Terrorists of Britain
Recently Panorama aired “True Brits” evaluating on what it means to be British. The program shows views ranging from BNP to Scots wanting independence from being call British.
To me, being British is a state of mind. You are what you are if you know the history and the law of the land and are able to integrate with local people without giving up your core values. Should we turn into Maoists and force core values down people’s throats, and forcing them to be a “model” which is perceived at that time.
But, it also reminds me of 7/7 and 9/11, and how much better is London as compared to Boston.
Right after 9/11 and some debate, National Guard used to check everyone’s bags on the train (always at the same stations) – which was a futile exercise. I even wrote to the Boston Metro (as sister of London Metro) newspaper that I am sick of hearing the same announcement about 20 times while going to uni, and the same coming back. They stopped the announcements as well as the searches soon after. It was indeed a futile exercise.
London did not seem to have the paranoia and frenzy that developed in America.
It probably goes to say how UK can reply on its intelligence and the scrutiny that its intelligence agencies can not operate without impunity rather than America’s Intelligence focusing on creating war (to stay in business).
It reminds me on how America can be it own victim and with it the episode of the Twilight Zone: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. – In the remove monsters are replaced with “Terrorists”
“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own; for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined…”
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