Tim Blair

They expect me to pay for his self-loathing drivel? Fat chance, Indy!

Ah, good old Bobby Fisk - the Bali bombers themselves said East Timor was the primary reason for bombing Bali - that and the fact it was in the middle of the world's largest Islamic nation and populated mainly by a bunch of Hindu infidels. But then again, for people like Fisk, facts need not apply.

People like Fisk think we all have the memory of a goldfish. Tough luck, Fisk, you odious moral cripple. We remember what you and Pilger and Dowd and Vidal and Mailer wrote, and if we don't, Google does.

apparently we are unaware of the meaning of the word "likely". if you were fair, you might note that when pilger wrote that, australian forces had yet to be deployed, and post-referendum militia-led violence was alarmingly widespread.

and melanie phillips thinks everyone [except for herself, naturally] is "insane".

e. e. cummings could righteously type with no caps. you're no e. e. cummings.

Extracted from Blog-Irish - November 21, 2003.
"Robert Fisk Says Osama bin Laden is Manipulating the Anti-War Demonstrators - and that we Should Listen to Him",

Robert Fisk's famous "few minutes of terror and self-disgust" when he was attacked by a mob of Afghan refugees led him to realise that "if I were the Afghan refugees ..., I would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other westerner I could find."

Now Fisk, who has not noticed that more than 1,800,000 refugees have been able to return to Afghanistan and that the number of Iraqi refugees to Europe has plumeted, seems to be asking us to join him in his "terror and self-disgust". His unique insight into the middle east has led him to understand that the "purpose" of the recent terrorist attacks is to undermine the democratically elected leaders of the countries which have aided the "war against terror".
...
A year ago, after the Bali bombing, Mr Fisk wrote "Ireland may well be next on Islamic terrorists' hit list" because it "allows American military aircraft to land and refuel at Shannon..." (Irish Independent October 14, 2002).
...
To placate these murderers we should reject our elected officials. And Turkey should sever its ties with Israel and impose Sharia law. Should Spain divest itself of al-Andalus?
...
Mr Fisk seems to forget that in his encounter with the mob, he followed the advice he had received from his Lebanese tutors on "how to stay alive: take a decision - any decision - but don't do nothing."
...
Mr Fisk, for all his "self-disgust", did not join the mob in beating himself up. He defended himself with force and violence. Then the authorities came to his aid. And his companion was defended by a soldier brandishing a gun.

So if we are to "stay alive" as democracies which permit the expression of dissent, should we do as you say and join the mob in beating ourselves up - or as you do, and defend ourselves?

"Brandishing a GUN!?" Horrors. Some people don't approve of that sort of thing, you know.

who the fuggin hell is e.e. cummings? sounds like a dodgey porn star name.

"If he returns to his homeland, he is likely to be killed and the murder weapon is likely to be British..."

Typical silliness from John Pilger. Indonesian army small arms are German made Heckler and Koch weapons (rifles, actually, not machine guns). Granted, British Aerospace owns some of H.K., but it is strictly speaking a German company.

i stand corrected. nice one wilbur.

now if only that were the point blair was trying to make.

What is or are the point(s)you're trying to make, roop? I've seen you argue, and just for the sake of it, about newspaper circulation, Andrew Sullivan's putative sex life, Saddam is Hitler (which is not actually what Bush said--he said terrorism is as dangerous as Hitler), etc. Methinks you're just a contrarian pretending to have a point.

So by this logic World War 2 and 50 million deaths could have been avoided if Britain and the US had not been so agressive and made Hitler and Tojo cross?

There is a wonderful expose in the Spectator of the lie that is Fisk:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old§ion=back&issue=2003-11-15&id=3735

One wonder why Mr Fisk still has a job. He has been wrong on just about every point he has ever made. Maybe he's valuable because he airs all those inane anti-American sentiments that so animate the left. This gives us a clue to the kind of reheated rubbish that the Crock of Tim and Miranda Devide types will be sprouting next.

Melanie Phillips makes a rare factual comment when she states -

"It may well be true that the attack on Iraq has provoked more violence".

Yes indeed. And Tony Blair (no doubt Bush/Howard too) was definitely warned of this before the invasion, by the UK Joint Intelligence Committee.

So, we went to war over non-existent WMD, on a country that not only had zero links with al Qaeda/911 but actively suppressed dangerous men with beards, knowing it would INCREASE the threat of terrorism.

Sure, Saddam Hussein's gone, at least from the Palaces, now occupied by the Occupiers. But plenty of other countries have got rid of brutal regimes without bombing, invasion and occupation eg. apartheid South Africa, Romania etc and the fact that the US/UK are now very chummy with a regime which boils its political opponents to death (Uzbekistan) suggests morality had naff all to do with it.

But heck, without an occupation Halliburton/Bechtel and Bush's other corporate chummies wouldn't have got their snout in the trough of newly privatised Iraq.

And that's what really counts for you guys, right?

http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=total