Thursday 24 May 2007

Blair's Shame: (no.94 in a long series)

I must crave the indulgence of Slicker and his finance-oriented readership, for straying so far from the business theme whilst temporarily at the wheel of this vehicle. However, I was mightily stung by a report on Channel 4 News tonight.

To summarise: the British Army, having employed the services of many Iraqi translators (and, let's face it, 'little helpers' of several kinds) since the invasion, is now preparing to let them twist in the wind. And they'll be the lucky ones. The threats and reprisals have started already.

Now this is by no means unprecedented: previous withdrawals in unseemly haste from Palestine, Aden and Cyprus resulted in horrible fates for those locals who had helped us there. But the British Army had learned its lesson and when, in the days of the much maligned John Major we prepared to withdraw from Hong Kong, we carefully looked out for the interests of our sometime helpers to ensure that the worst didn't befall them at the hands of the incoming regime.

So - the British Army knows better than this. We can only assume its current shameful stance is dictated by the Shameless ones who begat the sorry mess. Let them hang their heads

10 comments:

Lord Nazh said...

"We can only assume its current shameful stance is dictated by the Shamless ones who begat the sorry mess."

It would probably be more apt to say that the stance is dictated by the people that want the British to leave post haste.

Raedwald said...

The consequences of assisting an occupying army have been well understood for at least a thousand years; from Spaniards who helped the Moors to the Vietnamese helpers of the US, captured on newsfilm scrambling for the last helicopters out of Saigon. There's a telling passage in Alan Moorhead's 'Eclipse' as his visits Brussels zoo just after the liberation. In the cages are held dejected huddles of Nazi collaborators, men and women. Moorhead asks what will happen to them. "They will be given a fair trial" comes the answer "Then they will be shot."

Iraq was an illegal military adventure, not a legitimate UN intervention. As the US and our forces are driven out of the country by an ever more sophisticated war of attrition, we will inevitably leave a trail of tortured and murdered Iraqi collaborators behind us. A shameful and discreditable episode in our history which thank God will be Blair's sole historical defining action.

Steven_L said...

Hey Nick, CU reckoned if I started a blog he'd add me to his sidebar - well I've started a blog at http://thoughtsfromtheborders.blogspot.com/ and linked to this, so can you add me?

Nick Drew said...

Nazh, Mut, Raed - thanks for your comments: have let off steam now and shall endeavour to find a mainstream business topic next.

Steven - the Slicker returns on Monday (that's enough cheering at the back) and I'll pass your note on - he is a man of his word!

Now - off to have a look at yours ...

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