Why this was a bad idea. “Failing to learn the Lockerbie lesson,” by Laura Rosen Cohen in the National Post, August 24 (thanks to Kathy Shaidle):
[…] The release of the Abdel Basset al-Megrahi indicates to the jihadist world that their scorn for our lifestyle, for our Western values and freedoms is justifiable. Their insistence that our societies are decadent, morally inverted places are perhaps not without merit. If we do not punish the murderers of our own precious children, families and friends, if we do not extinguish the lives of the terrorists, or even incarcerate them, why should they think otherwise? Moreover, if we as a society, voluntarily send these messages of impotence and self-defeat to our enemies, why on earth do we deserve any of our remaining freedoms?
What case can be made for a society that annuls the value of its own citizens” life and enables their murderers to live freely?
Let the Scottish example be a lesson to us all: the barbarians are at the gate. Instead of reinforcing the walls, we”ve just given them an extra set of keys and told them to make themselves at home. Inevitably, they will.
Over my dead body. Which is just the way they want it, of course!