Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lockerbie Bomber

I normally stay out of politics, but I'm upset enough by things I'm seeing said that this one time I'm giving my strong opinion. Just this once.

Many people seem to be unaware that Lockerbie is in Scotland and that large numbers of Scots were killed in the Lockerbie bombing. A large part of a Scottish town (Lockerbie) was destroyed in that incident.

However, there seems to be nothing surprising in a Americas being unaware of the concept that another country has their own laws and should follow them. Certainly, the concept of Compassion is unknown in American "justice."

Well, it is part of the legal system of Scotland. They followed their laws, not ours--as they should have. If there were someone to boycott to get this point across, I assure you I would.

I just returned from Scotland. Next year, I will go to Scotland again. And I have sent congratulations to my Scottish friends.

And apologies for the bullying attitude of many Americans, most especially the ridiculous and offensive letter from the head of the FBI indicating that Scots should have followed American law instead of Scottish law and that somehow Scottish law did not matter. SHAME on you, Mr. Mueller. Shame! Shame for telling Scotland they shouldn't have followed their own laws. Shame for trying to bully another country.

And this from a country that waterboards and threatens prisoners with power drills. Oh, we have a LOT to brag about. We execute the mentally ill (Texas is part of this country, right?) and want other countries to follow our example. I think we'd be better off following Scotland's example rather than screaming at them.

America has long acted like a bully in international affairs and this just shows, in my opinion, that a change in administration hasn't changed that--to my sorrow and continued shame.

I assure you that not all Americans are so stupid they are unaware there were Scottish victims of this bombing, that there is doubt the man was even guilty, and that Scotland had the right to make the decision.

Good job standing up to bullies, Mr. MacAskill and Mr. Salmond!

6 comments:

J. R. Tomlin said...

One more comment. Anyone ever hear of a gentleman named William Calley? He was convincted by an American court of murdering 22 Vietnamese civilians.

Know how long he served?

THREE AND A HALF YEARS OF HOUSE ARREST! HOUSE arrest.

Hypocrites anyone?

Unknown said...

That is really strange...I wish the news would cover the globe instead of just America- I really could care less about Obama's current vacation. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for a literary blogger award. Copy and paste it to spread it around!

Anonymous said...

As a Scot that lives not far from Lockerbie I thank you for that.

subrosa said...

Hey, well said Jeanne. It was upsetting here to read all about boycotts etc.

J. R. Tomlin said...

And 99.9% of the talk of boycotts was, I'm sorry to say, coverage by the BBC and other publications over there. Unfortunately, I thought it was purely politically motivated.

Look at that nonsense about Harris Tweed taking Scotland out of their advertising. It was totally spurious. And who, one might ask, started THAT story? I challenged several journalists to justify just copying the story without checking whether the individual quoted even had the authority to make such a major change.

Of course, he did not.

Unknown said...

So pleased to see that there is understanding that different countries have different laws that should be respected. Well said Jeanne!