from today's London Guardian: "Blair Put Us in the Firing Line"

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1524752,00.html

Blair put us in the firing line

The war on Iraq made the attack on London inevitable

Faisal Bodi

Saturday July 9, 2005

Guardian

Amid all the punditry about whether there was an al-Qaida connection to Thursday's attacks on London commuters, it should not be forgotten that the bloody trail of blame leads straight to 10 Downing Street. The prime minister's early return to Westminster was a fitting response to the carnage unleashed on the capital. It was the only hint of personal responsibility for our entanglement in a war that has made prime targets of innocent Britons.

The fury generated by Tony Blair's decision to coat-tail George Bush into what only the blind still call a justified war has put us all in the firing line. When Blair led us into the war on terror, he knew that a country with which Islamist networks had no immediate axe to grind would be drawn into their sphere of hate as a consequence.

That is why we have had tightened anti-terrorism laws, public scares and training exercises for emergency services. They were all premised on the inevitability of blowback for Blair's foreign exploits. In the calculation that staked our security against some ill-conceived national interest in occupying Iraq, our government has turned us all into expendable pawns, in the same way it did Ken Bigley and Margaret Hassan.

Not that this outrage is likely to shock us into realising we have become involuntary martyrs for Blair in the service of his master's imperial cause. In the politics of fear, attacks like Thursday's rarely lead to awareness beyond the most immediate danger. Those further down the chain of causation usually escape censure in the resulting wave of revulsion.

So it came as little surprise to see Blair trotting out the same tired juxtaposition of our civilisation and their barbarism. Those responsible have no respect for human life, he said. At such times of high emotion we can perhaps forgive him for losing a sense of perspective. It might serve him well to remember our conduct in a conflict waged without rules and mercy. Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and the bombing of innocent Afghans in their homes might conjure up images of US brutality, but our policies and military action ever since the first Gulf war, including sanctions and the use of depleted uranium, have maimed and wiped out hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, whose only crime was to live under a tyrant of our making - not theirs.

more...

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Rule # 1: When you blow up innocent people on a daily basis

for reasons that turned out to be a pack of lies, don't act surprised when their sympathizers strike back.

[jrthin]

2. For the safety of his country men,

Blair should resign or pull the troops out of Iraq. The ideal situation is for his to do both.

[medeak]

3. darn..link doesn't work?

[flpoljunkie]

5. Guess it expired. Have fixed it. Try again now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1524752,00.html

[geek tragedy]

4. Bodi was rooting for the Taliban after 911, so as far as I'm concerned

the wanker can go fuck himself. He's on the side of the terrorists. Folks like him aren't leftists--they're the enemy.


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/islam/story/0,1442,587456,00.html

[Karenina]

7. I read the link you provided

and am AMAZED at how easily you cast his words into a black/white jingoistic paradigm.

<snip>

"The idealism that turns students and trainee accountants into would-be warriors has its roots in the same injustices - deprival of freedom, self-determination, and dignity - out of which Al-Qaeda was born. This "war on terrorism" is a continuation of the old world order, the opening salvo of a much bigger campaign to eliminate all those Islamic movements which pose a physical threat to the west's brutal hegemony over the Muslim world.

This wicked war makes my blood curdle too. But would I go and fight? I am no friend of the Taliban and a few months ago I would have scoffed at the mere suggestion. How things change. From being an embarrassing caricature of Islam, in my eyes the Taliban have suddenly become the west's latest victims.

But we British Muslims need to focus on our own battle on the domestic front. We must show the British people how the government has cynically exploited September 11 to lead the country into a dangerous imperialist war. If it cannot be made to see the error of its ways soon, it risks sowing the seeds of a much bigger conflict with Muslims."

One MUST consider the in-time context of his writing. Is expressing ambivalence a sin, subject to condemnation? His writing is much more thoughtful than that. Yours, not.

[H5N1]

8. By Jove, you are right!

At any rate, the author certainly frames the situation -
both then and now - in a thoughtful light.

[geek tragedy]

10. Siding with the Taliban isn't 'thoughtful'--it's treasonous.

This guy openly contemplates picking up a gun and fighting alongside Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar against the British and US.

[Karenina]

11. Oh, you're just being hysterical and silly.

:silly: Reading comprehension and empathy are your friends.

[geek tragedy]

13. I can read just fine. I just take offense to people who sympathize with

the Taliban and contemplate helping kill Americans and Brits in order to help the Taliban.

I guess you're okay with people who support the Taliban.

[Karenina]

12. Oh, you're just being hysterical and silly.

:silly: Reading comprehension and empathy are your friends.

[Karenina]

14. Oh, you're just being hysterical and silly.

:silly: Reading comprehension and empathy are your friends.

[geek tragedy]

9. That's not ambivalence--that's choosing the Taliban's side.

I'll take morally defensible and civilized over morally decadent thoughtfulness, thank you.

He's openly sympathizing with traitors, terrorists, and the Taliban.

He's not anti-war. He's just rooting for the other side.

[Mythsaje]

6. To the point...

"have maimed and wiped out hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, whose only crime was to live under a tyrant of our making - not theirs."

DO YOU FREEPERS GET IT YET? THIS IS EXACTLY WHY THIS WAR WAS WRONG.

Question is--do you yahoos care?

Answer is--not a bit.