'Terrorist In My Neighborhood'

Giving The Benefit Of The Doubt

I don't like David Hicks. I don't like what happened to him at Guantanamo Bay either, and I sure don't like the War on Terror that has informed the first part of this century, but in the scheme of things David Hicks is still eminently dislikable. I don't know being dislikable is enough to get you tortured in camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, but I always suspected it couldn't have happened to a more deserving shit-head, and everybody wanting for him to return were misguided peaceniks, rallying around the worst shit-flag with the worst shit-cause.

Maybe another way of putting it is this: I don't like the death penalty either, but when applied to Shoko Asahara, it blunts my objections considerably. If they had the death penalty in Norway and applied it to Anders Brevik, I wouldn't mind. That they don't execute Brevik in Norway is a testament to Norway's level of civil progress, and maybe I'm too flexible in my beliefs about these things. They're clearly better people than I am.

Maybe David Hicks doesn't warrant being lined up with the likes of Asahara or Brevik, but to my mind there's no doubt he went to Afghanistan for some kind of military adventure and ended up paying for it heavily. His denials have always rung hollow, given everything else with which he was reported to have involved himself.

So at the barebones level of it, I found it really hard to argue against US torture in Guantanamo Bay leading with this white kid form South Australia. Other people? Sure. This guy? Puh-lease. It's a bit like arguing against the Death Penalty with  some C-Level Guard at a Nazi death Camp. How culpable were they? I dunno - but they sure meant to be there doing evil shit, that's why you'd stick them on trial. Hicks was culpable just by being there. how big that culpability was, I don't know, but he sure as fuck was up to no good.

Here's the crucial thing: Most civilian people on the planet that saw 9/11 unfold on TV did not think to themselves they needed to get to Afghanistan. He got exactly what he bargained for; he gets absolutely zero sympathy from me.

After the weird political deal that returned Hicks to Australia - god only knows who's face exactly was saved in all of it because nobody looked good - Hicks started living in my area. He was spotted shopping at the local supermarket. This prompted me to write this song.

I don't think he lives in the area any more. I believe he's back in South Australia, beating up on some other life partner. He's still a dick in my books.





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