The beheading of journalist James Foley is out there. The video is easy to find on the internet and I found it. But it was simply too much to watch beyond the crazed rantings of the Islamic State madman who killed him.
Youtube has, for once, removed the videos immediately. It hasn’t always done so, having far more of an aversion to a woman’s nipple than a brutal murder. But there are countless other websites which have no such scruples.
A few years ago Ken Bigley was beheaded in Iraq and that video was everywhere on line. Again, I couldn’t watch it, didn’t want to watch it, was a bit scared of the effects it might have on me. This one was quite possibly even worse because the murderer addressed the cameras in a London accent.
He came out with the usual rubbish about the west attacking muslim lands and made Foley himself say much the same thing before pulling out a knife. And that’s when I switched off.
Even though the murderer was hooded, as befits the cowardly terrorist, I cannot believe someone did not recognise the voice. His friends and family will know straight away who he is. It is their duty to dob him in to the authorities.
As videos go, it was far more ‘professional’ than the normal grainy video you get. The image was clear and sharp, the sound was of a good quality. There was no trick photography going on here.
If I had the answer to what to do to stop these terrible wars and their consequences, I’d call David Cameron today because in common with all politicians around the world he certainly doesn’t have the first idea what to do. He might as well have stayed on holiday.
The middle east is becoming the powder keg we all feared it would and I wonder how much longer it will be before the middle east becomes one big Arabia.
Late last year, I read a book called Invasion by a new author D C Alden in which he described the world as it could be with peace in the middle east, a giant Arabia, but where the peace suddenly comes to an end with a rapid invasion of the west and a permanent Arabian rule.
It’s fiction, I hope, and certainly won’t happen in our lifetime (will it?) but will it happen at some point in the future?
It wasn’t that long ago, I knew people who visited Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and even Egypt, without fear for their safety. Hardly anyone would visit these places now, other than the Red Sea resorts. In history terms, these changes have come about in a small dot.
It’s such a mess. And now the news from Israel.
