Billoblog ®

Apologists for summary execution of people who dress in baggy clothes are out in force today. However they spin it, the fact is that there is no excuse for a policy of summary extrajudicial execution. This is not “anti-terrorism.” This was a death squad. It was a special unit of men not wearing uniforms whose job was to find and execute enemies of the state on the basis of personal suspicion, and without any due process. That is pretty much the definition of a death squad, allright. With this, the brits stepped over the line from fighting terrorism to engaging in it. Apologists should be very careful. Captain Ed asks whether or not I want the State to execute a person just in case they might be carrying a bomb. No I don’t. I could just as easily provide a scenario in which a bunch of strangers start acting threateningly at you, are not clearly police, and act like they are going to attack you. You think you are being attacked by a gang, and try to get away. They shoot you in the back and head, and justify the killing on the grounds that by trying to avoid a conflict, you acted “suspiciously”. This is madness.

You don’t have to establish death squads to fight terrorism. As I noted in my review of “Torture and Eucharist,” death squads and torture do not have the salutary effect apologists seem to think. And no, I am not soft on terrorism. My bona fides are pretty good. We are supposed to be better than the terrorists, not just on a different side. Please.