A repulsive feature of contemporary left-wing thinking is its insistence that clerical fascists should dictate our foreign policy. After the 7/7 attacks on London, Robert Fisk lambasted Tony Blair for saying that radical Islamists were trying to destroy “what we hold dear”.
He took Osama bin Laden as a source of moral and political guidance, and wrote:
‘To go on pretending that Britain’s enemies want to destroy “what we hold dear” encourages racism; what we are confronting here is a specific, direct, centralized attack on London as a result of a “war on terror” that Blair has locked us into. Just before the U.S. presidential elections, bin Laden asked: “Why do we not attack Sweden?” Lucky Sweden. No Osama bin Laden there. And no Tony Blair.’
It is worth picking apart the assumptions behind that paragraph.
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