Thoughts on George Galloway Being Barred From Canada

First of all, I actually bought the Saturday Globe & Mail yesterday. The page opposite the letters and Globe editorials was a triple-threat of Jeffrey Simpson, Rex Murphy and Margaret Wente. Three writers all either too boring, factually challenged and/or stupid to bother reading. I did read their official position on British "Respect" MP George Galloway's being barred from Canada from our current loathsome n' laughable "government." The gyst of the Globe editorial was that this was a needless, heavy-handed action that only gives more importance to Galloway than his "odious" views deserve.

Hunh. As you can see, the editorial is still online. I'll grab a sample snippet:

Had Mr. Galloway been permitted to proceed with planned appearances in Canada, including one in Toronto early next week, he would have received limited notice. A few members of the hard left would have applauded him, groups such as the Canadian Jewish Congress would have rightly highlighted the odiousness of his views, and most Canadians would either have ignored him or correctly identified him as a person on the fringes. Such is the wonder of free speech; it creates a marketplace of ideas in which offensive or nonsensical ones find little currency.

Strong stuff 'eh?

First of all, my views on George Galloway: I believe that he did gush over Saddam Hussein. That he did say he was with him "to Jerusalem" which I find very disturbing. At the same time I think there's a lot to be said for his sympathetic support of the Arab people and his criticism of US, Israeli and British imperialism. Whatever it's sources, his blistering demolition of the stupidity of the USA's Iraq policies in his Senate appearance was exhilirating.

"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to Al Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11, 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end but merely the end of the beginning. "Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1,600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies. "

At a time when fresh evidence of US barbarism was appearing daily, and all of it the result of acquiescence to the most blatant, stupid lies, Galloway's testimony was an incredibly welcome antidote.

But I have to admit getting a real kick out of the Globe & Mail commenting on the "odiousness" of Galloway's views. As if Israel's recent (hell, current) behaviour in Gaza wasn't "odious." As if sending billions of dollars and mountains of weapons to subsidize these monsters isn't "odious."

All that goes way over the heads of johnny-come-lately opponents of anti-Semitism. These right-wing scum who have only discovered their love for the Jewish people after Israel became a murderous, imperialist state (funny that one 'eh?).

What we're seeing is the last gasps of a revolting political arrangement. Stephen Harper (henceforth "the creep") and Jason Kenney and all their ilk are taking part in an endgame, stirring up the Christian totally-insane wing and the neocon oil imperialists with their increasingly hysterical and intellectually bankrupt defences of Israeli barbarism.

To all those "progressives" who become offended by criticsim of Israel's assaults on Gaza and Lebanon: It was your choice to equate Israel with the most loathsomely barbaric of its actions, not ours.