Airstrip One

Memory and the 'War on Terror'

Over at Samizdata, they have been toasting "Death to Wahabis" in memory of the dead of 9/11, instead of watching "Last Night of the Proms". The bloodfeud of private toasts may be appropriate for dinner parties but does not address the memorialisation of the victims of terrorist atrocities.

Just as a cenotaph was raised to the dead of the Great War, there is just reason to construct one for the innocent victims of terror who have died on our shores and overseas over the past thirty-five years. Long before 9/11, British victims of terror perished under the onslaught of the IRA, both in the province and on the mainland. An empty tomb to the death of innocents would provide a symbolic reminder of the evils that all terrorism engenders, whatever the cause.

(8.53, 12th September 2004)