A chat with ...

... John Banville - Director’s Cut. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The reaction to 9/11 has been so hysterical and so disproportionate. Look at the horrors we put up with in this country for 35 years. If we’d lost our nerve at the start, where would we be with this stuff? What America should’ve said was, ‘Yeah, terrible. Very sorry. A lot of people killed. Let’s move on.’ In fact, they allowed a huge victory to grubby little men who want to destroy us for no reason other than hatred of the west. By making such a fuss they allowed them their victory.”

I'm not aware of the troubles in Ireland ever causing more than 3,000 innocent people to lose their lives in a single day. And putting up with horrors for 35 years leads one to wonder if "putting up" with them was perhaps not the best the strategy. At any rate, as Dogberry said, "caparisons are odorous."