Steve Richards - `Useful Idiot'

This is an unpublished letter to The Independent on 8th July in response to Steve Richards column of 8th July headed `Those responsible for dealing with terror must be given the means to do so' (only the introduction to the article is free - the rest of it requires a fee. Don't pay, it's worthless).

Dear Editor,

In the 1930s British communists were regarded as `useful idiots' in their role of denying the crimes of Stalinism and propagandising on Stalin's behalf. Today we have a number of `useful idiots' in the media who perform the same service for Tony Blair. Of these, few exceed Steve Richards in his zeal for the Great Leader. (I remember a recent headline was `No-one can doubt Blair's integrity'. `No-one can doubt Corbett's tallness' and `No-one can doubt Winton's wedding' must be due any day now).

In his column on Friday he argued that Blair must be believed when he warns of terrorist threats, and the Government must be allowed draconian measures to prevent acts of terrorism. Fortunately, most people are not as credulous as Richards would like us to be. We remember Blair's lies about Iraq and WMD. We know that over 100,000 people have died as a result of those lies. No, we do not believe Blair on terrorism because he only uses it as a threat to get what he wants.

And what does he want? Only the abrogation of our civil liberties so that this country can continue to be a poodle to the New American Empire. Perhaps Richards can tell us how house arrest did so much to prevent the bombings in London this week? No, of course he can't, because it was no help at all. Perhaps some `useful idiot' or other can tell us how ID cards would have prevented it, when they didn't prevent the Madrid bombings. Blair wants these measures to cripple the domestic opposition to his warmongering, not to stop terrorism - because they won't stop terrorism.

To stop terrorism we have to tackle the causes. And what were the causes of last week's crimes? The war crimes inflicted on the innocent people of Iraq by Blair and Bush. How do we stop them? We do two things: first, we withdraw British troops from Iraq immediately; second, we expel the war criminals from our Government.

In the meantime, perhaps Steve Richards could withdraw his head from Tony Blair's bottom and start facing reality.

Yours faithfully,

Grouchy.