Search This Blog

3/19/2011

'Libya isn't worth one drop of British blood!'

So the Stop the war Coalition agrees with Kelvin McKenzie. 'Libya isn't worth one drop of British blood!' And 'Cameron has gone crackers!' Which begs too many questions to bother with right now.
The fact that this is a showcase for the vital British arms industry doesn't mean its wrong. And if anyone had it coming it is Moamar Gadaffi. The opportunities far outweigh the possible disadvantages. So Jeremy Corbyn should calm down and occupy his local Gadaffi family mansion, and add his support to the people of Bengazi. When Gadaffi is gone, the other dictatorships will tremble. He is their hard man, and if he cannot resist the people, and the global opinion they have inspired, what chance for them on their golden toilet seats?

Surely the fact we sold Gadaffi his weapons means we are most obliged to stop him using them against his own people. So there is no time to start measuring Western hypocrisy on the Richter scale. Demands for integrity won't stop Gadaffi slaughtering his people. Objecting to the Relief of Bengazi is like objecting to any vessel of the criminally negligent White Star line rescuing survivors of the Titanic. The pacifist left is committing its old mistakes plus the new one of having learned nothing from the Arab revolution or the technological one. In a display of gutless, high-minded political constipation, they are still fighting the battles of the C20th, just like their opponents (and Gadaffi). Also, they are forgetting the time element here. This isn't happening in Second Life or on an XBox, it can't be paused for a nice chat about who is the most hypocritical. There is no time for moral posturing. Integrity is a luxury commodity at mid-day on March 19th. This is not a choice between evil western imperialism and evil mad dictatorship, it's a choice between the slaughter or relief of Bengazi, the future of the Libyan people, and ultimately the cause of freedom which started in Tunisia. 
When Kelvin McKenzie said 'Libya isn't worth one drop of British blood' what he really meant was 'Freedom isn't worth one drop of British blood.' The Libyan people are prepared to shed their blood, so why is British blood any more valuable?
That is a question pacifism refuses to answer, riddled with Ghandi-itis as it is. The French air force is in the sky at this moment, and trying to justify its existence. If it can't do so today, when can it? If we must have these machines and this industry, what else can they possibly be for?

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:18 am

    I agree with you Richard...I consider myself well to the left but this is an exceptional case and I am finding the stock knee jerk reaction of some on the Left a little simplistic to say the least.

    ReplyDelete
  2. On the big scale, this could re-write the political map. It has certainly revealed the intellectual (and spiritual) constipation of some people.
    Their decades of hating Imperialism is getting in the way of their humanity.

    ReplyDelete

Please comment here. Naturally, all comments are reviewed before publishing.