The transnational left gathered in Istanbul over the weekend to put the United States and Britain on trial and express support for the head-chopping holy warriors, in a freakshow modeled after philosopher Bertrand Russell’s Vietnam-era International War Crimes Tribunal: World Tribunal on Iraq Condemns U.S. and Britain, Recognizes Right of Iraqis to Resist Occupation. (Hat tip: Gateway Pundit.)

Here’s a priceless quote from Indian writer Arundhati Roy; a great example of what happens when the voices in your head get too loud:

There were times when I felt, I wish I wasn’t on the jury, because I want to say things. You know? I mean, I think that is the nature of this tribunal, that, in a way, one wants to be everything. You want to be on the jury, you want to be on the other side, you want to say things. And I particularly wanted to talk a lot about — which I won’t do now, so don’t worry, but I wanted to talk a lot about my own, you know, now several years of experience with issues of resistance, strategies of resistance, the fact that we actually tend to reach for easy justifications of violence and non-violence, easy and not really very accurate historical examples. These are things we should worry about.

But at the end of it, today we do seem to live in a world where the United States of America has defined an enemy combatant, someone whom they can kidnap from any country, from anyplace in the world and take for trial to America. An enemy combatant seems to be anybody who harbors thoughts of resistance. Well, if this is the definition, then I, for one, am an enemy combatant. Thank you.

Applause, applause.