I know that reactionary Pete likes to have a go at Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee but he was at the theatre last night and obviously had a couple of shandies too many. This drinking binge seems to have affected his ability to get up and read the Guardian so I’m temporarily stepping in for him.
Polly Toynbee purports to deal with the Istanbul bombings. She starts her article as she means to go on by declaring
So now Turkey has become another case of collateral damage in the spreading calamity of the Iraq war.
Yes that’s right she thinks that Al-Qaeda and their bombing campaign didn’t exist before this year. As if the World Trade Centre, Nairobi, and Bali didn’t happen. As if Al-Qaeda were legitimate Iraqi patriots we have goaded into terrorism.
She also offers us the benefits of her geopolitical analysis
Turkey tried to protect itself from contamination with the war by denying US troops access through its land to northern Iraq.
While it’s true that Turkey wasn’t keen on helping in the Iraq intervention and consequently didn’t offer support the recent bombings in Istanbul illustrate the point that Toynbee has completely failed to grasp. It doesn’t matter what your position on the Iraq war was or is. The people who carried out the bombings don’t care about that. They want easy targets preferably involving Jews or Christians but if it’s Hindus or secular Muslims, well so what, they’re all going to hell anyway.
Toynbee’s attempt to connect Al-Qaeda’s bombing campaign with what we or Turkey have done to deserve it is one of best cases of intellectual dishonesty I have seen for quite a while.
At least she condemns terrorism though.
He is a terrorist, too, operating by striking terror into the heart of politicians
That’s right Polly, you lay the blame where it most deserves to lie. Yes, that’s right – in a column partially devoted to the Istanbul bombings the only terrorism she sees fit to condemn is the “terrorism” of Rupert Murdoch.
Come back soon Briff, this job makes me feel dirty.
