Britain had this coming (Barf Alert)

The Australian ^ | 12th July 2005 | Phillip Adams

[naturalman1975]

IT'S a quiet, ho-hum, run-of-the-mill day in Iraq. Just a few bombs will explode in Baghdad. Only a few dozen will be killed or maimed. Fifty or 60 max. With the victims predominantly locals - only a couple of US soldiers among the casualties - they'll hardly rate a mention. Won't crack it for the Nine Network or ABC news. Perhaps a brief para in tomorrow's broadsheets.

Oh, almost forgot. There'll be about 20 kidnappings today. This has been a big racket in Iraq for a year or more with thousands of locals snatched off the streets. Nothing political about it, nothing religious. Just a grab bag of businesspeople and schoolchildren to be held for ransom. So many children are kidnapped these days that parents are keeping them home.

Will these incidents be reported in the US, Britain and Australia? No, they won't. Not news. Just further symptoms of a totally dysfunctional society. Unless, of course, if one of the kidnapped is one of us. Then all media hell will break lose.

Yes, what happened last week in London was appalling. But it happens every day in Iraq. It has since the coalition of the willing, of which Australia was such a willing member, came thundering in more than two years ago.

Things were crook before but have been far worse since. Pinned down by sanctions, inspections and fly-overs, still licking his wounds from the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein's greatest crimes were long behind him. The mass graves were history. But since the coalition? Cemeteries are booming again.

Mind you, you don't read much about the local death toll. The body count for Iraqi troops, let alone Iraqi citizens, is censored. Washington allows us to know -- and then reluctantly -- only that nearly 2000 Americans have died.

Unlike those humdrum bombings in Baghdad, the slaughter in London was big news. And let's be clear about it: the people who died in the subway tunnels and on the bus were victims of the Iraq war. They died because of Blair's London Bridge, the one he built from the Thames to the Euphrates.

Had he not misled his nation into that murderous folly of an invasion, the people would have walked off the trains instead of being carried off on stretchers. Or had their body parts collected in bags.

Blair's response? The same rhetoric, the same mock-heroics, a renewed commitment to the political and strategic idiocy of George W. Bush. You can hear his spin doctors thinking: "If we play this right, we'll improve in the polls."

You can hear the same thoughts from John Howard's people, who will rely on the new political correctness of conservatism: that it's uncouth to link terrorist attacks in London, Madrid or possibly Sydney with the chaos unleashed in Iraq. As many in Britain are pointing out, they didn't need some Islamist loonies to focus attention on Blair's sorry role in the Iraq fiasco, that a clear majority have long deplored his duplicities, his misleadership. His bridge too far. But No.10 still says the same things, day in, year out, as if hoping through Pavlovian repetition to wear down the public.

Ditto here, as our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister try to blur the linkages with Iraq. They stress that Islamists are attacking our values, our way of life, our love of freedom in these murderous stunts.

And everyone, most of all Howard and Alexander Downer, knows this is twaddle. The selection of targets is largely based on involvement in, and enthusiasm for, Bush's new world order. The PM tells the truth when he says he cannot promise that our cities are safe from terrorism. He tells the truth when he confirms that an attack on Australia within Australia is not only possible but probable. But he lies when he denies that it is his foreign policies that have made our lives more dangerous.

The great divide between those who supported the invasion of Iraq and those of us who opposed it is as wide as ever. We seem to live in different universes, with both sides using the London bombings to support their positions.

The pro-war forces in politics and the media look at the mayhem and say: "Told you so." The critics of the war and the way it was conflated with the war on terror say: "Told you so", too.

They say the latest brutalities prove their case, that the Iraq war had to be fought to light the flame of democracy in the Middle East and that our efforts must be renewed. We say that what's happening in Baghdad and now London is inevitable, that the invasion has not liberated democratic forces but detonated more hatred, much of it directed against US hegemony and hubris.

And against those countries, such as Britain and Australia who rushed to Washington's colours. But Howard can't see it. He can't afford to.

[wideawake]

This jagoff is a repeat enabler of Islam as I recall.

[MadIvan]

This author better pray I never meet him. If I do, he'll be eating fist followed with his blood and teeth.

