Self-confessed conservative RM Bennett wants to support the bombing of Iraqi people by trumpeting, 'The point is we have the right to speak out'. (Adver 27/02).
RM must pause for thought.
First, like all our democratic rights, free speech was won by generations of ordinary people fighting in the face of vicious opposition from Conservatives.
Second, in the USA itself that right is repeatedly snuffed out. To demonstrate against the war in New York on Feb 15, over 500,000 had to defy a police ban and breach police road blocks.
Third, US governments have a well documented history of destroying democratic rights round the globe. In Egypt,a key Bush/Blair ally in the Middle East, a number of demonstrators against the war have been taken and are now being tortured by police.
Finally, the well known violent crushing of dissent in Iraq began with a coup by the Baath party, which was supported and part organised by the CIA who provided lists of democrats, trades unionist, and socialists to be tortured and murdered.
There is no free speech in the Middle East because the USA and Britain have always prevented it.
Peter Smith
Woodside Avenue
Swindon
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