Who gave Iraqis the freedom to protest?
Boris Johnson, Telegraph:
"It's the call every Telegraph columnist has come to fear. 'Trefgarne here,' said the power-crazed new comment baron, and I sprang to attention. 'You've got to write about the anti-Bush marchers,' he said. 'Get out into the streets and get some colour. There must be thousands of them! Go, paras, go!' Yessir, I said, and ran out into Whitehall. Helicopters whirred above.
"Thousands of yellow-jacketed policemen dotted the deserted streets, like dandelions sprouting from concrete. Riot fencing ran in ribbons round Westminster. But where were the rioters?
"...Outside, at last, we found three people carrying a Bush effigy and wearing badges.
"...Now I have a question for you. Here you are, protesting on the streets of London. The Metropolitan Police is showing you every possible kindness and consideration. The British taxpayer is coughing up a fortune to allow you to vent your spleen against the leader of the free world. Do you not think it paradoxical that, until April this year, the people of Iraq couldn't exercise the very freedom you are now enjoying? Do you not think it ironical that you are now demonstrating against the very man who gave the people of Baghdad that freedom to demonstrate?
"Ewan looked at me in puzzlement, but I ploughed on. Do you think it a good or a bad thing that the people of Iraq are now free to demonstrate?
"'Yeah, but Bush broke international law!' said Ewan. Perhaps he did, and perhaps he didn't, I said. But what about answering the question: is the freedom to demonstrate a good thing or a bad thing?
..."Well, freedom is a good thing," said Ewan at length. "Yes," agreed May-King Tsang, who was holding the Bush effigy and the badges. "It is good that they are allowed to demonstrate."
"'It was nice to meet you, anyway, Boris,' said May-King, and we parted in polite and mutual incomprehension. They can't understand how I can fail to grasp the obvious: that Bush is a Texan warmonger, who has made the world more dangerous by his arrogant unilateralism.
"I can't understand how they can fail to see that the world was already proved hideously dangerous on 9/11; that inertia was a counsel of cowardice and despair; and that, whatever the faults of his government - from Guantanamo Bay to steel tariffs - Bush has rid the world of a tyrant, who deprived his people of freedoms taken for granted in London."
Boris Johnson, Telegraph:
"It's the call every Telegraph columnist has come to fear. 'Trefgarne here,' said the power-crazed new comment baron, and I sprang to attention. 'You've got to write about the anti-Bush marchers,' he said. 'Get out into the streets and get some colour. There must be thousands of them! Go, paras, go!' Yessir, I said, and ran out into Whitehall. Helicopters whirred above.
"Thousands of yellow-jacketed policemen dotted the deserted streets, like dandelions sprouting from concrete. Riot fencing ran in ribbons round Westminster. But where were the rioters?
"...Outside, at last, we found three people carrying a Bush effigy and wearing badges.
"...Now I have a question for you. Here you are, protesting on the streets of London. The Metropolitan Police is showing you every possible kindness and consideration. The British taxpayer is coughing up a fortune to allow you to vent your spleen against the leader of the free world. Do you not think it paradoxical that, until April this year, the people of Iraq couldn't exercise the very freedom you are now enjoying? Do you not think it ironical that you are now demonstrating against the very man who gave the people of Baghdad that freedom to demonstrate?
"Ewan looked at me in puzzlement, but I ploughed on. Do you think it a good or a bad thing that the people of Iraq are now free to demonstrate?
"'Yeah, but Bush broke international law!' said Ewan. Perhaps he did, and perhaps he didn't, I said. But what about answering the question: is the freedom to demonstrate a good thing or a bad thing?
..."Well, freedom is a good thing," said Ewan at length. "Yes," agreed May-King Tsang, who was holding the Bush effigy and the badges. "It is good that they are allowed to demonstrate."
"'It was nice to meet you, anyway, Boris,' said May-King, and we parted in polite and mutual incomprehension. They can't understand how I can fail to grasp the obvious: that Bush is a Texan warmonger, who has made the world more dangerous by his arrogant unilateralism.
"I can't understand how they can fail to see that the world was already proved hideously dangerous on 9/11; that inertia was a counsel of cowardice and despair; and that, whatever the faults of his government - from Guantanamo Bay to steel tariffs - Bush has rid the world of a tyrant, who deprived his people of freedoms taken for granted in London."
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