I do not breathe your politics
"Comment is free but facts are sacred." (C.P. Scott)
Monday, October 03, 2005
The mendacious and alarming Dr John Reid
Two little glimpses into the chasm where Dr Reid's spine should be.
First, from a BBC article about a 'billeting' trip to Afghanistan:
And he rejected claims that the weekend bombings may have been retaliation from Islamic militants for the role played by Australia in the conflicts. The defence secretary said: "What about the first Bali bombing, when tourists were targeted, or the commuters on trains in Madrid, or in Tanzania, or Egypt, or two months ago in Turkey. "Those people and the people in New York and in London were all the innocent victims of indiscriminate attacks."Oh, COME ON, Dr Reid, don't be such an idiot. I accept that it's very hard to conclude with certainty that the second Bali bombing wouldn't have happened without Iraq; can you not accept that Iraq might just have worked them up enough to do it? You cannot conclude with certainty that the 7th and 21st of July bombings in London are to do with Iraq, even when one of the bombers tells us on video: "Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world"? I can understand that you share collective responsibility for the invasion and you are too cowardly to admit it, but this to me reads like an admonishment to an electorate for returning a Labour government given the opportunity not to; that is, continuing to support a government which did what it did (Afghanistan, Iraq). The true idiocy of your malignant statement is in suggesting that the Madrid bombings had nothing to do with Iraq. Tell us, Dr Reid - what else connects Britain, Spain and the USA in the eyes of Islamist terrorists? The bombing happened just before a general election. Are you telling us now that you think their support for Iraq was not a factor? If Iraq is not the reason those terrorists wanted to derail (an awful pun I have belatedly noticed but decided to leave) the Spanish general election, what was, Dr Reid? Secondly, he cemented his reputation as being New Labour's thug-in-chief with a joke at the expense of Walter Wolfgang, the 82-year-old Holocaust survivor whose one-word dissent was enough to get him ejected from the New Labour conference and prevented from returning by police exercising powers under the Terrorism Act: "Hi Walter, shout out if you are here - or maybe you shouldn't," said John Reid from the conference platform, his menacing Glasgow humour capturing the tone of a day that was half jocular, half threatening.The twistedness of this 'humour' chills me to the bone. I believe there is a case for a new tradition in the response of the public to politicians being interviewed by journalists. We should emulate the action of the man who, on seeing Dick Cheney building political capital in a devastated Louisiana neighbourhood, shouted: "Go fuck yourself, Mr Cheney". It is strongly worded yet politely framed heckle, so common that it cannot be considered obscene, and was widely reported in a surprisingly uncritical manner by news media obsessed with wardrobe malfunction. The genius of this heckler is that he knows that Mr Cheney cannot claim to be shocked or upset by it, because he is recorded as having said a similar thing to Senator Patrick Leahy, on the floor of the Senate itself. I am of course less sure that our defence secretary has used this expression, so there is a small chance that Dr Reid would be upset by this, were he confronted with it. But he can go fuck himself anyway. posted by Michael at 10/03/2005 03:32:00 AM |