Friday, August 12, 2005

Westerners on the Side of the Insurgents

Eugene Volokh is asking for sources of Westerners who "defend the Iraqi insurgents, or at least justify their actions as being a supposed campaign for self-determination, allegedly justifiable rage at Western misbehavior, etc." This is in response to an apparent backlash from an off-hand comment in this post where he quotes from an Opinion Journal piece:
The Scotsman has an explanation for the murder in Iraq of journalist Steven Vincent. See if you can finish this sentence:

An American journalist who was shot dead in Basra last week was executed by Shiite extremists who . . .

. . . had been worn down by grinding poverty?

. . . were angry over Israel's treatment of Palestinian Arabs?

. . . resented the presence in their country of foreign troops?

. . . sought to avenge the abuses at Abu Ghraib?

If you said any of the above, you're wrong. Here's the full sentence:

An American journalist who was shot dead in Basra last week was executed by Shiite extremists who knew he was intending to marry his Muslim interpreter, it has emerged.

That's right, Steven Vincent was killed to prevent him from intermarrying. Those Westerners who side with the "Iraqi resistance" against America and its allies are defending the equivalent of the murder of Emmett Till.


Volokh sets the bar pretty high for the quotes he is looking for:
Stick with quotes that are pretty unambiguous -- no need to dilute the clear stuff with questionable material.

Stick with journalists, officials, or at least famous people; avoid comments by unknown people on others' blogs.
This makes it rather difficult to find quotes, since most people that are journalists or officials tend to avoid unambiguous support for anything as a matter of self-preservation. Most of the comments in Volokh's post have been left-leaning people ridiculing the idea, so I thought the readers and fellow bloggers of Love America First might be able to lend a hand. Here is my submission:

Barcelona Tribunal says Iraq Resistance is Justified

Penultimate paragraph:
Key organizers of the event, like their counterparts in the United States, are grappling with the tough question of how to revive the massive anti-war movement and how to deepen the struggle against the occupation of Iraq. Many of the issues and debates are similar. How to support the Iraqi resistance? How to bring hundreds of thousands of people back into the streets?