Posted on 10/23/2007 6:52:46 PM PDT by PotatoHeadMick
Doris Lessing, the Nobel Prize-winning British author, has called the attacks on New York on Sept 11, 2001, "not that terrible", compared to the campaign of terror waged by the IRA in the UK.
Lessing, 88, who won the Nobel Prize for literature earlier this month and was praised by the judges for her "scepticism, fire and visionary power", said the attacks were not as "extraordinary" as some Americans thought they were.
September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible,” she told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
"Some Americans will think I'm crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be," she said of the Americans.
"Do you know what people forget? That the IRA attacked with bombs against our Government.”
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept 11 attacks of 2001. More than 3,500 died and thousands more were injured in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.
Lessing, the author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, also poured scorn on Tony Blair and George W Bush.
"I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning," she said. "Many of us hated Tony Blair, I think he has been a disaster for Britain and we have suffered him for many years. I said it when he was elected, 'this man is a little showman who is going to cause us problems' and he did.
"As for Bush, he's a world calamity. Everyone is tired of this man. Either he is stupid or he is very clever, although you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars."
By the same measure: Doris Lessing’s works ‘not that significant.’
losing her marbles
Already lost
All I need to know here.
...and that's the cherry on top.
Continental America had never before been successfully attacked by foreign entities...but I guess thats no big deal to the left
Pearl Harbor had few casualties, too, but then comparing a single battle to an entire war is somewhat of a nonsequitur.
There may have been similar trauma effect ... though I would have to believe that Darfur, Rwanda, Liberia, Afghanistan, etc., far worse than either.
-Mary Todd Lincoln
same amount dead in one day as in 30 yrs. “lights are on, but no body’s home”
I guess I can assume that Ms. Lessing did not jump from the WTC towers while on fire?
Old or not she needs smacked. I’m tired of being the nice guy...some woman please smack her or give her a Big Apple pie to the face.
Actually, I am not sure it was worse, and remember that the US has been one of the most hypocritical countries in the world when it comes to terrorism. So long as it was a European problem (IRA, Bader Meinhof, Brigate Rossa), we didn't care a fig. When US charities sent millions to the IRA we looked the other way.
That said, I will address her comment but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They're a very naive people
Well, Americans are naive, but Europeans are cynical and nihilistic (as is the AMerican left), and the positive thing out of it is that Americans do recognize it as terrible and extraordinary (except our own left). It is only because of European cynicism and nihilism that they won't take the trouble to put and end to what should be extraordinary levels of violence (nor will our own leftists).
Don’t forget the war of 1812
I’ll smack her dentures out AND give her an apple pie in the face. And then I’ll tell her she just got whopped by an 18-year-old.
How ‘bout lining her Depends with Icy-Hot ?
*whopped=whooped
I didn't know that and you sound so sure of your facts. Thanks Doris!
Irish hag
Douche bag
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