Naked Gnome

What was that fig leaf the L3 used when discussing Iraq ? Ah yes - they weren't opposed to the West defending itself against terrorists they just didn't think Iraq was part of that particular war. That was reassuring - if you were waiting for Robin Cook's OK before deciding if Al-Q were evil or something. Except now, with the L3 having lost the Iraq debate, it turns out that Little Robbie's true position is a little more nuanced after all…

Former Cabinet minister Robin Cook says he is "deeply troubled" by an increase in raids to prevent terrorism.
Mr Cook said "raids under the Anti-Terrorism Act...are now running, staggeringly, at 10 times the level of three years ago".
He said such raids risked "alienating" the very people Britain needed for a multi-cultural society.

Is that a classic slice of Liberalism or what ? The world is at war and Robbie wants us to know that he's 'troubled'. Narcissistic, much ? Massive casualties we can accept, but a piece of escaped garden furniture making sad faces ? Well, how can we go on ? And Robin's surprised to find activity has increased in the last three years - gosh, could something have happened back in 2001 that caused the pace to step up ? I'm sure I recall something, maybe a building somewhere or perhaps an airliner…..It's on the tip of my tongue.

But, that last bit's a classic. We need these people for a multi-cultural society ? Never mind that the statement begs the question of whether we do in fact need a multi-cultural society, let's consider the sheer amorality of that argument. We're talking about people who fly airliners into buildings, saw heads off and kill their own daughters for the sake of some warped sense of honour. But who are we to judge ? Britain needs to accept female circumcision as being just as valid as not slashing away at the genitals of young girls. Cook expanded further on this:

There's a real risk that if we continue with that we will end up alienating the very people we need for a successful multicultural society and a successful appeal to people around the world of a different culture.

Yowser, now it's not just Britain, we've got to appeal to the world as well. Hey - some of us remember when British governments tried to serve British interests not those of the world.That's what lies at the heart of the L3 opposition to the war. They're not arguing about means, they don't believe in the ends in the first place. They don't see anything unique about Western Civilisation, anything worth preserving. Nothing's worth anything and the only real evil is to believe in anything. Bush is a bigot and a fascist for unreasonably insisting that the USA is somehow better than Sudan while Robin Cook is deep and perceptive for putting on a grim expression and issuing sermonising about how troubled he is by people defending Britain.

Mind you, when time comes to serve an eviction notice on the Mad Mullahs in Iran, doubtless Robbie will be assuring that his real problem with it is that it's a distraction in the war on terror.