Ignoring our debt to the Iraqi interpreters
James Forsyth 3:00pmI would have thought that the idea of granting asylum to those Iraqis who have served as interpreters for British troops would be fairly uncontroversial. But Neil Clark has issued a ferocious broadside against it today on Comment is Free, saying
"let's do all we can to keep self-centred mercenaries who betrayed their fellow countrymen and women for financial gain out of Britain.”
What’s particularly striking, or one might say sickening, about Clark’s arguments is that he is under no illusions about what will happen to these people once the British leave. He writes,
“History tells us that down through history, Quislings have - surprise, surprise - not been well received, and the Iraqi people's animosity towards those who collaborated with US and British forces is only to be expected.”
Clark seems thoroughly relaxed about those Iraqis who worked for British forces being left to their fate. Indeed, he seems to thinks that this will have a beneficial pour encourager les autres effect. But then Clark also believes that the “true heroes in Iraq are those who have resisted the invasion of their country.”
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Comments
RK
August 10th, 2007 4:53pmNeil Clark is beyond parody. If I was left leaning and anti-war I’d think he was an agent provocateur deliberately discrediting my cause with absurd irrational and callous arguments. At least his ideological kin Galloway has a nice turn of phrase.
P.W.
August 10th, 2007 5:14pmThe Danes set a good example by air-lifting about 200 of their own "collaborators" out of Irak. I hope the U.K. government will follow, but it might not see the point.
This is the self-hating and hateful left in it's full glory. There are more of them out there that claim to 'support the troops but hate the war'. Don't you dare question their patriotism. As they get more and more rabidly out of control, they out themselves for the truley wretched creatures they are.
SKS
August 12th, 2007 2:05pmCheck out his blog http://neilclark66.blogspot.com/ if you want proper insanity. And I'm not sure that he's necessarily a lefie, self-hating or othewise.
Bertie Bootstrap
August 12th, 2007 11:20pmHe's an extreme conservative when it comes to social matters (even to the extent of fervently supporting the death penalty), and an extreme left-winger when it comes to economic ones (he thinks literally everything should be nationalised and that the strike and inflation-ridden 1970s was a golden age in British history).
Revealingly, he seems to find a lot of ground with the Trotskyite-turned-conservative Peter Hitchens.