Suffer Little Children

by Neil Bamforth

Terrorism is always evil. People die when terrorists start doing their thing. Terrorists are, ultimately, idiots. Even well educated terrorists are idiots. Terrorism has never won and never will. Even pretty dumb people know that. Even Trump knows that. Extraordinary thing. The entire world was in agreement with Donald Trump when he called the Manchester terrorist and, indeed, all terrorists, ‘losers’.

There is something particularly gut wrenching about the attack on the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. When a terrorist attack occurs whether it is a relatively huge attack such as 9/11 or 7/7 or the French rock concert or whatever we are rightly shocked and horrified and disgusted.

We are disgusted and repelled by the barbarism and completely idiotic sentiments of the terrorists whether plural or singular.

They are often quite wrongly described as animals. Ridiculous. Animals would never behave in such a way.

They are often quite wrongly described as monsters. Ridiculous. That merely enhances them.

Terrorists are sub-human scum. Always have been, always will be. The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist. The only argument I ever heard against this was the gibberish about being seen as a martyr. Well, the only people who would view a dead terrorist as a martyr are other terrorists and their supporters and who gives a damn what they think?

The attack in Manchester was more gut wrenching than any terrorist attack of any kind anywhere purely because, in the west, never has there been a terrorist attack specifically targeting children. Until now.

Personally I had never even heard of Ariana Grande. Neither had any of my friends. Apparently she was very big in some kind of children’s TV show before launching a pop career. As a result, not unnaturally, many of her ardent fans are children.

The terrorist knew this and targeted her fans in the full knowledge the victims would be primarily young. Quite probably children or young teenagers.

This, in so many ways, takes terrorism to a whole different level.

Certainly children have died from terrorist atrocities before but, at least in the west, purely through being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’. Never have children been directly targeted in the west by terrorists.

Many years ago, for some unfathomable reason, the government of the day decided on what were termed ‘boundary changes’. As a result the county of Middlesex ceased to formally exist as it was swallowed up by the newly created ‘Greater London’.

In the north my home town of Oldham along with other towns such as Rochdale were informed they were no longer part of Lancashire but now a part of Greater Manchester.

Absolutely not! The residents of Middlesex didn’t generally seem to care but the north of England has always been far more tribal and Mancunians are ‘city dwellers’ whilst we are anything but.

“We aren’t Mancs!” we cried and, quite rightly, to this day, protests are regularly held.

Actually, as I write, this day there are none. Protests that is.

This day, as I write, 22 people died at a pop concert in Manchester. Many were children. 50 odd are in hospital so the death toll may rise.

This day we are all Mancs.

This day we are one against the sub-human scum who targeted children.

This day we are too numb to care about Mancs and Lancastrians and city dwellers and the Pennines.

This day we saw evil that we can no longer ignore and try to sweep away.

Extreme Islam has to be obliterated from the face of the Earth.

Donald Trump said that.

Donald Trump was right twice in one day.

Today, even Trump is a Manc.

Today you all are.

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