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Comment

I'm losing patience with my neighbours, Mr Bush

Terry Jones
Sunday January 26, 2003
The Observer


I'm really excited by George Bush's latest reason for bombing Iraq: he's running out of patience. And so am I!

For some time now I've been really pissed off with Mr Johnson, who lives a couple of doors down the street. Well, him and Mr Patel, who runs the health food shop. They both give me queer looks, and I'm sure Mr Johnson is planning something nasty for me, but so far I haven't been able to discover what. I've been round to his place a few times to see what he's up to, but he's got everything well hidden. That's how devious he is.

As for Mr Patel, don't ask me how I know, I just know - from very good sources - that he is, in reality, a Mass Murderer. I have leafleted the street telling them that if we don't act first, he'll pick us off one by one.

Some of my neighbours say, if I've got proof, why don't I go to the police? But that's simply ridiculous. The police will say that they need evidence of a crime with which to charge my neighbours.

They'll come up with endless red tape and quibbling about the rights and wrongs of a pre-emptive strike and all the while Mr Johnson will be finalising his plans to do terrible things to me, while Mr Patel will be secretly murdering people. Since I'm the only one in the street with a decent range of automatic firearms, I reckon it's up to me to keep the peace. But until recently that's been a little difficult. Now, however, George W. Bush has made it clear that all I need to do is run out of patience, and then I can wade in and do whatever I want!

And let's face it, Mr Bush's carefully thought-out policy towards Iraq is the only way to bring about international peace and security. The one certain way to stop Muslim fundamentalist suicide bombers targeting the US or the UK is to bomb a few Muslim countries that have never threatened us.

That's why I want to blow up Mr Johnson's garage and kill his wife and children. Strike first! That'll teach him a lesson. Then he'll leave us in peace and stop peering at me in that totally unacceptable way.

Mr Bush makes it clear that all he needs to know before bombing Iraq is that Saddam is a really nasty man and that he has weapons of mass destruction - even if no one can find them. I'm certain I've just as much justification for killing Mr Johnson's wife and children as Mr Bush has for bombing Iraq.

Mr Bush's long-term aim is to make the world a safer place by eliminating 'rogue states' and 'terrorism'. It's such a clever long-term aim because how can you ever know when you've achieved it? How will Mr Bush know when he's wiped out all terrorists? When every single terrorist is dead? But then a terrorist is only a terrorist once he's committed an act of terror. What about would-be terrorists? These are the ones you really want to eliminate, since most of the known terrorists, being suicide bombers, have already eliminated themselves.

Perhaps Mr Bush needs to wipe out everyone who could possibly be a future terrorist? Maybe he can't be sure he's achieved his objective until every Muslim fundamentalist is dead? But then some moderate Muslims might convert to fundamentalism. Maybe the only really safe thing to do would be for Mr Bush to eliminate all Muslims?

It's the same in my street. Mr Johnson and Mr Patel are just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of other people in the street who I don't like and who - quite frankly - look at me in odd ways. No one will be really safe until I've wiped them all out.

My wife says I might be going too far but I tell her I'm simply using the same logic as the President of the United States. That shuts her up.

Like Mr Bush, I've run out of patience, and if that's a good enough reason for the President, it's good enough for me. I'm going to give the whole street two weeks - no, 10 days - to come out in the open and hand over all aliens and interplanetary hijackers, galactic outlaws and interstellar terrorist masterminds, and if they don't hand them over nicely and say 'Thank you', I'm going to bomb the entire street to kingdom come.

It's just as sane as what George W. Bush is proposing - and, in contrast to what he's intending, my policy will destroy only one street.

Observer special reports
Iraq: Observer special
Terrorism crisis: special report
Observer Worldview

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Special report: Iraq

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26.01.2003: Blair: war can start without UN arms find
26.01.2003: Focus: The endgame
26.01.2003: US buys up Iraqi oil to stave off crisis
26.01.2003: Refugee crisis looms

Comment
26.01.2003: Charles Kennedy: We're being bulldozed into war
26.01.2003: Andrew Rawnsley: Crunch time at Camp David
26.01.2003: Mary Riddell: Don't disdain the doves
26.01.2003: Terry Jones: I'm losing patience with my neighbours, Mr Bush

Observer Leader - and your responses
26.01.2003: Letters: What you say about our stand on Iraq
26.01.2003: More views: international feedback
19.01.2003: Leader: Why force may be needed
Talk: Where do you stand on Iraq?
Email your views to debate@observer.co.uk

The media
26.01.2003: David Beresford: The writes and wrongs of war

Focus special: The great war debate
19.01.2003: The public: What do Britons think about war?
19.01.2003: Debate: What prominent Britons think
19.01.2003: Westminster: Blair believes Blix will deliver
19.01.2003: The media: No 10 parades press for battle
19.01.2003: The military: Reluctant warriors quell their doubts
19.01.2003: Oil: Bush's gun barrels could end Opec stranglehold
19.01.2003: The facts: War by numbers
12.01.2003: Focus: Where the world stands on an invasion of Iraq
12.01.2003: Focus: Hawks sit out phoney peace while war machine rolls on

Observer highlights: the broadest debate
05.01.2003: Nick Cohen: Saddam won't run
14.07.2002: John Pilger: The great charade
29.12.2002: Ken Nichols: Back to Iraq as a human shield
22.12.2002: Leader: If it's war, it has to be legitimate
15.09.2002: Jason Burke: Return to Kurdistan
01.09.2002: Dilip Hiro: When US turned a blind eye to poison gas
11.08.2002: Nick Cohen: Who will save Iraq?
04.08.2002: Richard Harries: Not a just war
25.08.2002: Christopher Hitchens: With friends like these
22.09.2002: Terry Jones: The audacious courage of Mr Blair
22.09.2002: Rosemary Hollis: Hawks won't stop with Baghdad
11.08.2002: Mark Leonard: Could the left back war?
17.03.2002: John Lloyd: Anti-Americanism betrays the left
24.02.2002: Andrew Rawnsley: How to deal with the American goliath
17.02.2002: Terry Jones: OK, George, make with the friendly bombs
02.12.2001: David Rose: The doves are wrong - again

Iraq after Saddam
16.12.2001: David L Mack: Iraq after Saddam
01.12.2002: Post-Saddam Iraq mapped out by Allies
29.09.2002: Dilip Hiro: Iraq's fractured opposition

Special reports
Iraq: Observer special
Observer Worldview
Afghanistan
Terrorism crisis
Islam and the West

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Useful links
UNSCOM
UN resolutions on Iraq
British Foreign Office: Relations with Iraq
US State Department Iraq Update
Arab.net - Iraq resources
Campaign against Sanctions on Iraq
Centre for non-proliferation studies





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