A funny thing fell into my Inbox today..

I received the following today,

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Copied from a friend: An incident occurred in a supermarket recently when the following was witnessed: A woman dressed in a Burkha (a black gown & face mask) was standing with her shopping in a queue at the checkout. When it was her turn to be served , and as she reached the cashier, she made a loud remark about the British Flag lapel pin which the female cashier was wearing on her blouse. ............The cashier reached...... up and touched the pin and said, 'Yes, I always wear it proudly. My son serves abroad with the forces and I wear it for him. The Muslim woman then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing and killing her countrymen explaining that she was Iraqi. At that point an elderly gentleman standing in the queue stepped forward and interrupted with a calm and gentle voice, and said to the Iraqi woman: 'Excuse me, but hundreds of thousands of British men and women, just like this ladies son have fought and sacrificed their lives so that people just like YOU can stand here in Britain , which is MY country, and allow you to blatantly accuse an innocent check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen. It is my belief that if you were allowed to be as outspoken as that in Iraq, which you claim to be YOUR country, then we wouldn't need to be fighting there today. However - now that you have learned how to speak out and criticize the British people who have afforded you the protection of MY country, I will gladly pay the cost of a ticket to help you pay your way back to Iraq. When you get there, and if you manage to survive for being as outspoken as what you are here in Britain, then you should be able to help straighten out the mess which YOUR Iraqi countrymen have got you into in the first place, which appears to be the reason that you have come to MY country to avoid.' Apparently the queue cheered and applauded. IF YOU AGREE... Pass this on to all of your proud British & other worldly friends.. I just did!!! It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. It's also nice to be British and proud!

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OK, let's put the horrific content of the message aside for one moment, which I will come back to, but firstly...

This "story" is quite obviously made-up.  Let me take you through the ways.

1.       There are no names, dates, locations mentioned; always a key sign.
2.       The British Flag lapel pin?  British people do not wear lapel pins, and even if they did, they wouldn't call it the British Flag.  Union Jack, perhaps, or Union Flag if you're being pedantic, but not British Flag.
3.       Americans, however, do wear lapel pins.  Whoever wrote this took an American message and replaced the America with Britain.
4.       So did this guy in Australia - http://www.hoax-slayer.com/australian-flag-muslim-women-lapel-pin.shtml

So, now we've dispensed with the fiction, let's deal with the horrific.

1.       Those with weak arguments always create a "straw man" that they can then demolish as a way of proving their point.
2.       A woman in a Burkha (normally used by Afghans rather than Iraqis, but no matter; they're all the same, right?) accuses an innocent lapel pin wearer of a crime against humanity.
3.       Perfect.  Pick the most feared and despised ethnic group of the day, and have make them a completely unbelievable assertion which can now be dismissed with contempt.  Killing two birds with one stone, the crimes of the west are placed into the mouthpieces of those with least credibility.
4.       An elderly gentleman is now to state the correct reason for invading and occupying a country with the second largest reserves of oil in the world; freedom of speech.
5.       Let us put aside the support we gave to Iraq's evil, merciless, freedom-of-speech denying dictator when he was on our side fighting Iran.
6.       Let us put aside the stated reason for invading was an imminent threat of WMD.
7.       Let us also put aside the mark of a civilised society accepting refugees from war-torn countries.
8.       Let us just stick to the issue of freedom of speech.
9.       Yes, the woman was exercising a right that her home country would not allow.  What I find curious, however, is that the writers (and forwarders/sharers) of this poisonous swill have far more in common with repressive regimes than they'd care to admit.
10.   They don't believe in freedom of speech at all.  Isn't the mark of freedom of speech the ability to criticise the most important decisions of that country's government?  Not merely to repeat platitudes and uncontroversial opinions that no one would disagree with, or disagree with too strongly.
11.   So the line about paying for a ticket back to Iraq is particularly revealing.  Yes, this country is so much better than those from where peopled have fled, but if you say something we don't like we'll deport you straight back.  You're only here because "we" allow you to. 
12.   I'd be interested to know how much a ticket to Iraq is, given the "security situation".  I hope that elderly gentleman has deep pockets.  Pretty sure Ryan Air don't go there.
13.   But OK, play along.  Let's say she did make it back, and carried on being as outspoken as she was about the US/UK occupation.  Criticising the troops in that country could get you killed for being a "suspected insurgent".

Does this mean I wish the troops harm?  Or that I don't recognise the tremendous sacrifice they've put in?  Or that I think they're all war criminals and rapists?  Of course not.  I don't blame any individual soldier for ANYTHING.  I blame the liars and corrupt power-mongers that sent them there.  Even Abu Graib, even every atrocity exposed or suppressed, it's the fault of the leaders who sent them there in the first place. 

Who praise them when it's convenient to avoid larger public scrutiny, and deflect blame away from their catastrophic failure and obvious dishonesty, but are the first to label them "bad apples" and "rogues" when the predictable consequences of foreign intervention are realised.

I'm British and proud.  I am also married to a Muslim.  I also think people should raise as much money as possible through Help For Heroes or other charities scandalously forced to pick up the tab from government inaction, if that's what people believe in.  But people should be free to say what they like without being threatened with eviction for disagreement.

Support The Troops.

Change The Policies That Sent Them There.