April 05, 2007

Whose lawlessness?

The following was my reply to an editorial in a major newspaper that bemoaned the supposed weakness of the UN in dealing with the recent standoff between Iran and the UK:

Dear Editor,

Re "Weak UN stand fails Iran captives" (Editorial, April 3)

In the lawless world we live in, it is interesting that mainstream Western newsmedia only notice the lawless behaviour of the underdogs.

George W. Bush invaded Iraq because Saddam had threatened to kill his father, and now your newspaper offers that invasion an imprimatur of legality.

Israel invaded and for all practical purposes destroyed Lebanon, and yet the Western newsmedia did not appear to find anything illegal in that. After all, two Israel soldiers had been kidnapped. According to our newsmedia, that was justification enough.

Caught between the lawless and criminal behaviour of Western and Western-supported governments and the blindness of the Western newsmedia, it would be strange and immoral if threatened countries did not take the law into their own hands.

1 comment:

Fleming said...

I hope that your excellent letter was published in the newspaper. If enough of the public are reminded often enough of facts that once would not even have been published, we may get somewhere.