I was cheered up today by reading two articles which put truth into the public domain and shredded the morally and cerebrally challenged among us who are currently pumping out lies. The first was by David Aaronovitch, who wrote in the Times:

‘Yesterday I read the categorical “invading Iraq clearly made us a target” from someone who continued, “it diverted our attention and resources from the very people that we should have been fighting — al-Qaeda”, but who just after 9/11 argued that if the US starts bombing Afghanistan, young Muslims will almost certainly rally behind the Taleban and Osama bin Laden in a new jihad. In other words Iraq diverted our resources away from something they shouldn’t have been dedicated to in the first place, because that first thing would lead to a new jihad… n November 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, 54 people were killed in a series of bombings in Istanbul. We remember the death of the British consul-general, which was described yet again as payback for Iraq. We forget the attacks on the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues a few days earlier. What exactly was that payback for? Attending bar mitzvahs, perhaps. ‘In fact a group called the Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigades in claiming responsibility made a series of demands on the Turkish Government, should it wish to avoid future attacks. “Listen to us, you criminal,” the statement began emolliently, “the cars of death will not stop until you concede to our demands . . .”, which included the freeing of unspecified prisoners from Guantanamo and everywhere else and stopping the war against Muslims. Demand No 3, however, was for the Turks to “purify all Islamic land from the filth of the Jews and Americans, including Jerusalem and Kashmir”. Jews out of Kashmir is quite a tall order, since you’d have to find them first. ‘A year earlier a whole lot of German and French tourists were blown up outside the synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. A few months later a Spanish restaurant and a Jewish community centre were blown up in Morocco. The chap who did it had been trained by bin Laden in Afghanistan. The radicals have blown up Shia mosques in Pakistan, before, after and during Iraq. They have blown up Iraqi Shias for being apostates. Closer to home, in spring 2003, two boys, one from Derby and one from Hounslow, travelled all the way to Gaza and then to Israel so they could blow the arms off a French waitress in an English bar in Tel Aviv. What does all this tell us? First, that if they aren’t blowing us up, then they’ll be blowing up someone else. And you don’t get to choose who. Secondly, who or what they blow up is largely a matter of what’s available. Jews anywhere, Americans after that, Shia next and Brits probably a distant fourth. Africans for fun.’

The second was by Christopher Hitchens, who wrote in the Mirror:

‘We know very well what the "grievances" of the jihadists are. The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way...

‘It is a big mistake to believe this is an assault on "our" values or "our" way of life. It is, rather, an assault on all civilisation. I know perfectly well there are people thinking, and even saying, that Tony Blair brought this upon us by his alliance with George Bush. A word of advice to them: try and keep it down, will you? Or wait at least until the funerals are over. And beware of the non-sequitur: you can be as opposed to the Iraq operation as much as you like, but you can't get from that "grievance" to the detonating of explosives at rush hour on London buses and tubes. Don't even try to connect the two. By George Galloway's logic, British squaddies in Iraq are the root cause of dead bodies at home. How can anyone bear to be so wicked and stupid? How can anyone bear to act as a megaphone for psychotic killers?’

Alas — the wicked and stupid psychotic megaphone was blasting out on the very next page to Aaronovitch’s article in the shape of a truly shocking cartoon by Peter Brookes (cartoon gallery). On the left is a hooded Islamic terrorist with his hand resting on a bomb bearing the legend ‘indiscriminate killer aimed at urban centre’. On the right is a US general with his hand resting on a bomb bearing the legend ‘indiscriminate killer aimed at urban centre’. Above both is the rubric: ‘Spot the Difference’. So the perpetrators of the London massacre are morally equivalent to America’s defence of the free world! And in the Times, too, which actually supports the US in this great fight!

Meanwhile the BBC continues to do its considerable bit to aid and abet the war against the west. Not only has it decided that terrorism does not exist, but current affairs programme after programme seeks to minimise or excuse Islamic terrorism and blame the west instead. Apparently, BBC Radio's Any Questions this Friday is putting George Galloway on its panel. No doubt if Any Questions had been broadcasting during World War Two, it would have had Oswald Mosley on. And as Tom Gross pointed out in the Jerusalem Post, the BBC has reported the most outlandish Islamic propaganda:

‘In its round-up of world reactions, BBC online was also quick to highlight the views of conspiracy theorists. The very first article listed by the BBC started by quoting Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani saying Israel was behind the London attacks. It was followed by a commentary on Iranian state radio explicitly blaming the Mossad.’

Thus the BBC is helping incite Muslim grievances based on gross untruths by giving credibility and the oxygen of publicity to those untruths. We pay our licence fee for this treachery. What has happened to the BBC chairman and governors? Are they still alive – or are they perhaps in a persistent vegetative state?