Oh, the dissonance

[andrewducker]

It's great when someone takes the way you feel and writes it well.

It's not so great when that someone is a member of a group you generally despise.

So when Boris Johnson, member of the Conservative Party wrote this, I did, indeed feel a certain amount of cognitive dissonance:

It must be said that subsequent events have not made life easy for those of us who were so optimistic as to support the war in Iraq. There were those who believed the Government's rubbish about Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then the WMD made their historic no-show.

Some of us were so innocent as to suppose that the Pentagon had a well-thought-out plan for the removal of the dictator and the introduction of peace. Then we had the insurgency, in which tens of thousands have died.

Some of us thought it was about ensuring that chemical weapons could never again be used on Iraqi soil. Then we heard about the white phosphorus deployed by the Pentagon. Some people believed that the American liberation would mean the end of torture in Iraqi jails. Then we had Abu Ghraib.

Some of us thought it was all about the dissemination of the institutions of a civil society - above all a free press, in which journalists could work without fear of being murdered. Then we heard about the Bush plan to blow up al-Jazeera.

Some of us feel that we have an abusive relationship with this war.

Read the rest of it here.

Thankfully, Boris isn't a member of the idiot brigade - one of the Conservative MPs who reflexively follows dogma without opinions and thoughts of his own, so I don't feel too bad about occasionally sharing an them  with him

Comments

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

This may come as a bit of a shock to most people but sometimes Boris does actually say sensible things. Worryingly there are still MPs with independant thought processes. We are trying to rectify this. The MGT.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Boris Johnson generally seems to be incongruously sensible and Good Bloke-ish, not to mention entertaining. I suspect he's only in the Tory Party for comedy value.

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

Whilst I often disagree with Boris Johnston, I have noted that he often displays an impressive amount of courage and integrity when he has a strong view to put forward; qualities I respect and which are sadly lacking in many of our politicians.

[diotina.livejournal.com]

Billy Bragg took Boris to Glastonbury. 'Nuff said.

But seriously, I find Johnson's Tory-ness is of an interesting stripe, as he seems to believe in the Conservative tradition, more than the party, possibly because he is educated enough to know it. I do wonder though, whether in recent years, he hadn't thought about switching to Labour, considering how New Labour more or less equates being Tory anyway, but I guess then it doesn't make much of a a difference in any case...

[diotina.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm interested - did you think the war in Iraq would have been a positive step forward had it been done in the above board manner (and indeed due to a belief that the WMD actually existed) as BJ has suggested?

[andrewducker]

I really don't like leaving people in power who feed their subjects into shredders. I believe that if the aftermath of the invasion had been handled correctly then the result would have been positive, rather than it being the complete mess we're currently in.

[diotina.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. If only their motives weren't so suspect, I'd agree with you.

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

Sorry but if you're going to do Imperialism even as a humanitarian policy then there are plenty of other places to save. Starting with Tibet. Oh, sorry! can't offend the Chinese! Need the money.

[andrewducker]

The problem being that occupying Tibet to free it isn't going to work - and thre's no other obvious option either.

Whereas occupying Iraq at least looked feasible, if tricky.

[andrewducker]

I agree. Imperialist Liberalism seems to only be a front for standard Imperialism, which is a shame.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

I was impressed by Mr Johnson on Fridays 'Have I Got News For You'. Quite apart from a seemingly genuine interest in events and honest opinions, he came across rather like a human Basil Brush. :)

[dougs.livejournal.com]

Life would have been a lot more interesting in the past several weeks if we'd had the member for Henley in the running for the leadership.

[andrewducker]

A Britain where people were willing to support someone like Boris who actually thinks for himself and is unashamedly different would be one with vastly improved politics. I'd definitely be in favour.

[autodidactic.livejournal.com]

There's something seriously wrong when one of YOUR conservative guys has the minerals to say the kinds of things that OUR liberal guys can't.

L.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

LOL.

Good point.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

He does on occasion speak out, which is good. But I wish he'd can the bumbling idiot act, because he quite clearly isn't a bumbling idiot, and therefore I find the act really annoying. No-one has hair as untidy-pretty like that without spending time getting it that way.

And really, I'm already tired of people who were pro-war regaling me in a self-justifiying way with all the reasons why war really seemed like a good idea at the time. So, like, yeah, Boris, you could have dropped the first four paragraphs.

[sibelian.livejournal.com]

I agree.

Whilst he has said things I agree with in the original post it was a bit of a no-brainer, really. The nastiness he refers to kind of goes hand in hand with warfare itself.

And uh, other stuff, namely the Prime Directive. It was there in Star Trek for a reason, namely to prevent stupid things like Liberal Imperialism.

All rather depressing, really.

People can be shockingly stupid, can't they?

[andrewducker]

It was there in Star Trek for a reason, namely to prevent stupid things like Liberal Imperialism.

And here was me thinking it was just there to give them another reason for Plot.

"I'm sorry, we'd like to save you from impending disaster X, but it would mean meddling in your affairs."

I view that kind of thing akin to knowing that the man in the next house beats his wife, but believing it's none of your business because it's his house.