Wednesday, July 20, 2005
OK, Maybe He Doesn't Get It
A week and a half ago I was singing the praises of London Mayor Ken Livingstone. I thought his statements following the Muslim jihadists attacks on July 7th were made by someone with his head screwed on straight and a sensible world view. Now there's strong evidence I may have misplaced my endorsement.
Known as "Red Ken" in England for his radical liberal left-wing views, Livingstone has said things like Britain's treatment of the Irish over the last 800 years was been worse than Hitler's treatment of the Jews. He also compared a Jewish reporter to Nazi concentration camp guards and said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is a war criminal.
Now Ken seems to be taking his cue from Michael Moore and the "Blame America First" crowd. When asked for his views on what may have motivated the terrorists who killed more than 50 Londoners two weeks ago, Livingstone said, "We created these people. We built them up. We funded them."
"You've just had 80 years of Western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of a Western need for oil. We've propped up unsavoury governments, we've overthrown ones that we didn't consider sympathetic."
"If you have been under foreign occupation, and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work, for three generations," Livingstone said referring to the Israel/Palestine issue, "I suspect if it had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves."
Livingstone's comments seem to show his sympathy with Muslim extremists and militants like Anjem Choudary who said, "...the real terrorists are the British regime, and even the British police ... I cannot envisage that any practising Muslim would sit with the Government, especially with the blood that they have on their hands and the atrocious foreign policy they have and the aggression they are committing against the Muslim community in Britain."
Maybe I was too quick to say Livingstone "gets it."
The Men Who Blame Britain - Telegraph ¶ Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Known as "Red Ken" in England for his radical liberal left-wing views, Livingstone has said things like Britain's treatment of the Irish over the last 800 years was been worse than Hitler's treatment of the Jews. He also compared a Jewish reporter to Nazi concentration camp guards and said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is a war criminal.
Now Ken seems to be taking his cue from Michael Moore and the "Blame America First" crowd. When asked for his views on what may have motivated the terrorists who killed more than 50 Londoners two weeks ago, Livingstone said, "We created these people. We built them up. We funded them."
"You've just had 80 years of Western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of a Western need for oil. We've propped up unsavoury governments, we've overthrown ones that we didn't consider sympathetic."
"If you have been under foreign occupation, and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work, for three generations," Livingstone said referring to the Israel/Palestine issue, "I suspect if it had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves."
Livingstone's comments seem to show his sympathy with Muslim extremists and militants like Anjem Choudary who said, "...the real terrorists are the British regime, and even the British police ... I cannot envisage that any practising Muslim would sit with the Government, especially with the blood that they have on their hands and the atrocious foreign policy they have and the aggression they are committing against the Muslim community in Britain."
Maybe I was too quick to say Livingstone "gets it."
The Men Who Blame Britain - Telegraph ¶ Wednesday, July 20, 2005
