Rat's Nest
Bloggage, rants, and occasional notes of despair

Iran, Brendan, not Iraq

Brendan O'Neill shows the education expected of a man of his age and station -- none whatsoever.

Aside from his confusion of Persians with Arabs, which will earn him but short shrift if he visits either Iran or Iraq, he condescendingly demonstrates his contempt of the plight of others (no doubt he adheres to the ancient and discredited English custom of believing that "the wogs start at Calais"):

-- That the people of Iran deserve to live under a government of their own choosing. As long as they don't choose a government that dislikes women, disrespects human rights, builds weapons, is too nationalistic, challenges America, and in any other way offends East and West Coast bloggers’ sensibilities.

-- That the current Iranian regime has failed to create a free and prosperous society. And they failed not because the Bush administration isolated Iran by rejecting moderate Iranians' attempts to become a Western ally and irrationally labelling them part of the axis of evil, but because Iranian leaders are backward and barbarous and uncivilised.

Of course, O'Neill is not a woman; indeed, if he weren't afraid of being mistaken for a Jew by Mona Baker, he would probably go around muttering, "Baruch ata adonay elohenu melech haolam shelo asani isha".  Nor does he about human rights, evidently (no doubt he is a supporter of New Labor and the EU).  He also fails to note that the regimes of the Ayatollahs in Iram is a wee bit older than the Bush administration.

But, as O'Neill reminds us at every opportunity, he is a journalist, a real journalist, and, as has been said, a journalist is a man who knows nothing about everything.  A mere look at "real" British journalism shows that facts and truth are as nothing, propaganda and regurgitation of uneducated opinion everything.

I have had occasion to say that, if Europe represents civilization, I would prefer to live in barbarism.  I will now add to that that, if O'Neill represents journalism, then I would prefer to live in ignorance.

John "Akatsukami" Braue Tuesday, July 16, 2002

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