Drummer Lee Rigby RIP
Two weeks on, and I’m still reeling from the death of Lee Rigby. I didn’t know him, I saw Wednesday’s evening news. The sight of a man with bloodied hands speaking into a camcorder will haunt me all my life. It was bizarre and surreal; Michael Adebolajo giving what amounted to a press conference whilst a few feet away was Rigby’s butchered body. The people in the background wandering through before seeing the corpse, the meat cleaver or both.
I couldn’t quite understand what had happened at first. I heard that a soldier had been murdered, but then that David Cameron had been notified that this might be a terrorist act. Then more details started filtering in. That Rigby hadn’t been wearing his uniform, but a Help The Heroes t-shirt. That his barracks was a short distance away. That his two killers had spent 20 minutes hacking away.
I’m opposed to Britain’s military incursions in the Middle East. I think that we should bring our troops back immediately, and stop invading Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other country that the USA tells us to (in the aftermath of this outrage, some politician came out and said that this wasn’t a result of our foreign policy). We’ve become used to seeing dead soldiers neatly packaged in union jack-draped coffins, but Drummer Rigby’s death has brought home to us the grim reality of combat.
But all that must sound like words to Lee Rigby’s daughter, leaving a Peppa Pig toy on the site of her father’s murder.
I couldn’t quite understand what had happened at first. I heard that a soldier had been murdered, but then that David Cameron had been notified that this might be a terrorist act. Then more details started filtering in. That Rigby hadn’t been wearing his uniform, but a Help The Heroes t-shirt. That his barracks was a short distance away. That his two killers had spent 20 minutes hacking away.
I’m opposed to Britain’s military incursions in the Middle East. I think that we should bring our troops back immediately, and stop invading Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other country that the USA tells us to (in the aftermath of this outrage, some politician came out and said that this wasn’t a result of our foreign policy). We’ve become used to seeing dead soldiers neatly packaged in union jack-draped coffins, but Drummer Rigby’s death has brought home to us the grim reality of combat.
But all that must sound like words to Lee Rigby’s daughter, leaving a Peppa Pig toy on the site of her father’s murder.
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