“JOHN PILGER: Tony, do tell me – how do you mount a peaceful resistance to an invading force, which Human Rights Watch this week described as out of control, as rapacious, which has bought a kind of murderous street fighting, which is – and I’ve just said – has killed, you know, in their ‘Shock and Awe’, they killed up to 55,000 people. Robert Fisk, the independent correspondent, reckons that something like between 500 and 1,000 Iraqis are killed indirectly as a result of the American presence every week in that country.
Now, how do you say they should all sit down and say to the Americans: “You must go.” “It should be a peaceful resistance.” There are a lot of people actually opposing it peacefully and, if it was reported…
You know, I follow the reports of a number of human rights observers in Baghdad. There’s an enormous amount of peaceful resistance but on the other side of the resistance – and it’s one resistance – there is also fire being fought with fire. I don’t think one has to approve that. In fact, you can’t approve, under any circumstances, in my opinion, the killing of innocent people. But you have to understand why it happens. In the same way that we have to understand why September 11 happened.
TONY JONES: Can you approve in that context the killing of American, British or Australian troops who are in the occupying forces?
JOHN PILGER: Well yes, they’re legitimate targets. They’re illegally occupying a country. And I would have thought from an Iraqi’s point of view they are legitimate targets, they’d have to be, sure.
TONY JONES: So Australian troops you would regard in Iraq as legitimate targets?
JOHN PILGER: Excuse me but, really, that’s an unbecoming question.” – from an interview with ABC News in Australia. (Hat tip: Tim Blair.)
OUTING THE ENEMY: Maine’s Christian Civic League is planning to “out” lawmakers and political leaders in the state after the league failed to pass a constitutional amendment to ban civil marriage for gays. Money quote from a recent email from a League leader:
Since this matter of “sexual orientation” is of such fundamental importance that we must turn civilization on its head to accommodate it, we feel duty-bound to help you gain a better understanding.
We will therefore be writing about state leaders in coming months regarding their “sexual orientation.” We are, of course, most interested in the leaders among us who want to overturn marriage, eliminate the mother/father family as the ideal, etc. The list is long, so we won’t lack for material.
If you can help us, please do. E-mail us tips, rumors, speculation and facts. The more information we have the better. We will respect and honor confidentiality. Help the League stand for righteousness.
That’s right: righteousness.
WOLCOTT ON BLOGS: The dyspeptic critic, Jim Wolcott, celebrates blogs in the current Vanity Fair. Since it’s Vanity Fair, it must include the usual smears against anyone not in the anti-war left. Wolcott duly obliges. Jeff Jarvis has the goods.
The Dish 