I am pleased to see that the left-wing which had so vocally started criticising Bush at the expense of what is just and right, are not the only left-wing remaining since the global war on terror started.
Nick Cohen explains the problem clearly and it is a worry…
Are those left-wingers who support Islamo-fascism over freedom for the sake of opposing Republicans and cultural imperialists set to join a war against the West? The kidnappers of Norman Kember obviously don’t care which side he is on, but do his colleagues?
That’s a lot of questions, and I don’t have the answers, but do read Nick’s article.
December 9th, 2005 at 10:32 am
[…] Amongst the praise (e.g. from the left here, from the right here) of Nick Cohen’s article on CND, I was pleased to see Aaronovitch Watch, marvellous as ever, had actually gone and done what journalists never seem to do these days even as it has become so very much easier, i.e., check if what they have said is actually true before publishing it I’ve never had much time for CND myself, but I think if you’re going to have a go at people it’s a bit unfair for having a go at them for something that it isn’t true that they’ve done. The Lib Dems did it about my friend Colin in both the recent Jericho by-election and in the 2004 City Council elections, suggesting falsely that an overspend on benches in the city centre was his fault when in fact it was the county council (on which Colin wasn’t a councillor) overspending on the benches. A county council controlled by, errrmm, the Lib Dems in bed with the Tories. Bit sad that people who like to think of themselves as being on the left are more interested in recycling their prejudices than checking if they are actually true. Ho hum. […]
December 9th, 2005 at 10:57 am
Define “just and right”.
December 9th, 2005 at 11:58 am
Some elements of the left (your good self not included) have been allying with holocaust-deniers and homocide bombing advocates despite what one might have expected to be their better judgement.
Attacking Bush isn’t wrong - his social conservativism makes me very uncomfortable, but assuming that by attacking him you have to ally yourself with his attackers can put you in serious ideological predicaments.
Ken Livingstone’s invitations to questionable characters such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi typify this.
December 9th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
I saw this earlier on from HP. Cohen is spot on. A beacon for the left or anyone with principles.