Politicians say the darnest things

IllegalArgument · 3rd August 2005, 06:10 AM

British MP George Galloway visited the middle east and had a few things to say.

[quote]
Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners - Jerusalem and Baghdad. The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will. The daughters are crying for help, and the Arab world is silent. And some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters. Why? Because they are too weak and too corrupt to do anything about it.
[quote]

Butterfiles and Wheels has a few links to this story.
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/

There are some other good whoppers in the transcripts...
http://www.memritv.com/Transcript.asp?P1=788

And here I thought the US had the monopoly on idiot politicians.

richardm · 4th August 2005, 09:09 AM

Wow. He certainly does seem to get more obnoxious by the day:

Quote:

Mr Galloway claimed the insurgents were ordinary Iraqis defending their country against "foreign invaders".

"It can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs and they are defending all the people of the world against American hegemony."

In one speech, the MP said: "These poor Iraqis - ragged people, with their sandals, with their Kalashnikovs, with the lightest and most basic of weapons - are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars, with 145 military operations every day, which has made the country ungovernable.

"We don't know who they are, we don't know their names, we never saw their faces, they don't put up photographs of their martyrs, we don't know the names of their leaders."

(Source)

What a little [rule 8] he is. Of course, like the moustachio'd carpetbagging coward he is he moved his attentions from his old Glasgow constituency to one that has a very large muslim population that is robustly anti-war, so he'll need to be pandering to that.

WildCat · 4th August 2005, 11:03 AM

If this kind of rhetoric gets him re-elected, I fear there's many, many more potential suicide bombers living in London than commonly thought.

JamesM · 4th August 2005, 03:42 PM

Am I alone in finding Galloway's statements hilarious? That "two beautiful daughters" stuff is comedy gold.

WildCat · 4th August 2005, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JamesM
Am I alone in finding Galloway's statements hilarious? That "two beautiful daughters" stuff is comedy gold.

Incitement of violence doesn't see too funny to me. Maybe in 50 years it can be laughed at, but not now. The fact that this guy has a constituent base that apparently endorses such views by electing him makes it even less funny.

demon · 4th August 2005, 04:57 PM

What exactly would you have Galloway say instead then?

"your daughters are being raped -so you'd better lie back and accept it"?

Galloway is vainglorious and full of himself -he is a politician. But the "respectable" commentators continually exaggerate and harp on about those failings -common to most well-known politicians - because they far prefer to play the man rather than the ball.

I've always kept one hand on my wallet when in a room with the man (yes, shock horror I`ve met him), but I`d do that in the presence of Blair, Bush and the rest of them, but the sheer vitriol heaped on the man by the establishment far exceeds any actual importance he could ever have (including signal achievements like BG&B). Indeed, the only man I can think of to be on the receiving end of quite so many slings and arrows is Scargill.

What Galloway says is so frequently correct that his enemies are reduced to distortion and smear while the media more generally confine themselves to puerile digs about his taste in clothes and his penchant for cigars. Their treatment of what he says is emblematic of this -endless wittering about form (rhetoric, firebrand, polemic, harrangue, orator, rant etc) and studious avoidance of content.

JamesM · 4th August 2005, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by demon
What exactly would you have Galloway say instead then?

"your daughters are being raped -so you'd better lie back and accept it"?

Conceivably, he could have refrained from using the raped-daughter metaphor entirely.

Quote:

Their treatment of what he says is emblematic of this -endless wittering about form (rhetoric, firebrand, polemic, harrangue, orator, rant etc) and studious avoidance of content.

He doesn't have to make it so easy. References to Jerusalem and Baghdad as raped daughters in the hands of foreigners does not strike me as an invitation to a sober analysis of middle east politics.

demon · 4th August 2005, 05:55 PM

JamesM:
"He doesn't have to make it so easy. References to Jerusalem and Baghdad as raped daughters in the hands of foreigners does not strike me as an invitation to a sober analysis of middle east politics."

While not being an admirer of Galloway's taste for overblown rhetoric, I think we should observe that referring to the destruction of this city or that, in war, has been known as "the rape of (wherever)" for many centuries and is not at all unusual or offensive.
To suggest that this sort of behaviour should get you removed from the country as Lister and Wildcat suggest is in my opinion a little short of a proper sense of perspective.

