Friday, 26 May 2017

Terror in Manchester



As I write, it is being reported that Jeremy Corbyn has blamed the recent terrorist attack in Manchester on the foreign policy of the present government.  I will not comment further, as I am not sure what exactly Mr Corbyn has in mind.

Almost exactly four years, I wrote this comment on my blog:

While I do not condone the murder of the soldier, I utterly condemn British involvement in illegal wars.

I was not at all surprised when the Manchester bomber was revealed to have been Libyan.  David Cameron as Prime Minister ordered the bombing of Libya, and Theresa May served in his government in a senior capacity.

Britain bombed Libya, and killed innocent people.  A Libyan man detonated a bomb in Manchester, and killed innocent people.  How hard is it to perceive a logical process at work here?

The British authorities are responding to the terror attack with typical uselessness.  The police are busy arresting people who may or may not be involved, but for every arrest they make, they probably miss at least one potential future suicide bomber.

MI5 have been reported as saying that they have five hundred active investigations, and I cannot help but wonder how likely any one of them is to be successful.  After all, they completely failed to prevent the Manchester terror attack, despite warning signs.

Putting troops on the streets is close to pointless, as the list of places where the next suicide bomber might strike is extensive.

There are two sensible reactions to what happened in Manchester.  The first is to accept that Britain should stop making war on other countries.  The likelihood of such a war being visited upon Britain in the guise of terror attacks is too great.

The second is to recognise that a lot of violent crime is linked to drug use.  It has not yet been reported that the Manchester suicide bomber was ever a drug user, but I would be surprised if he had never taken any illegal drugs.

It is unlikely that any government in this country will ever achieve a significant reduction in violent crime unless it first gets tough on illegal drugs.

As I write, we are approaching a general election, in which I plan not to vote.

Related previous posts include:

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