Cherie Blair’s sister offers some forthright advice to her brother-in-law.
Sorry, Tony. To Arabs YOU are the terrorist
By Lauren Booth
Mail on Sunday, 24 July 2005
Somewhere in the Outer Hebrides there might be a teenager who’s never thought about a link between the bombings in London and this Government’s policy over Iraq.
However, according to a recent survey, more than two-thirds of the rest of us have not only made the connection but also traced the blame to the Prime Minister.
Since July 7, Ken Livingstone and independent MP George Galloway have been lone voices making the case that our Government’s actions in the Middle East inflamed an already tense situation between radical Islamists and Western states. Instantly, they were branded ‘I-told-you-so’ apologists.
Well, whether we or our leaders like it or not, this is the very time we must all take a hard look across decades of British foreign policy in the Middle East and ask: ‘Are we truly the force for good across the globe we think we are and, no less importantly, if so, why aren’t we perceived as such in the Arab world?’
Downing Street is clinging to the view that those who question our imaginary status as an international ‘good guy’ must be either brainwashed or mentally unhinged. This attitude forces Tony Blair to reject even last week’s report from the Chatham House thinktank (formerly known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, and hardly a hotbed of radicalism). This said the Iraq War and its aftermath has boosted Al Qaeda’s recruitment drive while damaging our ability to fight terrorism at home.
Yes, by invading lands far away, we can lay ourselves open to resentment that, if ignored and denied, may (and increasingly will) turn into the kind of hate-filled acts of vengeance Londoners are suffering now. To treat any debate along these lines as either heretical or as betraying the memory of our dead leaves us as a nation moribund, in a fog of hurt and bewilderment.
Tony Blair took the first step towards self-examination when he hosted talks with moderate Muslims. They will have listened respectfully to his call for their assistance in defeating an ‘evil ideology’. But did he really listen to their concerns about our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq which they believe encourage terrorist cells to develop under our noses?
If this Government is going to be tough on terrorism and tough on the causes of terrorism, it must take responsibility for the thousands of deaths in the Middle East carried out in the name of ‘foreign policy’.
Policies that, from the destruction of Palestine to the near civil war in Iraq, brand us as terrorists across swathes of the Arab world.
To be above reproach, we in Britain must be seen to be above reproach.