Genialer Leitartikel in der heutigen Times (London) von Matthew Parris (einem konservativen MP 1979-1986, dann Journalist bei der Times):<\/p>\n
„In this Britain I believe something has been happening this summer, and if you ask me for evidence I must reply \u201cobservation, hearsay and personal hunch\u201d. I cannot prove this, but I sense that the tide is turning against Islamist terrorism. We\u2019re winning the battle \u2013 dare I utter the appalling clich\u00e9? \u2013 of hearts and minds.<\/p>\n
You may think this a strange remark, considering that the whole country has been on maximum security alert this week, two attempts to cause dreadful loss of life have just been foiled more by luck than judgment, and arrests have been made that suggest a pattern of terrorist threats and some measure of internationally linked coordination. Nor do I doubt there will be more. Nobody knows what terrorist atrocities lie in store, but these attempts will certainly not be the last.<\/p>\n
Yet for all that, something is changing in the public mood, and I think it\u2019s this: terrorism is beginning to look a bit stupid.<\/strong> Those pictures of that idiotic and slightly overweight fellow with his clothes burnt off looked pathetic, undignified. It has occurred to even the meanest of intellects that concrete doesn\u2019t burn.<\/p>\n And it isn\u2019t just the technical competence of alleged British terrorists that people are beginning to doubt: it\u2019s the whole jihadist idea. What world are they aiming for? Most British Muslims, just like most British everyone-else, think it\u2019s all pie in the sky: all rather silly.<\/p>\n Yes, silly. Not \u201cevil\u201d as the red tops would have it.<\/strong> Take care, neocon editors, prime-ministerial speechwriters and opposition spokesmen, with that word \u201cevil\u201d. Evil is cool. Evil is wicked. Evil sells DVDs and airport thrillers. Evil is a gang you might want to be in if you were a clever boy in a cultural mess with a chip on your shoulder. We\u2019re not talking anything as clever as Evil here: we\u2019re talking Weird, we\u2019re talking Crackpot, we\u2019re talking Sad. The idea of using a Jeep to make a terminal explode was, in the latest lingo, a bit gay. We\u2019re talking Failure.
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\nTwo thoughts, very widely thought, have completely escaped Britain\u2019s headline writers. The first thought is that Islamist plotters, though hugely dangerous as any fool can be dangerous, don\u2019t seem to be anything like as clever as the media keep telling us. The second is that although a lot of opinion formers keep telling them to be, a majority of the British people are not anyway on George W. Bush\u2019s side. Both these thoughts are hurting \u2013 not helping \u2013 the terrorist cause.<\/p>\n