A new breed?

I've just been scanning the UK News channels for the morning bulletins and as I'm due to fly to England in a few weeks myself I have more than a passing interest in the stories today of mayhem in British airports. So far it looks like the security services did a good job of identifying a plot and preventing a large loss of life. Up to ten planeloads - let's see, that must be almost as many as have been killed in Lebanon over the last few weeks eh? A job well done.

I've been making an effort to avoid politics on this blog recently, if only because it's not good for my blood pressure. But when I read in the Guardian that our British Home Secretary, John Reid, is speaking of a "new breed of ruthless unconstrained international terrorist" I have to wonder what exactly he means by that. Does he really believe that some fiendish plot is in progress to gentically modify mankind so that we have the capacity to be even more vicious and cruel? Does he really believe that some mad scientist is at work on a remote Pacific atoll modifying our DNA to make us bigger monsters than we already potentially are?

Let me be clear about this. I've no objection at all to people responsible for the safety of our society taking forceful and effective action to protect us from violence, in fact in the UK I wish they would do a heck of a lot more of it. Thet talk about it enough. BUT. When are we ever going to find a politican with the commonsense and courage to stop spouting this junk and openly ask the blindingly obvious question "Why is it that these people hate us so much that they want to kill as many of us as they can indescriminately?"

We are not talking here about any new species of evil, this is 'original flavour' of hatred as practised by homo sapiens since Adam and Eve. I don't know what it's direct antecedents are but I'd guess it has a lot to do with poverty, repression and a percieved lack of respect. And the tuth of it is that you'll never resolve it by military means. How many Muslim baby boys do you think have been born in Palestine or Iran or Oldham or Luton even since you started to read this?

Well, at the moment my vote would go to whoever sincerely asks this question and is prepared to act on the answers no matter how painful it might be. In the Dhammapada is says "hate is not overcome by hate; hate is overcome by love." Far from being a pious hope, what I think John Reid would probably dismiss as "a traditional civil liberty argument which is not so much wrong as made for another age" I think this is a pretty practical starting point as of now. Does anyone have any better ideas?