Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

There’s an argument currently raging about some women in Basra being killed by religious extremists for being “inappropriately dressed”. The supposed message here is that the city & region is already sliding into the grip of an Iraqi-style “Taliban” now that the vainglorious British have withdrawn. I suspect that this is partly a bit of fuzzy propaganda being put out to convince us that the British were a stabilising influence in the area, and that the Iraqis are all vicious loonies hell-bent on the suppression of women. Whilst it is true that many women have been unjustly killed in the area, there are probably many equally sinister reasons behind this, other than the seemingly convenient accusation of religious intolerance. Sorry to disappoint the Daily Mail readers amongst you, but the fact is that there are just some plain old-fashioned crimes against women being committed here.

If you look at the video of one of these incidents, you will see that some of the women appear to be appropriately dressed anyway, which suggests that – although horrible and inhuman as such acts are – there is something else going on here and that things are not as clear-cut as the press would have us believe. This is what I was talking about the other day – who can we believe when events such as this are reported? The British forces were never “in control” of the region anyway; they just sat inside their military camps and allowed the killing to continue outside. Whenever they did venture forth, which again was probably only for the British Government’s propaganda interests, the acute danger they were placed in was a hideous signal of the hatred the local people felt towards them. Was this a valid way to waste the precious lives of some very brave and beautiful young men and women?

No, by creating the impression that the British forces were stemming the tide of anarchy during their presence, certain areas of the press are hoodwinking us. This Government doesn’t give a damn about the suppression of women or about any other civil misdemeanour that may go on in Iraq; it cares only about excusing its horrendous actions in the country, and about masking its catastrophic waste of colossal sums of money and the even more pitiable squandering of dozens and dozens of young British lives.

Who to believe in this matter? Well, remember the David Kelly affair? I rest my case.