Posted on 10/22/2007 1:36:23 PM PDT by Baladas
MADRID, Spain (AP) - Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were "not that terrible" when compared to attacks by the IRA in Britain. "September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible," the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily 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 in an interview published Sunday.
"Do you know what people forget? That the IRA attacked with bombs against our government; it killed several people while a Conservative congress was being held and in which the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was (attending). People forget," she said.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. About 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were maimed in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland. The Irish Republican Army guerrilla group, which caused most of the deaths, disarmed in 2005.
Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Lessing in London for comment Monday were unsuccessful. Her agent's office said the author was unavailable because she was not feeling well.
In the El Pais interview, Lessing had sharp words for both President Bush and his ally, former British premier Tony Blair.
"I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning," El Pais quoted Lessing as saying. "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," added Lessing. "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."
Iran also came in for a lashing from Lessing, who was born to British parents who were living in what is now Bakhtaran, Iran.
"I hate Iran, I hate the Iranian government, it's a cruel and evil government," she was quoted as saying.
"Look what happened to its president in New York, they called him evil and cruel in Colombia University. Marvelous! They should have said more to him! Nobody criticizes him, because of oil."
The author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic "The Golden Notebook," Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature earlier this month. She was praised by the judges for her "skepticism, fire and visionary power."
Very crazy.
So what would you do about it? Just threaten to hate them more? Impose sanctions that are mostly ignored? What is your solution? Little people like her have the luxury of criticizing those that are actually charged with defending a nation.
What a silly, pathetic woman.
The distinction is that 9/11 killed more people in a single day than several decades of IRA attacks. OTOH the IRA did more harm to Ireland than the Islamists did to the USA when one considers their impact on the economy and society.
Another thing to bear in mind is that the British and Europeans have been accustomed to terrorism at home in a way that the Americans never were. The IRA, Red Brigades and Bader-Meinhoff were quite busy back in the 1970s while North America was pretty quiet.
Nobel laureates are irrelevant.
I actually tried to read one of her books several years ago.
I could not get through it.
She must be angling for another liberal prize.
The Nobel prize used to denote brains. Now it denotes lack of.
Never could read more than a page or so of her works. It might be noted that the attack was planned to be much bigger and did include the White House and probably the Capitol building in session.
Under their deep intellectual veil always lies a crude simple beast that makes its living not by any worthwhile contribution, rather by explaining the world and the actions of others around them and rallying those with this cause that then buy her product. Like all others who live and die by the media, she has to make her statement. If it wasnt this, shed tell us shes gay, or that she wipes her rear with a single sheet of toilet paper.
Don't you just love these Euro-elites? They are a bunch of has-beens, trying desperately to convince themselves and everyone else that they are still relevant!
Apparently, Ms. Lessing, you are too stupid to figure out which it is.
Hateful b!tch.
She should have been there,maybe that would have impressed her.If she survived it that is.
She wrote a couple of decent books when she was very young, and then she wrote one called “The Good Terrorist,” which I thought was excellent. It was about a spoiled, dissatisfied brat who joins a radical left terrorist group and somehow moves out of the sphere of normal human decency because of her combination of bizarre self-righteousness and manipulation by the group’s leader. I never figured out how such a moonbat as Doris Lessing was able to write such a good book.
It's disgusting what passes for scholarship these days.
A distinction without a difference in this case.
“I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning,”
“As for Bush, he’s a world calamity,”
“I hate Iran, I hate the Iranian government,”
“She was praised by the judges for her “skepticism, fire and visionary power.”
Doesn’t take much to hate!!!
“...Lessing, who was born to British parents who were living in what is now Bakhtaran, Iran.”
LOL. She’s insane. The IRA killed it’s own people to kill a few Brit cops or soldiers...her response...move to a country run by terrorists. And we’re naive. Hey Lessing, blow me.
commie
Doris, I think you are crazy & I can't post how I truly feel about you. But I will tell you I think you are a moron & a scummer. ~Pandora~
Helen Thomas class woman. Please, no more pictures.
What an idiot!!! It’s “not so terrible”, so that makes it all right???
Not just an idiot, a moral leper.
What a complete jackass.

“September 11 was terrible... wasn’t that terrible,”
“They’re a very naive people, or they pretend to be,”
“Either he is stupid or he is very clever”
“Look what happened to its president in New York, they called him evil and cruel... Nobody criticizes him, because of oil.”
The idiot is a Nobel Prize winner for sure!
She sounds like Mama-T...
BTW, she used to be a member of the communist party.
I take it the woman is a “pacifist”, i.e., one who sits idly by while others put their butts on the line to protect her “freedom”.
But it’s all about her, doncha know?
Does she actually like anyone or anything? I’ve never heard anyone so filled with hatred. On every subject and every person it was “I hate...” How sad for her. She needs help.
You also have to add in attacks against the US outside the country, i.e., Khobar Towers, our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya [over 5000 killed or wounded] and the USS Cole. Plus many other attacks like Bali, Spain, Iraq, and the UK. AQ has killed or wounded far more than the IRA. And they are far from done.
In the article did she ever take sides regarding the war against Irish terror, or is she just taking potshots at those who see terrorism as something worthy of fighting against?
“I never figured out how such a moonbat as Doris Lessing was able
to write such a good book.”
She lived it?
(as they say “Write what you know.”)
She is full of hate.
There are 3,000 dead people who would beg to differ with that opinion, Doris.
Thanks!
That’s true - or possibly one of her kids did. But her point of view was pretty sound, and that’s what amazed me. It sounded like she was distancing herself from the old Stalinist “can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs” mantra that was so popular among left-wing killers in the 60s and 70s.
If they gave out prizes for stupidity, this moron would win.
At the end of Orianna Fallaci’s last book,’The Force of Reason’, there is an endnote (actually, the text of an address) wherein Fallaci said that if the Nobel Committee ever nominated her for its prize, she would sue for defamation of character.
“Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. About 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were maimed in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.”
So, nearly the same number of people died in ONE DAY as compared to over 30 yrs. What a clown.
I think it moreso, that she is a jaded and resigned masochist, who has been contemplating her own subjugation, mutilation, and death, for so long, that she now secretly hungers for it.
Much too kind, but I think we’re of the same mind. LOL
She’s got a lot of hate there.
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