Regards, Ivan

[moog]

This guy thinks he's God or something.

[Alouette]

Does this dweeb also think the Aussies who were slaughtered in the Bali club "had it coming"?

[oldleft]

He may want to check the date of the Bali bombings.

[Patrick1]

I read it but saw no alternative to the war against the Islamists that we are currently fighting. Did I miss something?

[colorado tanker]

When I saw the title I figured it was Ward Churchill blathering about chickens coming home to roost again. This guy is in Churchill's league, fer shure.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

"Barf alert" doesn't quite do this bastard justice.

I'd give anything for the chance to curb this mofo.

[Wristpin]

Hey, I thought the libs were claiming that 500,000 Iraqi children were starving to death each year due to the Sanctions?

Are they doing worse now?

[quantfive]

"Pinned down by sanctions, inspections and fly-overs, still licking his wounds from the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein's greatest crimes were long behind him. The mass graves were history."

Retard alert.

[moog]

read it but saw no alternative to the war against the Islamists that we are currently fighting. Did I miss something?

What are you trying to say exactly?

[Patrick1]

I'm saying the crazy left is good at saying Bush is wrong blah blah blah, but when pressed for alternatives they are speechless.

[MadIvan]

Bomb victim's family left 'distraught' by death
(Filed: 11/07/2005)

The husband of London bombing victim Susan Levy has said that he and his family have been left "distraught" by her death.

Mrs Levy, a 53-year-old mother of two from Cuffley, Hertfordshire, was the first victim from last Thursday's bombings to be named.

Her husband Harry described the death of his wife as a "needless loss".

She had boarded a Piccadilly Line Tube train after travelling into London with her son Jamie, 23. She died in the explosion between King's Cross and Russell Square.

In a statement, her husband said today: "Susan was a devoted and much-loved wife and mother of two sons. We are all devastated by our loss.

"She was a valued and respected member of her extended Jewish family and will be deeply mourned and sadly missed by us and her many friends.

"On the morning of Thursday July 7, Susan and her son Jamie left for work in central London.

"They parted at Finsbury Park and she continued her journey by travelling on the train that was victim of one of the appalling terrorist attacks that claimed so many lives.

"We are all distraught at her needless loss and our thoughts and prayers are also with the many other families affected by this horrendous tragedy."

Her other son, Daniel, is 25.

The second named victim is Gladys Wundowa, who worked for University College London as a cleaner.

The 51-year-old, who worked in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, had not been in touch with her husband Emanuel since the blasts.

The 53-year-old father of two from Chadwell Heath, Essex, had said before today's formal identification that his wife had finished her early-morning shift at 9am before heading for a college course at Shoreditch, east London.

She was among the 13 who died while travelling on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square.

Professor Malcolm Grant, president and provost of UCL, said: "It has been an exceptionally difficult time for everyone at UCL.

"Our thoughts are with all those who have been the casualties of this outrage and their friends and families."

The death toll has risen to 52, but the long wait for formal identification carries on for the relatives and friends of the missing.

Right. These people deserved to die, according to this author -

Susan Levy



Gladys Wundowa


The amount of CONTEMPT and RAGE, I have against this author knows no bounds. (If you're reading this, you gobshite, eff you and the camel you're obviously buggering).

Regards, Ivan

[ncountylee]

Who does this guy hate the most? Must really hate his life!

[RetiredArmy]

Another hurl we brought it on ourselves article. I don't bother reading this [wordy dird deleted]stuff.

[Melas]

The guy is a complete moron. I guess he's the last of the true believers who still thinks that if you're nice to terrorists they'll leave you alone.

[The Iguana]

You've got it dead to right, Mr. Adams.

These poor chappies just loved us - and Blair - before we went into Iraq. And Afghanistan. Islamist terror against the West was simply unknown before U.S. troops were on the ground in the Middle East.

Never mind that planning for the Madrid bombings apparently actually began before 9/11. Mere details, details.

[moog]

I'm saying the crazy left is good at saying Bush is wrong blah blah blah, but when pressed for alternatives they are speechless.

Phew! I completely agree with you and this guy is one of the craziest.

[Euro-American Scum]

Is Maureen Dowd writing for the The Austrailian now?