Getting Some Perspective

Something very scary is happening in the West at the momnet especially in Europe. People especially on the left have failed to see the threat to liberal democracies posed to them by Islamic fundamentalism. You see protesters on the streets with posters of Guantanamo or Belmarsh prisoners and burning effigies of Bush dressed as Hitler. I have no problem with protesters campaigning for human rights in any country but why no posters of Ken Bigly, Margaret Hasan or some of the thousands of political prisoners held in the theocracies of the Middle East? Why don't a load of the protesters fly to Iran or Saudi and protest for women's rights or something? Some of the protesters would claim that they have more chance of making a difference by protesting in a democracy like the UK or US. Fair enough, basically they're up for freedom except when it might cost them. Since they brought Hitler into the argument we may as well use a Hitler analogy. The analogy would be people campaigning against Mosley in Britain while leaving Hitler to overrun Europe. Dare I say it but Orwell must be rolling in his grave at most of the Left's reaction to Islamo-fascism. We must of course remain vigilant to the erosion of our own liberties by statists like Blair and Bush, but we aren't in Saudi Arabia. Recently we have seen Belmarsh jail called "Britain's Gulag" or the treatment of the Palestinians compared to the Holocaust. This is hugely insulting to the millions of people who died in the Gulag or the Holocaust. Some people now see this as the West turning in on its self in a sort of moral sickness that cannot tell the difference between the bad, as in Belmarsh and the absolutely fucking horrendous as in the Holocaust or the Gulag.

Recently I finished reading Gulag A History by Anne Applebaum, the book won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. I'm not going to do a book review here but words like moving, terrifying, heartrending, painful and devastating would be a good place to start. People who make equivalences between Hitler and Bush or the Gulag and Guantanamo should read a few books on 20th century history.