The Ministry of Irony

Gary Younge, in yesterday's Grauniad, enters the world of "warped reality" where "embracing the irrelevant and ignoring the inconvenient has become the only viable strategy left".

There is a full discussion of his piece by Gary Hirsh at Labour Friends of Iraq. Here's a taster.

Gary Younge’s side is the ‘anti-imperialist’ side. He writes as though the world is divided into two camps – the imperialist camp and the anti-imperialist camp. The only important struggle in the world, according to this bizarre framework, is the universal struggle of masses everywhere against imperialism. Anyone who claims to be against imperialism, anyone who says ‘Death to America’ is on Gary Younge’s side. Anyone who opposes these ‘anti-imperialists’, for whatever reason, is not on Gary Younge’s side.

Some forces that oppose American imperialism: Saddam Hussein; Hizbollah; Hamas; the government of the People’s Republic of North Korea; the Iraqi ‘resistance’; the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.'

Some forces that Younge thinks are on the same side as American imperialism: pro democracy campaigners in Iraq, in Iran, in North Korea, anywhere, in fact, where the government is ‘anti-imperialist’; trade unionists where the government is ‘anti-imperialist’; feminists where the government is ‘anti-imperialist’; lesbian and gay activists where the government is ‘anti-imperialist’; Kurdish nationalists in Iraq and in Iran but not in Turkey;demonstrators for democracy and independence in Lebanon (particularly if they show too much cleavage).

Well, I can hear Gary Younge saying, which side are you on? I do not think that we can understand every struggle in the world, Gary, in the framework of some global struggle against America. I do not think that the defeat of America is the most important thing in every place and in every struggle. I am for democracy movements, trade union movements, women’s and lesbian and gay movements, wherever they are and even if George Bush says that he is in favour of them too.

Harry's Place also critique Younge's piece. Younge mentions

On March 8 2005, 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters took to the streets of Beirut to oppose US and European interference. The demonstration was backed by Hizbullah, which the US has branded a terrorist organisation. People carried banners saying "Death to America". It was several times bigger than the first anti-Syrian protest.

but fails to mention the pro-democracy demo on March 14 2005 when

Hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian demonstrators flooded the capital Monday in the biggest protest ever in Lebanon, surpassing the turnout for an earlier pro-Damascus rally organized by the Islamic militant Hezbollah. In a show of national unity, Sunnis, Druse and Christians packed Martyrs' Square as brass bands played and balloons soared skyward.

The rally, perhaps the biggest anti-government demonstration ever staged in the Arab world, was the opposition's bid to regain momentum after two serious blows: the reinstatement of the pro-Syrian prime minister and a huge rally last week by the Shiite group Hezbollah.

To quote David Hirsh again

I am for democracy movements, trade union movements, women’s and lesbian and gay movements, wherever they are and even if George Bush says that he is in favour of them too.