London protest in context
Fraser Nelson in the Scotsman:
"...The Queen has kept some dodgy company during her state receptions over the years, but London, at large, did not seem to mind. Human-rights abuses in Zimbabwe, Romania and China didn’t provoke mass demonstrations.
"It has taken the president of the United States for British protesters to bring London to a standstill. Dictators, it seems, can be paraded in safety around the capital - but it is no safe place for George W Bush.
"...Today, sober critics of America will be marching - fuelled by concern over what they see as an ill- educated cowboy visiting war on parts of the world previously at peace. The key to their mindset is their definition of war and peace.
"There was, of course, no peace in Iraq while Saddam Hussein was using starvation as a weapon to kill hundreds of thousands of Shia infants and his goons were throwing enemies into torture chambers, en route to mass graves.
"But these atrocities featured little on our television screens, thus making little impact on the public consciousness. To protesters, victims of dictatorship do not count in the way that the casualties of war count. They are blind to Arab-on-Arab oppression.
"Using the crude mathematics of lives, the war in Iraq has already saved more than it has lost. Aid sent by Mr Bush, funded by the US taxpayer, has vaccinated four million Iraqis and fed 100,000 undernourished mothers.
"In a country where one child in eight did not survive their fifth birthday, America is intervening. Aid replaces UN sanctions, which protesters say they preferred in place of war.
"Saving lives by vaccination and healthcare can only hope to become as glamorous as the anti-war movement.
"...Of all the evils in the world today, nothing claims more lives than the AIDS in Africa. It claimed three million lives last year alone - more than Britain, France and the United States lost in the entire Second World War.
"And what’s Europe doing to stop it? For all the co-ordinated objections to the Iraq conflict, there is no such consensus when it comes to addressing AIDS - several summits have delivered nothing but postponed discussion.
"It has fallen to President Bush to promise a $15 billion package to Africa, credited by Sir Bob Geldof as the single most important AIDS package pledged by anyone on the planet. Mr Bush does not wait for consortia: he just does it. This blunt style is what drives his enemies mad. As he takes part in a round-table discussion on AIDS with representatives from various countries and charities, protesters will be raging.
"...It is a testimony to the peace bequeathed to Britain, by America, NATO and our own war dead, that so many protesters have grown up having no idea what 'occupation,' 'genocide,' 'fascist regime' and 'war crime' really mean."
Fraser Nelson in the Scotsman:
"...The Queen has kept some dodgy company during her state receptions over the years, but London, at large, did not seem to mind. Human-rights abuses in Zimbabwe, Romania and China didn’t provoke mass demonstrations.
"It has taken the president of the United States for British protesters to bring London to a standstill. Dictators, it seems, can be paraded in safety around the capital - but it is no safe place for George W Bush.
"...Today, sober critics of America will be marching - fuelled by concern over what they see as an ill- educated cowboy visiting war on parts of the world previously at peace. The key to their mindset is their definition of war and peace.
"There was, of course, no peace in Iraq while Saddam Hussein was using starvation as a weapon to kill hundreds of thousands of Shia infants and his goons were throwing enemies into torture chambers, en route to mass graves.
"But these atrocities featured little on our television screens, thus making little impact on the public consciousness. To protesters, victims of dictatorship do not count in the way that the casualties of war count. They are blind to Arab-on-Arab oppression.
"Using the crude mathematics of lives, the war in Iraq has already saved more than it has lost. Aid sent by Mr Bush, funded by the US taxpayer, has vaccinated four million Iraqis and fed 100,000 undernourished mothers.
"In a country where one child in eight did not survive their fifth birthday, America is intervening. Aid replaces UN sanctions, which protesters say they preferred in place of war.
"Saving lives by vaccination and healthcare can only hope to become as glamorous as the anti-war movement.
"...Of all the evils in the world today, nothing claims more lives than the AIDS in Africa. It claimed three million lives last year alone - more than Britain, France and the United States lost in the entire Second World War.
"And what’s Europe doing to stop it? For all the co-ordinated objections to the Iraq conflict, there is no such consensus when it comes to addressing AIDS - several summits have delivered nothing but postponed discussion.
"It has fallen to President Bush to promise a $15 billion package to Africa, credited by Sir Bob Geldof as the single most important AIDS package pledged by anyone on the planet. Mr Bush does not wait for consortia: he just does it. This blunt style is what drives his enemies mad. As he takes part in a round-table discussion on AIDS with representatives from various countries and charities, protesters will be raging.
"...It is a testimony to the peace bequeathed to Britain, by America, NATO and our own war dead, that so many protesters have grown up having no idea what 'occupation,' 'genocide,' 'fascist regime' and 'war crime' really mean."
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