Home grown Neo Cons

My dislike of the present bunch of ‘big on state, not so hot on individual freedoms’ Conservatives is obvious to anyone who reads this blog. Sure, I take every chance I have to fire a salvo over the BBC / Nu Labour alliance project, or at the inherently dishonest Fib Dems, but my loyalties lie elsewhere; with the individual, the right to be left alone, and be what one dreams of, to worship and sleep with whoever one chooses, with the obvious caveat of ‘do no harm’ ~ to legislate only to prevent coercion.

Unsurprisingly then, I take a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy, wishing for as close to possible to the UK being an armed neutral state as is practical. The situation in Burma is, without doubt, terrible, but talk of the use of force to solve this crisis is insane. Enter stage left Ben Rogers. (emphasis mine)

‘And in regard to the much more pressing humanitarian crisis, the time has come for boldness. Enough of delay in the hope of reason. The regime has had nine days to show reason, and it has failed. If within the next 48 hours the restrictions remain, aid continues to be manipulated, and aid workers denied access, the UN should put into operation its much trumpeted principle of “Responsibility to Protect”. Aid workers should go into Burma regardless of the regime’s restrictions. If they need to be accompanied by international armed forces, to facilitate and protect the humanitarian effort, so be it. Air drops won’t work because supplies could land in flood water or paddy fields and be left to rot, or be seized by the regime. There is no guarantee the people can reach the aid if it is dropped from the sky. It must go in by land – by whatever means it takes.‘

I hadn’t realised the UK Conservative party had become infiltrated by such Neo Con maniacs, but this will only lead to pain for Blue Labour, unless they look across the water and see what these people have done to the reputation of the US Republican party, Ron Paul excepted. Less public international blustering, and more quiet diplomacy would surely result in more aid being delivered to the peoples of Burma than a local war, which is the last thing these people need right now. It appears the Neo Con bible bashers have learned as little from the Iraq debacle as they did from the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. You cannot impose your idea of freedom and morals onto a foreign people, you must hope and prey that they rise up and define it for themselves.

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