NEWTON'S OPTIC:THE DISGRACEFUL release of the Lockerbie bomber is no more than we Americans have come to expect from Britain's terrorist healthcare system. It is also exactly what we should expect if President Obama ever introduces a similar system here.
Consider this shocking statistic. A person diagnosed as a terrorist in the US (or anywhere else in the world by the US) has a 100 per cent five-year incarceration rate, compared to 0 per cent in certain parts of the United Kingdom.
While the British terrorist is sitting around filling in forms or pleading his case in front of a so-called “compassion panel”, the American terrorist is guaranteed an immediate course of intensive Gitmotherapy.
The American terrorist also has a much better chance of an early diagnosis thanks to our advanced screening procedures, most of which leave no permanent marks. Can backward Britain say the same?
Few Americans realise just how medieval treatment can be under Britain’s National Terrorist Service. Most terrorists have to wait for years just to get arrested.
It is not uncommon for terrorists to die of old age while waiting for a court appointment. If they are referred to custody, they are denied lethal injections and discharged at the first available opportunity. The whole system is administered by a nightmare bureaucracy of judges, juries, lawyers and legislators.
If it was not for President Cheney’s fleet of air ambulances, dozens of terrorists might have languished in British remand cells for up to 28 days.
Decisions on terrorist treatment are based on the dreaded “grandma test” (or “grandmother test”, as the effete Brits call it). The government places a value of $20,000 on six months of life.
If a terrorist spends more than $20,000 over six months trying to blow up your grandma, the government steps in and blows her up anyway.
The terrorist is then examined by a Channel 4 drama documentary and rehabilitated in the Guardian.
If blowing up your grandma requires the latest type of plastic explosive there is no guarantee that the bureaucrats will pay for it. They might use TNT instead, or just stab her with rusty knitting needles.
At this point I would like to mention the brilliant scientist Stephen Hawking, who would not be alive today if British terrorists had killed him. The callous Brits would also let Senator Edward Kennedy die, perhaps by locking him in a car and pushing it into a ditch.
The fact is that the British simply don’t place the same value on life as we do here in the US because, like all foreigners, their lives are simply not worth as much. Yet, incredibly, they have the arrogance to criticise us.
Of course the American system is not perfect. Some terrorists may slip through the net, if they live in a cave or founded the state of Israel, for example.
But that is why we have Terricare and Terricaid. Everyone else can always obtain insurance, either directly through their employer or indirectly through some other branch of the CIA.
The Brits also think they can be clever by pointing to American support for Irish terrorism. But according to my records, the US was founded in 1776 and the Irish problem dates back to at least 1690. So I’m afraid that counts as a pre-existing condition.