Back in the days of the Cold War, Sting recorded a little song called "Russians." Cheesy in a way, but also catchy, in a minor key. It’s almost a paean to mutually assured destruction as a means of uneasy peace:
What might save us, me and you
Is if the Russians love their children too.
Cheesy because — well, of course the Russians love their children too. Who said they didn’t?
Yeah. So. What about this?
A HUSBAND and wife arrested in the British terror raids allegedly planned to take their six-month-old baby on a mid-air suicide mission.
Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use their baby’s bottle to hide a liquid bomb.
The theory is one of the reasons security chiefs are now insisting mothers taste babies’ milk at check-in desks before allowing them to take bottles aboard flights.
The pair are among up to 23 suspects being questioned over a plot to bring down nine airliners over five US cities, killing thousands of people in the air and on the ground.
Maybe this theory is wrong. I hope it is. It does sound like the sort of thing one would say if one wanted to make the enemy sound as inhuman as possible. But… what if it is not? And what if this couple are not isolated psychopaths, but instead hold a view that is more common than we dare to imagine?
Fighting dirty sometimes wins. I can’t think how to defend oneself against an attacker wielding a baby. His own baby son or daughter.
(And: Exactly how is having moms taste carried-on baby formula going to help here? Stock it on the flight with the soda and coffee.)
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