Having released a convicted criminal because he is dying of cancer the Scottish establishment is being subjected to all kinds of abuse from various US commentators. I have to say this is somewhat baffling to me, why isn't it clear to people in the USA that for a large proportion of the population of the world they are the "enemy"? Being British, we are somewhat conditioned to expecting this kind of response (even in the USA), with our history, i.e. subjugation of a large percentage of the worlds population at one point or another over the last 500 years; it's not hard to find someone that bears a grudge. The US outburst seems to be naïve at best, and at worst a form of drinking your own "coolaid" to the point of absurdity.
Yes the Libyans shouldn't celebrate the return of this person like he was a hero, but frankly so what, who actually gives a damn about what a few Libyans do on a piece of airport tarmac in Libya itself. There are clearly people in Libya (and elsewhere) who feel that this conviction is unsafe, there even appears to be new evidence to suggest that, but even if he is guilty, the reaction is simply an "us vs. them" knee jerk reaction. Just like the majority of people in the USA believing that god is on their side in the "war against terror" or GW Bush declaring "Mission Accomplished", these are all primitive reactions based upon irrational beliefs, the logic of crowds. If we're going to get through the next few centuries then we're going to need to rise above this kind of thing, there are simply too many skeletons in both cupboards to take either side seriously on this.
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