London mayor says West fuelled Islamic radicalism

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-07-20T125259Z_01_SCH046301_RTRUKOC_0_SECURITY-BRITAIN-MAYOR.xml

London mayor says West fuelled Islamic radicalism

LONDON (Reuters) - Western foreign policy has fuelled the Islamist radicalism behind the bomb attacks which killed more than 50 people in London, the capital's mayor Ken Livingstone said on Wednesday.

Livingstone, who earned the nickname "Red Ken" for his left-wing views, won widespread praise for a defiant response which helped unite London after the bombings. But he has revived his reputation for courting controversy in recent days.

Asked on Wednesday what he thought had motivated the four suspected suicide bombers, Livingstone cited Western policy in the Middle East and early American backing for Osama bin Laden.

"A lot of young people see the double standards, they see what happens in (U.S. detention camp) Guantanamo Bay, and they just think that there isn't a just foreign policy," he said.

<</SNIP>>

[marmar]

1. He tells it like it is...

London, Paris and Berlin all have dynamic, outspoken mayors.

:yourock:

[K-W]

2. Good to hear.

I am getting so sick of this "clash of civilizations" "evil ideology" bullshit.

[mrfrapp]

3. Sheesh

The article correctly states that Livingstone "won widespread praise for a defiant response". Did Reuters feel the need to point out that he was once called "Red Ken" when reporting that praise. No, of course not. But here we see a report where he's described as "courting controversy" (in reality, interpretting events differently to Tony Blair) and the communist slurs are bought out of mothballs. Seriously, can the media be more transparant.

Just to be clear, I support Livingstone's assessment.

[DemExpat]

4. Keep on saying this, Ken.

:thumbsup:

DemEx

[silvermachine]

5. London mayor: West fueled Islamic radicalism MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8642326/

Nothing in Livingstone's remarks seem unreasonable to me.

<<<“You’ve just had 80 years of Western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of a Western need for oil. We’ve propped up unsavory governments, we’ve overthrown ones that we didn’t consider sympathetic,” Livingstone said.

“I think the particular problem we have at the moment is that in the 1980s ... the Americans recruited and trained Osama bin Laden, taught him how to kill, to make bombs, and set him off to kill the Russians to drive them out of Afghanistan.

“They didn’t give any thought to the fact that once he’d done that, he might turn on his creators,” he told BBC radio. >>>

[Beaver Tail]

6. It makes perfect sense

Espically when you consider that the Palestinians have been oppressed for three generations, 20,000 civilians were killed when Israel invaded Lebanon in the 80’s, The Iranian Democratic Government was overthrown in the 50’s to be replaced by a dictator and so on.

You reap what you sew

[LeftNYC]

7. I heard that the mayor of London doesnt take any BS...

here is proof. Good for him...

[opihimoimoi]

8. Eventually, the TRUTH emerges from the Suppressed/Hidden File

[silvermachine]

9. Kick...

...to show Livingstone's remarks without resorting to journalistic assassination as shown by the highly misleading Haaretz article.

[Zhade]

10. Uh, yep, he's pretty much right.

I'd be surprised if ANYONE on this board disputes the truth of this remark:

"You've just had 80 years of Western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of a Western need for oil. We've propped up unsavoury governments, we've overthrown ones that we didn't consider sympathetic," Livingstone said.

"I think the particular problem we have at the moment is that in the 1980s ... the Americans recruited and trained Osama bin Laden, taught him how to kill, to make bombs, and set him off to kill the Russians to drive them out of Afghanistan.

"They didn't give any thought to the fact that once he'd done that, he might turn on his creators," he told BBC radio.

[silvermachine]

12. Apparently there are some...

...namely those that responded in Pavlovian fashion to the Haaretz hit piece, characterizing Livingstone's measured and considered remarks as "explodes in outrage".

edit for sp

[allemand]

11. Mayor blames Middle East policy

The London mayor told BBC News he had no sympathy with the bombers and he opposed all violence.

But he argued that the attacks would not have happened had Western powers left Arab nations free to decide their own affairs after World War I. (...)

He argued: "If at the end of the First World War we had done what we promised the Arabs, which was to let them be free and have their own governments, and kept out of Arab affairs, and just bought their oil, rather than feeling we had to control the flow of oil, I suspect this wouldn't have arisen." (...)

"A lot of young people see the double standards, they see what happens in Guantanamo Bay, and they just think that there isn't a just foreign policy," said Mr Livingstone.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4698963.stm

Some say that he "defends" suicide bombers, but I don't think so. He just explains what turned them into suicide bombers, but that doesn't mean that he agrees with their actions.