Ken Clarke and the suicide bomber
Should critics of Blair's foreign policy take their lead from an old Tory and an Islamist fantasist?
by Brendan O'Neill
...This video - which only shows a Yorkshireman in a headscarf saying that British foreign policy made him feel upset - is no more an argument against the Iraq war than the murder of Sharon Tate in 1969 was an argument for letting Charles Manson join the Beach Boys (one of Manson's grievances, apparently, was that he never made it into the group). Yet anti-war commentators have effectively made Khan their unofficial spokesman, citing his wacky views as an argument for getting out of Iraq. They have even put words into his mouth. In his video Khan says that 'your democratically elected governments' (presumably meaning the British and American governments) must 'stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people'. This, according to a news report in the Guardian, is 'a reference to Iraq and Palestine' (2). How do they know that? Khan didn't mention the words 'Iraq' or 'Palestine'. And even if he had, so what? Should governments (especially democratically elected ones, in Khan's sneering reference) base their foreign policies on what some loon from Leeds thinks?
Khan also said that his 'driving motivation' was Islam, 'obedience to the one true God, Allah, and [to] follow in the footsteps of the final prophet and messenger Mohammad. This is how our ethical stances are dictated.' But commentators conveniently brushed over such religious nuttiness and upfronted his concern for 'my people' (whomever they might be). In so doing, they are using moral blackmail and feeding off defeatism to try to win the argument about the war in Iraq. What they're effectively saying is: 'Look, if we stay in Iraq then more people like Khan will become angry, strap bombs to themselves, and blow us up! Let's get out now - better safe than sorry.' They are using the politics of fear to make their case, just as cynically and opportunistically as Bush and Blair did when they launched this war to save us from Saddam's 'weapons of mass murder' in the first place.
by Brendan O'Neill
...This video - which only shows a Yorkshireman in a headscarf saying that British foreign policy made him feel upset - is no more an argument against the Iraq war than the murder of Sharon Tate in 1969 was an argument for letting Charles Manson join the Beach Boys (one of Manson's grievances, apparently, was that he never made it into the group). Yet anti-war commentators have effectively made Khan their unofficial spokesman, citing his wacky views as an argument for getting out of Iraq. They have even put words into his mouth. In his video Khan says that 'your democratically elected governments' (presumably meaning the British and American governments) must 'stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people'. This, according to a news report in the Guardian, is 'a reference to Iraq and Palestine' (2). How do they know that? Khan didn't mention the words 'Iraq' or 'Palestine'. And even if he had, so what? Should governments (especially democratically elected ones, in Khan's sneering reference) base their foreign policies on what some loon from Leeds thinks?
Khan also said that his 'driving motivation' was Islam, 'obedience to the one true God, Allah, and [to] follow in the footsteps of the final prophet and messenger Mohammad. This is how our ethical stances are dictated.' But commentators conveniently brushed over such religious nuttiness and upfronted his concern for 'my people' (whomever they might be). In so doing, they are using moral blackmail and feeding off defeatism to try to win the argument about the war in Iraq. What they're effectively saying is: 'Look, if we stay in Iraq then more people like Khan will become angry, strap bombs to themselves, and blow us up! Let's get out now - better safe than sorry.' They are using the politics of fear to make their case, just as cynically and opportunistically as Bush and Blair did when they launched this war to save us from Saddam's 'weapons of mass murder' in the first place.
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