On an a historical note, the "invading rapists" meme was fairly common during WW II, especially in the US with regards to the "nips."

American propaganda posters of the time are filled with depictions of buck-toothed, slanty-eyed "japs" who are hell-bent on crossing the ocean in order to defile the sanctity of white American womanhood.

Just take a look at the early Dr Suess depictions of Japanese.

http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa291.htm

http://www.tfaoi.com/am/8am/8am203.jpg

JamesM · 4th August 2005, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by demon
While not being an admirer of Galloway's taste for overblown rhetoric, I think we should observe that referring to the destruction of this city or that, in war, has been known as "the rape of (wherever)" for many centuries and is not at all unusual or offensive.

It doesn't seem comparable to me. Perhaps, a reference to the Rape of Baghdad or The Rape of Jerusalem would be one thing, but he's off on a flight of fancy about beautiful daughters. Even then, it would be very difficult to justify a comparison between Baghdad and Jerusalem with the Nanjing Massacre, which is the obvious reference.

Quote:

On an a hstorical note, the "invading rapists" meme was fairly common during WW II, especially in the US with regards to the "nips."

but was it being used as a metaphor?

3rd August 2005, 06:10 AM	#1
IllegalArgument Graduate Poster Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Reston, VA Posts: 1,757	Politicians say the darnest things British MP George Galloway visited the middle east and had a few things to say. [quote] Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners - Jerusalem and Baghdad. The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will. The daughters are crying for help, and the Arab world is silent. And some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters. Why? Because they are too weak and too corrupt to do anything about it. [quote] Butterfiles and Wheels has a few links to this story. http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/ There are some other good whoppers in the transcripts... http://www.memritv.com/Transcript.asp?P1=788 And here I thought the US had the monopoly on idiot politicians.

4th August 2005, 09:09 AM	#2
richardm Philosopher Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 9,270	Wow. He certainly does seem to get more obnoxious by the day: Quote: Mr Galloway claimed the insurgents were ordinary Iraqis defending their country against "foreign invaders". "It can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs and they are defending all the people of the world against American hegemony." In one speech, the MP said: "These poor Iraqis - ragged people, with their sandals, with their Kalashnikovs, with the lightest and most basic of weapons - are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars, with 145 military operations every day, which has made the country ungovernable. "We don't know who they are, we don't know their names, we never saw their faces, they don't put up photographs of their martyrs, we don't know the names of their leaders." (Source) What a little [rule 8] he is. Of course, like the moustachio'd carpetbagging coward he is he moved his attentions from his old Glasgow constituency to one that has a very large muslim population that is robustly anti-war, so he'll need to be pandering to that.
richardm Philosopher Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 9,270	__________________ Rimmer: Look at her! Magnificent woman! Very prim, very proper, almost austere. Some people took her for cold, thought she was aloof. Not a bit of it. She just despised fools. Quite tragic, really, because otherwise I think we'd have got on famously.

4th August 2005, 03:42 PM	#4
JamesM Graduate Poster Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,823	Am I alone in finding Galloway's statements hilarious? That "two beautiful daughters" stuff is comedy gold.
JamesM Graduate Poster Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,823	__________________ "When we type away on discussion boards and post comments on our blogs, it feels like we’re sitting outside a pub in the evening sunshine with our attractive, cool friends – but we aren’t. That’s something we used to do before we got addicted to the internet." - Jon Ronson

4th August 2005, 04:57 PM	#6
demon Master Poster Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 2,744	What exactly would you have Galloway say instead then? "your daughters are being raped -so you'd better lie back and accept it"? Galloway is vainglorious and full of himself -he is a politician. But the "respectable" commentators continually exaggerate and harp on about those failings -common to most well-known politicians - because they far prefer to play the man rather than the ball. I've always kept one hand on my wallet when in a room with the man (yes, shock horror I`ve met him), but I`d do that in the presence of Blair, Bush and the rest of them, but the sheer vitriol heaped on the man by the establishment far exceeds any actual importance he could ever have (including signal achievements like BG&B). Indeed, the only man I can think of to be on the receiving end of quite so many slings and arrows is Scargill. What Galloway says is so frequently correct that his enemies are reduced to distortion and smear while the media more generally confine themselves to puerile digs about his taste in clothes and his penchant for cigars. Their treatment of what he says is emblematic of this -endless wittering about form (rhetoric, firebrand, polemic, harrangue, orator, rant etc) and studious avoidance of content.
demon Master Poster Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 2,744	__________________ "... You don`t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows..."

