Wednesday, October 05, 2005
WHY-NERS
Christopher Hitchens—who notes that “East Timor was for many years, and quite rightly, a signature cause of the Noam Chomsky left’”—has some answers for the just ask why crowd:
Do not forget that on Aug. 19, 2003, a gigantic explosion leveled the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, which then served as the Iraq headquarters of the United Nations. The materials used to do this were of a high military grade not available to any random “insurgent” and certainly came from the arsenals of the fallen regime. The main target—and principal victim—was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the dashing Brazilian who had been sent by Kofi Annan to reanimate the U.N. presence in Iraq. De Mello had been the most devoted and humane of the world body’s civil servants and had won himself golden opinions in Cambodia, Lebanon, Sudan, and the Balkans. But it was his role as U.N. supervisor of the transition in East Timor that marked him for death. A communiqué from al-Qaida gloated over the end of “the personal representative of America’s criminal slave, Kofi Annan, the diseased Sergio de Mello, criminal Bush’s friend.” It went on to ask, “Why cry over a heretic? Sergio Vieira de Mello is the one who tried to embellish the image of America, the crusaders and the Jews in Lebanon and Kosovo, and now in Iraq. He is America’s first man where he was nominated by Bush to be in charge of the UN after Kofi Annan, the criminal and slave of America, and he is the crusader that extracted a part of the Islamic land [East Timor]."
More lies, I guess. Andrew Bolt reports a recent ABC surrender festival hosted by Libby Price, who asked listeners to suggest terms for “peace talks” with Islamic terrorists:
Sure, we shouldn’t really negotiate with killers, Price said on Monday, but “things have progressed so far beyond that”.
To save ourselves we must open talks—if not with bin Laden himself, at least with “someone within the (al-Qaida) organisation that doubts what’s happening”.
And for half an hour her listeners rang with helpful suggestions to cut a deal with the terrorists who have killed so many of us.
We should appoint an expert in “conflict resolution”, suggested one. What about the United Nations, asked a second. And, of course, of course, we should get out of Iraq, the cause of all sorrows.
Dear God, how strange it was, to hear so many callers assume that terrorists happy to blow up children and behead civilians are as reasonable as are they themselves, in a manner of speaking.
Hang on, warned one listener, but wasn’t one of al-Qaida’s desires the return of Spain and East Timor to Muslim rule?
Well, that could be just a “starting point” in these talks, Price replied.
No wonder The Age’s Pamela Bone has ditched her old comrades:
”A move back towards the left for you?” a regular correspondent emailed, in response to a recent column. “I never left the left. The left left me,” I replied. “The left I thought I was part of didn’t make common cause with fascists.” This did not please him.
The big “why” in all of this isn’t anything to do with terrorist motivation, but why so many on the left—facing a force that opposes feminism, homosexuality, diversity, freedom of expression, and democracy—seek cosy understanding of that force. Although, in truth, they don’t; otherwise they wouldn’t deny evidence (East Timor) not supportive of happy assumptions that it’s all about Evil American Imperialism and Oil.
UPDATE. Asked on Lateline about Jemaah Islamiyah leader Abu Bakar Bashir, Robert Fisk hit the big red evasion button:
Get rid of these people out of your mind for the moment. They’re the guys who are bad, they’re the guys who are calling for suicide bombings, yes. But we have to deal with real facts on the ground, and most of them are in the Middle East and we will not do so. I notice every time I raise the issue of the Middle East with you, we come back to Indonesia again. But there are connections between Indonesia and the Middle East—with Indonesia and Libya, actually as well. There are direct connections between al-Qaeda and Indonesia. You’ve said that on your program. We need the talk about the Middle East and we will not do so, and even you on this program - and with much respect, we’re talking as journalists together - you don’t want to make that connection, and that connection exists and unless we make it, we are in danger.
Why might Fisk be so eager to dodge any mention of Bashir? Possibly because of views like this, revealed in an interview with Scott Atran:
Atran: What can the West, especially the US, do to make the world more peaceful?
Abu Bakar Bashir: They have to stop fighting Islam. That’s impossible because it is sunnatullah [destiny, a law of nature], as Allah has said in the Koran. If they want to have peace, they have to accept to be governed by Islam ... We’ll keep fighting them and they’ll lose. The batil [falsehood] will lose sooner or later. I sent a letter to Bush. I said that you’ll lose and there is no point for you [to fight us]. This [concept] is found in the Koran.
Atran: How can the American regime and its policies change?
Abooby Bing-Bong Basher: We’ll see. As long as there is no intention to fight us and Islam continues to grow there can be peace. This is the doctrine of Islam. Islam can’t be ruled by others. Allah’s law must stand above human law. There is no [example] of Islam and infidels, the right and the wrong, living together in peace.
Let’s all talk about the Middle East instead.
UPDATE II. More on Bashir the ignored:
There are reports Bashir, who was sentenced to 30 months jail over the 2002 Bali bombings, could have his term reduced by a further month.
It is also reported that Bashir used the telephone in his cell to call on terrorists to use nuclear weapons in their fight.
More urgently, let’s talk about the British invasion of Iraq in 1917.