Sunday, August 30, 2009

More on Megrahi

Sorry if you're suffering Lockerbie fatigue - it's just that this piece from Martin Bright got on my nerves. Amongst the arguments he mobilises in his sonorous warnings about our moral degradation is this breathtaking insight into the Libyan regime:
"The Libyan regime funded IRA terrorism, pursued and murdered its dissidents on the streets of European cities and is the only foreign government I know that is responsible for the killing of a British policewoman."
Let's be clear here; he's using this as part of an argument in favour of letting Megrahi die in prison. But Megrahi was not in jail for funding the IRA nor for the murder of Yvonne Fletcher - so it's my turn to accuse Martin Bright of moral degradation: his logic is exactly the same as those who shrugged after 9/11 because of America's misdeeds in various places - the Middle East, Latin America. I have to say I was baffled when people mentioned as an example the assassination of Allende in this context - which they did. Were Al-Qaeda operating on some intelligence that Kissinger was in the Twin Towers? Of course not. So Chile is irrelevant. And so is the murder of Yvonne Fletcher and Libya's support for the IRA.

Anyway, it can't have escaped Martin Bright's attention that there's been quite a few IRA, along with UDA, murderers released from prison under the terms of the Good Friday agreement. Has he been thundering about this? It's a genuine question - I wouldn't know. Somehow I doubt it, though. But Megrahi has to remain as some sort of lightening rod for surplus moral outrage? If you have this - Aaronovitch take note - might it not be better directed at the British Government under the stewardship of Tony Blair who decided that the Colonel would benefit, along with BP, from this rehabilitation of international offenders policy?

I'm getting a little fed up with these Jeremiahs, journos making the long march to the right by stealth, striking a pose as master physicians cutting the dead weight of deception away from men's souls. Physician, heal thyself.

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