What Comes To Pass

"Down with this Sort of Thing!"

Well at least Fathers Ted and Dougle can say something without alluding to the "Zionist Conspirators" or "Oil Baron Baby Murderers"

The crowds disperse and the rubbish is swept away under a London morning's dark dome. The anti-bush protests are up and being examined on the 'net so here's a few snippets that caught my fancy.

One particularly astute gentleman posted a still from an excellent episode of Father Ted on David Carr's write up of the marches, which I duly seek to Plagarize (thank you, Mark Holland!). It is simply superb and brilliantly applicable. It therefore sits to the left of this paragraph.

First up. Some quotes from The Times.

As a giant screen displayed images of Mr. Bush, Jake Wayne, 5, could be heard asking, "Is that Bush, Daddy? Does he kill people."

His father, Mike, laughed, and said, "Yes. Yes."

"That's right son, and when the revolution comes you'll swear your undying loyalty to Comrade-General Mao"

No I'm not insinuating some sort of Communist conspiracy, but what is that if not the political brain washing (for this is too far removed from mere 'indoctrination') of a 5 year old. Actually I'd wager that the child had a more astute grasp of the fineries of world affairs than 80% of the crowds (I'd know, I went to school with them!).

"It's just the hypocrisy," Mr. Wayne said, explaining why he was demonstrating. "They supported Saddam, and then when it no longer suited their interests, they got rid of him, and on spurious grounds."

But, in light of the fact that Mr. Hussein was corrupt and widely reviled by his own people, do most Iraqis really care about motive?

"They may not care about motive, whatever means necessary," Mr. Wayne said. "But what is happening today, the chaos, shows that it does matter."

So what Mr. Wayne is astutely articulating is that whilst the Iraqi people support and agree with the ousting of Saddam irrespective of whatever nefarious intentions the protesters might suspect, it was wrong for us to remove their despotic murderous overlord because he and his fellow revolutionaries think he had an ulterior motive.

Sorry about that Alla, we shouldn't have freed you, Mr. Wayne has afforded me clearer sight and I see now that it's the process and not the result which is instrumental in determining the morality of the cause. Sucks to be you I'm afraid.

Hooray! I get to say "Not in my Name!" for once!

In fact I almost feel wrong even writing about this because David Carr has done such a bloody good job of it.

You know it seems kind of funny that the students pictured on the right would hold up that sign after the last poll run by The Guardian. Guess what? They still don't speak for everyone, in fact they don't even speak for the majority any more so it seems rather audacious to present such a view.

Posted by John Swaine at November 21, 2003 06:57 AM | TrackBack