Norway Analysis: Questions and Lessons from Friday's Attacks in Oslo and Utoeya

Photo: GettyFinally, this case is an example of the dangers of a “rush to judgement” without the full facts. I am as guilty of this as anyone else with my analysis yesterday, potentially linking the attacks to Al Qaeda. Others went even further with media appearances and Twitter messages connecting the attacks to a so-called "jihadist" group that does not appear to exist. In turn, the media were only to happy to lap this up and this groundswell of misjudgements can have real consequences for ordinary people.

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Bin Laden Follow-Up: Reflections on the Killing of a Terrorist...and Our Celebration of It (Jackson)

The killing of bin Laden, and the obvious delight and celebrations it provoked, should make us question what kind of society we really are that we openly rejoice in killing and violence --- do we consider an eye for an eye, a life for a life, blood for blood, as "justice"? What kind of people are we that we can exult without a thought for the hundreds of thousands of victims of that "justice"?  And what kind of a society are we that we shrug off and excuse the fact that a man was officially killed without trial and his body thrown into the sea, that international law was flouted, that we have denied the victims of 9/11 the opportunity to confront their attacker in a court of law, and that we have made an exception to our deepest values and rules?

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