Hundreds of thousands of innocents are dead and horribly maimed in Iraq.
This is not a guiltless crime: we know who the guilty are. I would argue that their propaganda cheerleaders are also guilty, just as Goebbels shared guilt for the crimes of the Nazis. His defence at Nuremberg was that he was only a journalist, and it didn’t wash.
I strongly believe that, with hundreds of thousands dead, and our own civil liberties further destroyed by the day, those who led the cheers for this heinous government should be shunned, spurned and made social pariahs. That especially applies to the appalling Blairite crew who have hijacked the once liberal Guardian.
They carried an article by me on the latest Reid attack on liberty.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/craig_murray/2007/06/reids_new_best_friends.html
I have added this comment to my own article
Teganjovanka,
Good point about the Iranian Maritime Boundaries issue. After I blogged the (indisputable) fact that no maritime boundary between Iran and Iraq in the Persian Gulf had ever been agreed and the MOD map was a fake with no legal force, it took some time to seep into the public consciousness. Eventually the Mail published it, then the BBC took it up, and eventually everyone except the mad people on the Harry’s Place blog accepted it as true. I have now been asked by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee to produce a paper explaining it to them.
The reason I note this here, is that before I did any of that, I phoned the Guardian and explained at length the problem with the map to David Leigh and Richard Norton Taylor. They took no notice whatever and the Guardian continued to reproduce the Blair fake boundary map as propaganda for weeks, with no hint there was a problem with it.
This is very sad for me, as I remember the days when the Guardian was a newspaper and not a Blairite neo-con rag. I think that what the Guardian/Observer has become under the war criminal supporting White, Tisdall, Wintour, Toynbee and Cohen is a national disaster. Rusbridger is just a cypher in a very bad wig. Anyway, I don’t want to derail the very interesting thread on civil liberties so if anyone wants to take any of this up, please move on to my blog.
This is where to discuss it.
Into battle, Craig!!
I've said it before and I'll say it again here for visitors from CiF –
what I would like to see is a serious campaign to have the editor of the Observer fired. That paper's support of Blair over Iraq has been an obscenity, the newspaper is a disgrace and his head should roll.
Yes. all true of course, but I wonder how much notice the readers of the Guardian will take.
It seems to me that there are two categories of Guardian readership. One is the indicidual who is looking for a new job, the other is someone who has completetely lost any powers of discernment and discrimination.
The Guardian is almost totally reliant on its direct and personal connections with those in government. In recent years it has lost its way badly and has become a New Labour comic. As you say, the current regime is completely without credibility, almost unquestioningly accepting and regurgitating the pap issued by the enormous Government news machine. It was sickening to see White et al preening in front of the Commons Committee. Integrity has withered and died.
It's probably too much to hope that the Trustees will wake up to the fact that what was a fine campaigning journal of the highest quality is now a remarkably inefficient money machine. If they have any sense they'll eject the management. At current rates they can get much bigger dividends elsewhere. In any event, the Trustees should scrutinise the workings of the editorial side rather more closely.
Apparently the Trust is supposed to 'secure' 'the continuity and editorial independence of the Guardian. It remains without party affiliation, and faithful to liberal tradition.'
Oh yeah?
In its obeisance to Labour polititians and policies, the Guardian now resembles the Daily Mail during the Thatcher era. I have always been a sceptic and a lefty but I think I failed to understand how much tribalism there is in political allegiance. Many of my erstwhile political allies see no great reason to get upset about the antics of this government, yet had a conservative administration enacted them, they would have stood shoulder to shoulder with me in opposition.
When Polly Toynbee castigates people like me for deserting the Labour party, she doesn't attack us on ideological grounds but that we are failing to show 'loyalty' to the party. Well tough Polly. I voted for the Labour party when it appeared, by and large, to believe in what I believed in. Why should I support it now when its policies are in direct opposition to what I believe in with respect to civil liberties, imperialism and creating a more civilised society.
It is this tribalism of Labour being 'our' party that delineates the character of the modern Guardian. Despite its broadhseet format, it is now closer in spirit to the more rabid tabloids than the other 'quality' newspapers.
Perhaps more serious than being 'only a journalist' is 'only doing my job'.
There are lots of government staff, national and local, appointees and those who have earned their posts by qualification and dedicated service, who must wonder if they should be considering their position.
And the higher up the intellectual ladder they are working the more pressing this self-assessment becomes.
Someone just pointed out to me that Goebbels committed suicide and didn't stand trial. I stand corrected.
"strongly believe that, with hundreds of thousands dead, and our own civil liberties further destroyed by the day, those who led the cheers for this heinous government should be shunned, spurned and made social pariahs. That especially applies to the appalling Blairite crew who have hijacked the once liberal Guardian."
Absolutely right, and the same applies, in spades, to the perpetrators themselves (the Blair cabinet).
There are few sights quite as sickening in British politics as self-proclaimed "caring" "socially concerned" etc Labour voters and political figures on the left cosying up to mass murderers such as Blair, Brown, Hain, Straw, etc.
How many Labourites have actually shunned those scumbags, rather than seeking to share in the limelight of their political power and influence? Precious few, that I know of. How many prominent figures on the left have declined to interview them, share platforms with them, etc?
There should be a proper campaign to shun them.
Great article, Craig! No wonder they don't like you at the Grauniad nowadays! Yes, the mainstream media (MSM) are complicit in the Bushblair war crimes and it should be spared no mercy.
I refer to them on my blog as media whores. Ironically, that language was too strong even for Medialens' good editors who banned me for speaking the truth.
Thank you, once again.