NEVER TAKE ADVICE FROM A MURDERER
The debate about whether Parliament should give authorisation to bomb IS in Syria is in full swing.
On the far right we have the Yes'ers who think that bombing Libya helped win Libya back from a tyrant and brought democracy for the many Libyans who wanted it. They also think that Saddam probably hid his weapons of mass destruction before we invaded his country in 2003, so we couldn't find them.
On the far left we have No'ers, one of whom is Ken Livingstone. Ken thinks that 7/7 was a direct result of the Yes'ers and blames them for it. He thinks that bombing IS will bring about apocalyptic behavioural and political change in all the decent Muslims in the West and they will suddenly turn into suicide bombers.
Of course neither of these are correct.
Bombing Libya was a disaster. The invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and was the result of some very dodgy intelligence assessments.
7/7 was a suicide bombing carried out by a group of psychopathic lunatics who had been brainwashed by a primary school teacher, for reasons which were never fully uncovered at the time, but are finally coming to light.
Yes, he might have said his reasons for doing this were because he held the people he blew to pieces on a tube train responsible for government decisions - but let's be honest – that’s like apologists for rape claiming it was because the victim wore a short skirt.
This idea, that the far left are embracing, of blaming homicidal tendencies on government decisions is quite simply grotesque.
The idea that lead bomber, Mohammed Siddique Khan, was so upset by government policy that he felt the need to murder people is absurd. We are talking about a mass murderer akin to Fred West, Dennis Nilsen and Charles Manson - a psychopathic lunatic. Does anyone talk about why those people killed and murdered scores of victims?
Mohammed Siddique Khan was an Islamic extremist before we invaded Iraq, before we invaded Afghanistan and even before the World Trade Centre was downed. Evidence revealed in the 7/7 inquest shows that he was attending military training camps prior to all of those so-called ‘trigger’ events.
The idea that his idiotic melon was vexed by world events is therefore wrong. The man was simply a homicidal maniac who wanted to kill and would have used any excuse to validate his reasoning.
I'm not for the bombing of Syria. It's too simplistic and the problems there are complex; I do however think that doing nothing is not an option either.
We wouldn't base the advice we give our daughters on the views of Fred West would we?
Then why is Ken Livingstone asking to base foreign policy decisions on the views of Mohammed Siddique Khan?
The 7/7 thriller is out now IN PAPERBACK and supports the Police Dependants' Trust.
David Videcette was a lead detective on the London 7/7 bombings investigation. His debut novel, The Theseus Paradox, is supporting The Police Dependants' Trust to help police officers who have faced tragic events on duty.