the sea. In the beginning Europe looked on, but when Lea started winning battles, Palmeston, the then Prime-minister of England, together with France considered recognising the Confederacy. However, when Grant also started winning battles they decided to do nothing of the sort. Had they done so I am sure it would have prolonged the war and been even more costly in lives. 150 years ago it was the right thing for Europe to do, to sit and watch and await developments.

Do we ever learn the lessons of history? Today Europe is involved in the Civil War in Libya. The Prime-ministers of England and France are active participants here, but I feel they have not understood the nature of the conflict, which is a true civil war as it is between the western coastal tribes and the internal tribes which support Gaddafi. The Europeans and the Americans have never really ever understood the concepts of tribalism, as history has shown. Or else why are we involved in Iraq and in Afghanistan? These leaders want regime change and think they can bring it about by bombing. Bombing nations into submission was tried by Hitler against England's cities and failed and also by Bomber Harris against German cities and failed. Both only caused wanton destruction and needless bloodshed. Bombing alone has never won wars, only ground forces can win wars. Without Forward Air Controllers (FAC) on the ground in the front line between the forces in the conflict, to coordinate and direct the bombing, it will not be successful.

That Gaddafi is an evil despot who is clinging to power, and that his days are numbered goes without saying. But by getting involved in another nations civil war will only prolong the conflict and add further fuel to the fire of the hatred of some Muslim extremists towards Europe. America has perhaps understood this, or else why is she trying hard not to get further involved and hoping NATO will solve the problem and that NATO should get the flack when it comes, as it will.

What Europe and America has not understood about the uprisings in Arabia, is that it is not all about democracy. It is about young intelligent people, across the tribal system, seeing the corruption in their countries and wanting to change it, but more than that, they want the freedom to work, to feed and clothe their families. These young people have all been infected with the thought  "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This may not mean that they will have democracy as we know it, in the future, but it will mean they will be come a freer fairer nation. Of course we must support them in getting there, but that does not mean we should get embroiled in their civil wars.

Happy Easter