allegedly we are allowing CIA aircraft carrying kidnapped, illegally held detainees to refuel at British airports on their way to internment camps across the globe, camps where physical torture is routinely used to interrogate those prisoners. it's alleged that British security service personnel are present at some of these interrogations, and feed requests to those who use torture on our behalf. it's alleged that the British Government is complicit in what's euphemistically referred to as "Extraordinary Rendition." that's kidnap, violation of national sovereignty, illegal detention and extradition, imprisonment without trial, and the most abhorrent abuses of human rights to you and me! it's a bit like how "Collateral Damage" means kids arms and legs getting smeared across the street. good at these euphemisms ain't they? i think it's meant to stop you thinking too much if they use clever words that don't really mean owt?
this of course comes at the very same time as we are supposedly trying to stabilise a country decimated by allied forces during the removal of a torturer and human rights violater extraordinaire? :?
call me a simplistic, idealistic, naive young fool if you like, but can we really defend democracy from it's enemies by abandoning those principles that lie at the very heart of everything we are supposedly trying to protect? can we bolster the rule of law at home and abroad if we break International Law and ignore our treaty obligations ourselves? can we hope to pre-empt suicide bombers by engaging in activities that merely serve to radicalise the next generation of terrorists? ((( who needs a fundamentalist Imam? we seem to be doing quite well on the whole radicalisation front ourselves? :roll: )))
IMO we have completely, absolutely surrendered what little moral high ground we once held, and are in the process of handing victory to the terrorists on a plate!? how the hell can we fight a war on terror when we use the very same methods we cited as justification for invasion in the first place? how can we hope to promote the values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law when we don't practice what we preach? :dunno:
that this should happen under a Labour government is the ultimate irony. it flies in the face of everything i thought the Labour Party, and the British people, were all about? i really could not be more ashamed to think that i once voted for this government! a government that tortures it's enemies in my name? you know what i say to that? no! absolutely not! never in my name, never, not under any circumstances, no matter how many bombs on trains!!!
really, is it just me, cos i did expect an absolute outcry after watching the Iraq / Dispatches season this week. ((( i'm saving the doing deals with the very warlords and insurgents we're supposedly fighting against, and sacrificing our soldiers for, for another day! ;) ))) i'm deafened by the silence!? :? shouldn't we be ashamed of ourselves, or more specifically our government, or is this all hunky-dory these days? has the world really changed so much that we must now abandon everything we hold dear, and profess to stand for?
i suppose my question ((( cos i have to frame this as a question and give you a chance to respond to my little rant! ))) is . . . if you could prevent a Paddington bomb by sticking electrodes on to some poor twats' testicles, would you do it?
course, if this ain't an appropriate discussion here, i'll happily watch it get locked, but i am genuinely interested? maybe i am naive and need to grow up and live in the real world a bit? i hope not if that's what it means? :?
neil x x x ;)
