Sunday 29 January 2017

Banishing The Ban

Never mind pretending to be a Muslim, Madeleine Albright.

Take out nationality of one of the countries on the banned list, and take the consequences.

I suggest Iraq.

After all, you said that the deaths of half a million Iraqi children as a result of your sanctions regime had been "worth it".

This is not the Muslim Ban.

It could perhaps most usefully be called the Iranian Jew Ban, since Iranian Jews are as subject to it as any other citizens of the countries in question.

No one from any of those countries has killed anyone in the United States in a terrorist attack in the last 40 years.

But the criticism of this policy needs to come from people who have not issued blanket condemnations of everything said and done by Donald Trump, even his investment-based infrastructure proposals, or his eagerness for peace and co-operation with Russia.

The opponents of either or both of those would have cheered on this measure if it had been imposed, as it certainly could have been, by George W. Bush, or by Barack Obama, or by Hillary Clinton.

They have cheered on the bombing of these countries, and of several others with Muslim majorities. They continue to do so.

The voices that need to be raised against this need to be heard, and they need to deserve to be heard.

Therefore, they need to be other voices.

They need to be our voices.

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