Justice from the heavens

Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two make four.

- Winston Smith

Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.

- Optimus Prime

Freedom is the freedom to deprive it from everyone else.

- Dick Cheney to George Bush (attributed)

Hot on the heels of Saddam Hussein's execution, US missiles kill at least one Somali man allegedly an Al Qaeda operative involved in US embassy bombings in the 1990s. This is far from the type of justice that distinguishes nation states from irregular terrorists. Indeed perhaps the only positive thing one can say about American justice is that at least they are consistent. For the message the US has conveyed consistently throughout the so-called "War on Terrorism" is that it will enlist terrorism itself in order to quell the threat of terrorism it believes it faces.

It is worth considering Saddam Hussein's execution in this light. No matter how the details of his hanging may be described, it will rightly be perceived as yet another act of calculated American violence. Saddam's hanging sends out a message to all would-be 'third way' world leaders that they should dare not sway against the breeze when it is the gods of American foreign policy who are doing the blowing.

UPDATE: The US air strikes in Somalia failed to kill any of the three al-Qaeda suspects targeted.