Letter

In response to A five minute scroll

Hegseth’s tatts and the Christchurch shooter

The five-minute scroll 105 notes the bombing of Yemen. Some years ago the Christchurch shooter killed 51 Muslim worshippers. His inscriptions in Georgian channeled 400-year-old battles against Muslims in eastern Europe.

At the beginning of this week of 24 March, 53 were killed in Yemen by US air weaponry. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly has tattoos including one channeling the 1000-year-old Crusader fight against Muslims, and one with the word “kafir”, meaning an unbeliever in Muslim eyes.

In an “accidentally” released Signal message, he was shown to be ordering actions which would inevitably cause similar killings, but here’s one difference: this time it was with F-18 fighter aircraft, part of the stunning arsenal he now controls, subject of course to the US President as c-in-c. And so ancient hatreds seemingly smoulder on.

— Geoff Taylor from Perth