On Harry's Place the other day, Martin Adamson commented this;
"How many would agree with, one person's rapist is another person's seducer"?
The slogan he is trying to parody, "one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter", is not saying that terrorism is ok, it is just showing how there is usually a direct injustice linked to the terrorist's actions. The two slogans are not comparable because there is no direct injustice behind a rapist's actions. Obviously all terrorism is wrong, as are all rapes, nobody in their right mind is saying anything different.
We need to separate the terrorist's actions from the cause they are fighting for. The Left are only pointing out that the cause is just, not the terrorist's actions!
A slogan to illustrate the point the Left are making would be;
"The Western government's condemnation of terrorism, is a bit like the Yorkshire Ripper criticising Fred West". They are right to condemn it but shouldn't they also condemn their own actions.
The same people who campaigned for homeowners to be able to kill burglars are now condemning terrorists, now that is irony, if only they would see it!
"The Left are only pointing out that the cause is just, not the terrorist's actions!"
ReplyDeleteWhich cause would this be? The "religious duty", as Osama bin Laden has put it, of killing Jews and Christians? Destroying Israel? Returning Afghanistan to the Taliban? Overthrowing democracies and replacing them with a 7th century-style caliphate?
Your equivocation of the West's foreign policy with the terrorists' goals is horrendous. It is impossible to separate the terrorist's cause from his actions - because his goal is death. He cares nothing for people in Palestine or Iraq - if he did, why would he drive a car bomb into a crowd of children?
We can address root causes like Israel/Palestine, and continue our support for two states, and so stamp on recruitment - but there will always be those who care nothing for those causes and simply worship death.
I take your point that I should have explained what I meant by their 'cause'.
ReplyDeleteThere is a crossover between the legitimate concern of millons of Muslims and the crazy demands of the terrorists.
The terrorists have significant support for part of their 'cause' because of our foreign policy. Our actions bring the more naive under their spell.
While you are right that there will always be some supporters of the extreme fundamentalist cause, their number of sympathisers are currently massively swollen because of our actions.
Nobody, not even the PM now denies that Iraq/Palestine has become a 'cause celebre' for recruiting terrorists. That was all I was trying to say.