Iraq, Collaboration And Doing The Right Thing For Once
There's a growing blog movement which you may have seen, starting at Dan Hardie's place, to pressure the Government into following Denmark's lead and give asylum to Iraqis who helped British troops and are therefore likely to get left to fend for themselves when we pull out. There are two ways to look at this - first, collaboration with an occupying power is generally not a good thing, particularly if it prolongs the occupation. On the other, the occupation is ending, the insurgency will win, which in British controlled areas will mean a nasty internecine fight for supremacy between various Shia mobs. In all this there will be no protection for people who, whatever they have done, are not neo-cons and don't deserve to die. The same is true, only more so, for their families. I have a rooted objection to the neo-con attitude that individuals don't count, and this campaign, in direct opposition to this attitude, is therefore worthy of support.
There's a third point, which is that British acknowledgment of the immense Iraqi refugee crisis has been entirely lacking under Blair, since it involves recognition of reality and consequence, which Tony didn't really do. If Brown really wants to be different, we can give him the opportunity with a campaign. This is, of course, only a step, and isn't as morally acceptable as, say, offering to help on the scale we're forcing Syria and Jordan to help, but it's a start on the road to acknowledging the debt of honour we have created for ourselves. We need to start paying back for Tony's mistake just as much as we need to make him pay. It's the right thing to do.
*Davide adds*
There is now a petition up on the Downing Street website which asks the PM to grant the right to asylum in the UK for Iraqi citizens employed by the UK armed forces. Please take a moment to sign it and, if you have a blog, link to it. Thanks.
No thanks.
No thanks.
British government has a
British government has a long tradition of trying whenever possible to turn its back on or short change its poor world military helpers. The colonial view drags on. Well worth considering doing what the Danes have done, at least.
Speaking of doing the right
Speaking of doing the right thing...
why isn't this site supporting George Galloway?
http://www.georgegalloway.com
I have created a petition on
I have created a petition on the Downing Street website which asks the Prime Minister to grant these Iraqi employees of the British military asylum in the UK. You can access the petition here.
How about we offer asylum to
How about we offer asylum to Iraqis, full stop? Seems like the least we could do after all these years...
That's part of the point -
That's part of the point - we shouldn't allow our leaders to wash their hands of the situation in this way. There's a similar campaign in the US, which points out that there are towns in Sweden (1/30th the population of the US) which take more Iraqi refugees in a year than the US has taken since 2003.
Speaking as one of the last
Speaking as one of the last dozen Englishmen still resident in the UK I could not care what you do with the Iraqis.
I am going to emigrate, like all the rest of the downtrodden have done, (when I can save up enough money to do so).
It will not be for a while yet though because Our New Leader has not yet released his grip on my wallet. He may do when he realises that he too is no good at the walking on water trick.
People should remember,
People should remember, history repeats itself...
http://tinyurl.com/23mb8c
http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/02/19/on-presidents-day-neglecting-translators-other-allies/
We should be offering
We should be offering reparation and asylym to any Iraqis affected by tje Anglo-American aggression, not just collaborators. Incidentally, it's worth remembering that America is now 'tilting' towards sunni jihadists in Iraq and the Lebannon in an effort to undermine the potential for Shia dominance in the region. The Pentagon's new priority is underming Nasrallah - following the success of Hizbollah in defeating the Israeli invasion of Lebannon.
So some of the 'collaborators' are likely to include Saudi financed, Al-Qaeda (Wahabi) Jihadists. Yesterdays ally (Shia militias) is todays enemy, and old enemies (Al Qaeda) are todays allies against the Shia majority.
Juan Cole has the US tilting
Juan Cole has the US tilting towards linking up with Iran against the Sunnis, quoting the Telegraph.
It could, of course, be that they're cluelessly flailing about and have no good options, but still randomly pick one (this one strengthens Ahmedinijad and pisses off the Saudis and Israelis, for instance, as well as making Cheney's dearly-wished Iran War less likely). Effectively it's saying that the Shia militias currently killing Brits (and indeed Iraqis working for the Brits) are to have protection from the US and Iran. Nice, eh?
You're right to point out that yesterday's ally is today's enemy, but yesterday's enemy is yesterday's ally is today's enemy and today's ally seems like a better description to me. Most Iraqis working for the British will be Shia, of course, and thus not jihadis, to stave off that line of argument against the asylum plan.
12 Englishmen left in the UK? Me, my mates Jim, Rob and John, my brother-in-law, his three brothers, his dad, my son, my nephew and Davide Simonetti? We're really the only ones left?
The situation is complicated
The situation is complicated by different factions in the Pentagon and State Department backing different miliitas at different times. Of course, many of the 'Shia militias' that have supported the occupation will be as tainted with atrocities as any comparable sunni jihadist group.So we're likely to end up exporting killers whichever way it's finally played out.
According to US journalist Seymour Hersh Americas new policy in the region is 'fitna,' or civil war, with the US backing sunni groups via Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. This all makes perfect sense, the Shia 'arc of instability' is probably the greatest threat to US plans for the region, with the potiential to destablise client regimes and reconfigure the entire Middle East.
How ridiculous to suggest
How ridiculous to suggest that we allow thousands of Arab moslems into the UK at the very time we are demonising them and setting them up for non-existent terror crimes and jailing them on the flimsiest of here-say evidence. Get real people, these people are trying to destroy our way of life because they hate our values.
Leave them in Iraq where they can die with dignity under a coalition cluster / napalm / barometric / DU bomb or be murdered by the US/UK trained and supplied death squads.
Britain for the British! We should never allow these enemies on our soil - how would they like it?
Only in America... hearts
Only in America...
hearts for "winning hearts and minds,"
http://www.archaeology.org/0707/trenches/solitaire.html
FBI says, it has “No
FBI says, it has “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13664.htm
http://tinyurl.com/z2uwf