To negotiate or to Kill?

In the light of our transatlantic spat over the death of a man in a wheelchair, I found it interesting to note that on the same day that Tony Blair met Gaddafi in a tent, I heard on the radio (but now cannot confirm on the net) an American apparently testified to the 911 commission that the US had attempted to kill him in the 90s.

I wonder how many of those who have been celebrating the death of the Hamas leader would have rather we sent an assasin to Tripoli than the man who some poeple jokingly called the American Foreign Secretary during the run up to Iraq.

I guess the key point is are we, or for that matter, are the Israelis actually at war? If so then there is an argument to justify attacking the leader of your enemy. Lillacrose expounded this view admirably- and I was very glad to note that I was not considered to be part of the pacifist leaning blogs that fail to condemn the evil committed by terrorists.

Of course the real question is are we and/or the Israelis at war? Clearly terrrorists don’t play by the rules of war, and as such one could argue both for and against us using the principles of war in our battle against them. Remember the English tried fighting ‘terrorism’ in our colonies for years. When we look back on it, we call it freedom fighting, but at the time we called it terrorism. Of course even the war of independance was pretty brutal.

In the end the British withdrew from colonies, and arguably through the lens of history this somehow rehabilitates the terrorists. There are many people who have previously been described as terrorists who went on to found a state and be seen as heroes. Mandella was described as a terrorist by some.

In Ireland, we are now slowly trying to build peace with people who have committed terrorist attrocities.

I have never said that negotiation is the only way however. What I described possibly unhelpfully as ‘legal and restrained ways of acting’ in my book can sometimes include deadly violence. It is all about knowing when it is appropriate to stretch out our might and crush, and when to negotiate. I admire Blair for acting consistantly with his own convictions as to what was right and appropriate even though it is often intensely unpopular- He showed moral courage in his decisions both to go to war and for greeting Gadaffi. Even if you think he was wrong on one or the other or both of those decisions, you have to admire his courage in making them.

Getting back to the death of an old man with a resemblance to a character in the Lord of the Rings Joshua Claybourn states: “Please, by all means, question whether Yassin was brought to justice in the proper way. But don’t for one second ignore his atrocities, as far too many have done.”

That is very much where I am on this.

Certainly I roundly condemn as evil all terrorist acts. I feel much happier knowing that Sadaam was not killed but captured, however, although if he had died resisting arrest (as his sons did) or been taken out during a declared war (o yes, we dont declare war any more do we…….) I would not have criticised that- as an evil man dying by the sword is an appropriate biblical context.

But actually, I got into this argument predominantly about whether it is appropriate to make jokes (funny ones admittadly- I liked it back in Sept, Josh) about a man who has just been killed. Nothing I have seen has made me reconsider for a second my immediate thought that it is not.

This discussion has shocked me in places- the joy seen in some posts at anothers death was very uncomfortable, as were the assumptions that I was somehow anti-Jew by some. But the discussion has also helped me get my own head arround the crazy world in which we live where the ‘war on terrorism’ has yet to be thought through fully in all its implications.

Blogs are a great place for a meeting of minds. Somehow I think the ideas we have been raising will not quickly go away.

My final point is, I am concerned that in our ‘war’ on terrorism we risk loosing sight of our own principles, using methods that we would not usually consider and strangely then giving more legitamacy to th terrorists. Lets keep our values, they are worth dying for.