4th August 2005, 05:39 PM	#7
JamesM Graduate Poster Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,823	Quote: Originally posted by demon What exactly would you have Galloway say instead then? "your daughters are being raped -so you'd better lie back and accept it"? Conceivably, he could have refrained from using the raped-daughter metaphor entirely. Quote: Their treatment of what he says is emblematic of this -endless wittering about form (rhetoric, firebrand, polemic, harrangue, orator, rant etc) and studious avoidance of content. He doesn't have to make it so easy. References to Jerusalem and Baghdad as raped daughters in the hands of foreigners does not strike me as an invitation to a sober analysis of middle east politics.
JamesM Graduate Poster Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,823	__________________ "When we type away on discussion boards and post comments on our blogs, it feels like we’re sitting outside a pub in the evening sunshine with our attractive, cool friends – but we aren’t. That’s something we used to do before we got addicted to the internet." - Jon Ronson

4th August 2005, 11:03 AM	#3
WildCat NWO Master Conspirator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Albany Park, Chicago Posts: 49,096	If this kind of rhetoric gets him re-elected, I fear there's many, many more potential suicide bombers living in London than commonly thought.

4th August 2005, 03:55 PM	#5
WildCat NWO Master Conspirator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Albany Park, Chicago Posts: 49,096	Quote: Originally posted by JamesM Am I alone in finding Galloway's statements hilarious? That "two beautiful daughters" stuff is comedy gold. Incitement of violence doesn't see too funny to me. Maybe in 50 years it can be laughed at, but not now. The fact that this guy has a constituent base that apparently endorses such views by electing him makes it even less funny.

4th August 2005, 05:55 PM	#8
demon Master Poster Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 2,744	JamesM: "He doesn't have to make it so easy. References to Jerusalem and Baghdad as raped daughters in the hands of foreigners does not strike me as an invitation to a sober analysis of middle east politics." While not being an admirer of Galloway's taste for overblown rhetoric, I think we should observe that referring to the destruction of this city or that, in war, has been known as "the rape of (wherever)" for many centuries and is not at all unusual or offensive. To suggest that this sort of behaviour should get you removed from the country as Lister and Wildcat suggest is in my opinion a little short of a proper sense of perspective. On an a historical note, the "invading rapists" meme was fairly common during WW II, especially in the US with regards to the "nips." American propaganda posters of the time are filled with depictions of buck-toothed, slanty-eyed "japs" who are hell-bent on crossing the ocean in order to defile the sanctity of white American womanhood. Just take a look at the early Dr Suess depictions of Japanese. http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa291.htm http://www.tfaoi.com/am/8am/8am203.jpg
demon Master Poster Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 2,744	__________________ "... You don`t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows..."

4th August 2005, 06:29 PM	#9
JamesM Graduate Poster Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,823	Quote: Originally posted by demon While not being an admirer of Galloway's taste for overblown rhetoric, I think we should observe that referring to the destruction of this city or that, in war, has been known as "the rape of (wherever)" for many centuries and is not at all unusual or offensive. It doesn't seem comparable to me. Perhaps, a reference to the Rape of Baghdad or The Rape of Jerusalem would be one thing, but he's off on a flight of fancy about beautiful daughters. Even then, it would be very difficult to justify a comparison between Baghdad and Jerusalem with the Nanjing Massacre, which is the obvious reference. Quote: On an a hstorical note, the "invading rapists" meme was fairly common during WW II, especially in the US with regards to the "nips." but was it being used as a metaphor?
JamesM Graduate Poster Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,823	__________________ "When we type away on discussion boards and post comments on our blogs, it feels like we’re sitting outside a pub in the evening sunshine with our attractive, cool friends – but we aren’t. That’s something we used to do before we got addicted to the internet." - Jon Ronson