I 'sold out' and became a hawk

news.telegraph.co.uk ^ | 24/11/2001 | Martin Salter, Labour MP for Reading West

[Don Joe]

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck 'im out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;

There are those of us that honor them, ev'n when we're not at war,
but we're few and far between, except in places like FR;

[Landru]

"...but I do know that the crude but comfortable anti-Americanism that has been the hallmark of the British Left is no longer intellectually credible."

Awwww...don't feel too bad, mate.
Why don'tcha know the American Left is just as bereft of *credibilty* too, Comrade??
You're still in *good* company; eye-to-eye with your peers somewhere, down there.

"A new world order is possible...There must be an enhanced role for the UN."

In your dreams, Comrade; only in your screwed-up dreams.

"I'm still proud to call myself a socialist - but I would choose America every time over the..."

Over what, Comrade?
Over the communists?
Blime!!
You may keep your *support* comrade; just as you may keep your enlightened, albeit diversified STDs.
It 'taint needed by most of we Yanks any more than your dour English form of Leftist pap.

[lavaroise]

I still believe that America has much to answer for, and must break out of the arrogant pursuit of self-interest that has been a hallmark of its foreign policy. It still refuses to work with the rest of the world to tackle climate change; it is doing precious little to press Israel to end the assaults on Palestinians.

In other words, America, repent your sins, you still need to do it, we liberals have no need to repent on above wishes, our ideology is just as perfect as Bin Laden's.

Yet none of that is justification for what happened on September 11 or for opposing the alliance against international terrorism. This is a coalition backed by the United Nations - the very institution so revered by my friends on the Left.

Exactly: institutions revered by the left, a left supposedly distancing itself from fanaticism.

Am I understanding this right? The left is using the situation to push its agenda, hidding behind terrorists, much like when Stalin hid behind Hitler.

We are not rid of the left's incomepetence and unrepentance. Beware. It is more and more sinister.

[aculeus]

Martin Salter is a Trotskyist Labor "queen" whose enlistment would be turned down for rather obvious reasons.

And the reason he's in the Telegraph and not the Guardian is .... ? (Becaause he's not adhering to the anti-American line?)

[Texaggie79]

I'm still proud to call myself a socialist

And I'm still proud to call you my enemy.

[185JHP]

One reason some of the leftists aren't spewing their usual bile about the war on OBLland is simple - he isn't a Marxist. Leftists like to think of themselves as an elite - they like the idea of Marxism's central control by n elite. When have the leftists NOT supported avowed Communists? IMO they get a nasty little thrill in their hearts when capitalism is attacked. They opposed the efforts of the Contras, yet they didn't want us to support the guerrillas in El Salvador.

[facedown]

ping

[clamper1797]

I was too young to fight in Vietnam, but I like to think that, had I been born in America a few years earlier, I would not have flinched from doing my duty. Not for me the soft option of the draft dodger. I would have been bearing arms, all right - for the Vietcong.

Speaking to the idiot that wrote this crap ... not the person who posted it .... Why don't we get together and play "Vietnam" You pretend you ARE a VC and Ill pretend that I'm still in country ... just for old times sake ...

[samtheman]

shooting Communists was ALWAYS a just cause, by the way

Exactly. As others have pointed out here, it's only because it seems the bullets are flying their way, that the leftists are suddenly concerned with defense. In Vietnam, there was no threat to western leftists, so it was convenient and fun to say things like "take up arms on the side of the Vietcong" while all the time staying in their comfy homes, going to their cushy jobs and sharing cocktails in indignation with their like-minded friends.

[samtheman]

Thanks for the Kipling. Great stuff.