Attack on Corbyn over Bin Laden assassination is hysterical
For clarity, this is Osama Bin Laden, not Jeremy Corbyn. Some right-wing commentators may not be able to tell the difference.
… In both senses of the word.
It seems that people who should know better have dredged up a comment made by Jeremy Corbyn in 2011 about the death of Osama Bin Laden – that it would have been better if the Al-Qaeda leader had been arrested and put on trial, rather than killed.
Tory Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC: “Osama bin Laden was a terrorist who any sensible human being in the world would want either killed or arrested.” So he agrees with Mr Corbyn that arrest should have been an option.
And Labour’s – Labour’s! – defence spokesman, Kevan Jones, said: “This just shows you how out of touch he is with what most people’s views are.”
Oh, really?
This Writer would have preferred to see Osama Bin Laden arrested and put on trial, and so would Mrs Mike. We may not be representative of the whole of the UK but that’s two-thirds of this household agreeing with Mr Corbyn (the other third is not available for comment) – enough for one to question whether Mr Jones is more out of touch than Mr Corbyn.
Why wasn’t Bin Laden arrested? The US troops who took part in the operation neutralised everybody in the compound, didn’t they? So there was no reason not to take Bin Laden into custody. The fact that he was shot raises questions about whether he might have revealed information that compromised the USA’s – and possibly even the UK’s – standing in the international community. Those questions must go unanswered, leaving suspicion behind.
And isn’t it interesting that Mr Corbyn’s opponents are reduced to digging around for long-buried comments he made, in order to besmirch his reputation.
Would these people like it if we all did that?
Here’s George Osborne, writing in Tory propaganda sheet The Sun: “The new unilateralists of British politics [meaning Corbyn and his supporters] are a threat to our future national security and to our economic security.”
Those are bold words, coming from a man whose policies before the economic crisis threatened our economic security to a much greater extent, by supporting calls for banking to be deregulated further than they already had. The banks later became part of – and fuelled – a massive debt crisis that threatened the global economy. If Osborne had had his way, it would have been much worse.
Perhaps this is why he has persistently claimed – falsely – that the UK’s debt problems were due to overspending by the previous Labour government.
And perhaps that is why he has been a strong supporter of austerity policies that take money from the poor and hand it to the rich – despite the discrediting of the academic studies on which these policies are based, early in the Coalition Parliament.
With that kind of record, why should anyone listen to George Osborne?
Still, this episode offers an opportunity for the rest of us. If Corbyn’s opponents are willing to dig up anything he once said, just to keep a good man from an opportunity to change matters for the better, they won’t mind if the rest of us do the same.
Pick your targets, folks, and start digging up the dirt.
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politics for the people
Two-thirds of our household agree as well. The third member can’t comment.
It is beyond belief… actually, it’s not, how they stoop to these levels of utter stupidity. Just how thick do they think we are?
While I don’t agree with you on a lot of what you say, I do agree that Osama Bin Laden should have been put on trial.
The US would be rather upset if another country landed a special forces team on their soil and started shooting civilians accused, but not proven of, a crime.
I was saying exactly the same things as Corbyn at the time.
http://thegreatcritique.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/why-the-death-of-bin-laden-stinks-2/
And I still say the same things now. The killing was an assassination, one that completely bypassed the law, and has thus legitimised Islamist groups using the same tactics, while turning bin Laden into a martyr, inspiring who-knows-how-many to rise up in his place. Hence, with the rise of ISIL, the radical Islamic doctrine descended from the theories of Said Qutb has grown and not diminished since bin Laden’s death.
Of course there are numerous other factors involved in the rise of ISIL and we shouldn’t overlook them, but Corbyn was absolutely right. The assassination was a tragedy in that it made sure that the war across the Middle East will continue for another generation.
one word he used that has incensed me… that Corbyn’s followers are INSURGENTS. how dare he. is it so bad that we want what everyone who has a heart and soul. a conscience, wants? to be able to lead a good, fulfilling life, with a job, enough money to buy food, pay bills, pay for the extras disabled and ill people need to be able to go on from day to day with as little help as they can?is it too much to ask for people to care , to look after those who cant look after themselves? because of age, illness or disability? insurgents? my blood boils at the hypocrisy of the man. if anyone group of people are that its him n his master and the rest of their mates. we on the left are normal caring human beings. he cant say he is.
