Shorter Gail Collins: Americans Are Selfish Pussies
As I was saying, last November, the Justice Department announced that the terror trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would be held in Manhattan. Almost everyone in New York rallied around. This was seen as standing up to terrorism.
“It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center, where so many New Yorkers were murdered,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Now everything’s flipped. The politicians are running for the hills, and the issue has been repackaged as standing up to traffic jams.
“There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive,” said Bloomberg.
And the Justice Department is backing down. The trial will happen somewhere else. People in Lower Manhattan will breathe a sigh of relief.
But this feels very wrong.
Collins goes on, ticking off all the ways Americans and the politicians we elect are nothing but selfish fucking pussies. Ben Nelson, whose price for health care is a special deal for Nebraska, a bridge so far even his own constituents rejected it.
Or the NIMBY reaction to imprisoning War on Terror (TM) detainees in the US: seriously, has anyone EVER escaped from a supermax?
It’s embarrassing that I live in a country run by and for such cretins.
