Just to throw out there…

Seeing as I’ve already managed to make this blog something of a “Murray Watch,” I figured I might as well throw this out there.

Commenter Jonathan P pointed out that Murray is essentially a whistle-blower. To an extent he’s right. When I treat him differently, it’s probably because supporters seem to treat him as something more. Well, I suppose they might be saying he should be rewarded a seat for being a whistle-blower, but I find this telling,

The campaign needs volunteers. Blackburn is an important seat where those who believe that torture is no laughing matter can really make a difference by calling Jack Straw to account. Click here to volunteer. [Emphasis added]

I’ll first be charitable and assume that the motivation of the speaker is to achieve a net reduction in torture. If so, I suppose this means that removing Straw from office would lead to less torture because the UK would no longer accept intelligence obtained through torture. This of course assumes that torture exists in places like Uzbekistan because of the needs of MI6.

Let me be less charitable though and say this is about retribution. There is of course the issue of Murray’s retribution against the Foreign Office, but for supporters it’s more about shaming and insulting Jack Straw. More power to you, but if you want to know why I use the word “masturbatory” ad nauseum to describe the foreign policy stances of the far left, this is it. If it’s more about satisfying one’s own desires than coming up with a policy that better achieves a certain goal, well… And I should mention that a competing policy proposal that primarily achieves self-satisfaction (not a reduction in torture, but the assurance that we don’t really need to lose any sleep over it) is still just a little slice of political self-love.

So, if we want to get down into the nitty-gritty and really talk about reducing torture, it might be worth taking a long hard look at whether or not the proud defiant stance of Craig Murray and his supporters makes one damned whit of difference. Dealing with facts has never been the strong suit of any ideologue – left or right – though.

I’ll be right up-front and say that I think there’s plenty of room for improvement in the West’s Central Asia policy, but the “pariah-state” approach is a bankrupt direction to take it.