Political suicide

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

I'm glad we're fighting a war for civilisation. We condemn videos of hostages being beheaded _but then display al Zarqawi's corpse in images sent around the world. Colleen Graffy, deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy,(yes really) dismissed the three Guantanamo bay suicides as 'a good PR move'.

I didn't know Colleen Graffy had been promoted. I first came across her when George Bush made his state visit to Britain nearly 3 years ago and we organised mass demonstrations against him. We mobilised more people for a weekday demo than had ever been done before and there was barely a person outside government and its hangers on with a good word to say for him. Then Graffy was put up to debate as a representative of Republicans Abroad. All sweet reasonableness and Christian values, she was one of the few prepared to go on the air to defend the war and occupation. Her main argument, if I remember my debates with her correctly, was that the US was bringing civilisation, democracy and peace to the rest of the world.

Now we know what she had in mind. Brutal torture camps, detention without trial, criminalising whole communities. And when people react against that and commit suicide, denounce them for pulling a cheap stunt. No Christian charity there then.

The implication is that these suicides were part of a strategy of political Islam. Whether they were or not, there is, of course, a long history of such actions borne of desperation by various causes.

The suffragettes went on hunger strike while in prison and were force fed by the authorities, causing sometimes horrific injuries. The government introduced the barbaric Cat and Mouse Act, releasing the women when they were near death and then rearresting them when they recovered. Although no women died in custody, some were so weakened they died soon afterwards. One suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison, died after trying to stop the king's horse at the Derby.

Political prisoners, from Mahatma Gandhi to Bobby Sands, have gone on hunger strikes to demand justice. However badly they were treated by the authorities, it is hard to imagine their actions being dismissed as PR.

I met up with another apologist for the Bush regime yesterday. I was on BBC Newsnight with David Aaronovitch, the Times columnist who gives Communist renegades a bad name.
One apologist wasn't enough so we also got a Washington spokeswoman. Luckily there was also Hans Blix, the former weapons inspector, who pointed out that they should have listened to him three years ago.

Aaronovitch is quick to heap bullying abuse on those like me who have always opposed the war, but less hasty to own up to his own mistakes. He also remains in awe of the rich and powerful. He famously wrote three years ago that if no WMD were found he would never believe what the prime minister said in future. But here he goes falling for it all over again. Defending the raid in east London, supporting the war on terror, and dissing Iran for remarks it didn't make about Israel.

It's like an abusive relationship.

6/13/2006 02:28:00 PM | Permalink