As Turkish tanks take up positions on the Iraqi border, an outraged US academic protests against this attack on a sovereign nation.
Sort of. Well, actually she uses recent events as a stick to beat the US with. I can hear the cries of "Never !" and "No poo, Sherlock !" from here. The basic tone of the piece is "US/Turkish relations are bad and getting worse ! Yay !"
Naturally Laban had to stick his four-penn'orth in, attempting to parody the style of a Guardianista describing the United States.
Here's a gung-ho, nationalistic country, where internal dissent is not tolerated and so-called "terrorists" are tortured. They have a history of solving perceived political problems by force. Further back their history is a woeful tale of genocide, colonialism, displacement, massacre and oppression. Their president is a devout believer, who claims that terrorist attacks justify a response by the might of his country's military - even should that response be an attack on another nation, with the bloodshed and suffering that entails.
In all this he is supported domestically by the forces of the Religious Right, strongest in the rural areas where educational attainment is low.
Of course, the president never thinks about the root causes of so-called "terror" attacks, or asks "why do they hate us" ? No. Blinded by his vision of the oilfields within the grasp of his Army, he'd rather move tanks and jets into position for a brutal, bloody war that in the long run he cannot win. The reality - that his nation's oppressive, racist brutality has provoked this despairing response from a people for whom all peaceful options have long since been closed down - is too nuanced for this blundering cowboy - sorry, I meant goatherd.
And worst of all, our poodle Prime Minister - and America's poodle President - meekly accept their ally's rush to war without raising a finger in protest or admonition. All we get over here is acres of newsprint about our gallant NATO ally, and our longstanding 'special relationship' with our partners in the Crimean conflict who, in the words of celebrated English lecturer Jerry Brotton, "fatally weakened" the Spanish Armada and saved England so long ago.
Given all that, where's Seamus Milne ? Where's Galloway ? Where's Madeleine the Mad Mahdi ? Where's Andrew whateverhisnameis from the Stop The War Coalition ? When is the big march to the Turkish Embassy ? Where's A L Kennedy's new book ? Where's the Early Day Motion signed by 185 Labour MPs ? Where's my "No Kurdish Blood For Kirkuk's Oil !" banner ?
And above all, where are the 174 different Comment Is Free articles by outraged (and tenured) US liberal academics ?
Oh.
UPDATE - the debate has moved on. It's not just recognising genocide that's a problem for these ethical Guardianistas.
"Now that Bush has hosted the Dalai Lama at the White House and really, really -- and unnecessarily -- p****d off the Chinese, a vital trading partner"
You'd almost think that there was some underlying agenda here. And by the bottom of the thread we're on to Israel !