Mike, could I suggest that you write a short guide or course teaching people how to do FOI requests or how to use the other methods and techniques that you and others deploy oh so well?
I’m working on a little book about my FOI request, the events that led up to it and thereasons behind it at the moment. It will include pretty much everything I applied to it, so hopefully it will answer your questions. I’ll also try to find a ‘mainstream’ (for want of a better word) publisher rather than putting it out myself, as I have with the two (so far) Vox Political collections.
I might not agree with everything CORBYN says, but he has hit the right nerve with the populace for truths both Labour & Tories fail to see, hear smell etc. It’s a predictable dogma of the Tories, but labour should have learnt the lesson from its disastrous election result, but still shows no sign of pulling it’s head from the sand.
If Labour elects Corbyn, then the head will be out of the sand and looking for someone to get its beak into.
“the Tragedy is that Bin Laden worked for US & UK when it suited us”
– Twitter user ‘@maynon2013’.
A damn good point too. Why have the media never repeatedly lambasted John Major for the Arms-To-Iraq scandal?
I remember that Cameron said he would be judged on his policies on how well they served the people. Mind you, he wasn’t specific about WHICH people or how many of them, so I suppose the wealthy and privileged in the minority are happy.
Well done again, Mike. All this emphasises the fact they are all afraid of Mr. Corbyn. I’ve voted for him because I completely understand and agree with what he says. I do hope for all of our sakes he wins.
I voted for him because his opinions seem to match my own – especially with regard to the benefit system.
Gideon is a useful idiot whose only utility, it would appear, is folding laundry. Never the less he’s a gilded toff and establishment spiv who will be richly rewarded just like every other sell out politician has been in the modern era who assists and paves the way for the banking cabal and corporate sponsored rule.
We’re already a long way down the road towards fascistic corporate sponsored totalitarian rule, the crumbling US empire is a good way further ahead though. It’s apparent strength being little more than a no cost, debt fuelled feeding frenzy by the wall street banking criminals, engineered by a global conspiratorial central banking network that has successfully imposed financial policy on the people designed solely to transfer wealth directly from citizen slaves to themselves.
Little surprise then that the rule of law and due process are being eroded and suspended for the criminals assuming power, to the point where few notice any more and even fewer seem to care. Extra judicial murder and indefinite detention without charge or trial are establishing themselves as acceptable and routine in the mainstream conscience, such that one even exists.
Bin Laden and every other so called terrorist emanating from that region of the world, ever since the 50’s, is as a direct result of the CIA’s murderous meddling, money and regime change in and around the middle east, largely directed by and in support of the supremacist cult and their ongoing colonial expansion project being established on land and resources stolen from others.
I was working in a large office with a fairly standard assortment of individuals when Bin Laden was found. I remember we were all pleased that he’d been tracked down, but there was a general feeling of unease and dissatisfaction that he’d been killed at point blank range rather than arrested and taken to the Hague. There were murmurs from some pretty moderate types about likely US embarrassment if certain connections with Saudi Arabia were revealed.
Thanks for this Mike needed cheering up after what’s gone on over recent weeks, forgotten the funny side of life, does that mean the tories are winning !!
Out of touch with what most peoples’ views are? Like rail and utilities renationalisation and removal of private involvement in the NHS?
Idiots.
Oh, and Corbyn’s view re Bin Laden is shared by Barak Obama, Boris Johnson and Paddy Ashdown.
This is getting cretinous from the establishment.
I agree he should have been arrested(Osama bin Laden that is, but probably Osborne too).
This short 5 min video…tells you everything you need to know about Bin Laden and 9/11- Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuC_4mGTs98
It seems more than probable that if put on trial, Bin Laden could have spilled quite a few beans about the west’s interference in the middle east and the Arab world in general. Much of the present turmoil in Syria is ultimately of the west’s doing.
The establishment can’t find anything substantial on Corbyn. If this is the best they can do, then he will roll home high and dry. I notice the cretin Toby Young made this attempt at a slur on twitter. We can expect more of the same leading up to the election. They will be in overdrive in the next week or so but it won’t work. In fact, I sense that the more dirt they dig, the deeper the hole will be for them to climb out of. So Blair, Mandy, Brown et al come on,give it your best shot.