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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Start as you mean to go on

Since I usually make a point of balancing jubilation with caution, and being somewhat cynical by nature, I cannot resist the temptation of drawing attention to the depressing synchronicity between British anti-gun phobia as it is practised at home and British anti-gun phobia as it is about to be practised in Iraq:

Residents are being urged to dump their guns in an “amnesty pit” close to one British military compounds.

“Iraq has a culture of weapons. There are a lot of them around, most held quite legally,” said Captain Cliff Dare, of 3 Commando Brigade Engineer Group.

“If we want to give the new Iraq a chance these weapons have to be taken out of circulation.”

I concede that the very real risk of people taking pot-shots at British troops does cast a different light on the situation but I do hope Iraqis don’t finish up going to prison just for defending themselves.

And, as an aside, ‘Captain Cliff Dare’! Is that a comic-book action hero name or what?

7 comments to Start as you mean to go on

  • And by what right do they impose UK political practices on the Iraqis when they promised the Iraqis would be free to institute their own civilian structures? Haven’t they overstepped their bounds more than a wee bit?

  • Shaun Bourke

    I assume the good Captian will practice what he preaches to the poor Iraqis on his return to Britian when he is finally discharged from HM Army.

  • Utterly feeble. The Iraqi people need to be ARMED, not disarmed.

    Right now, the only ones with guns (other than the Brits and Yanks) are the terrorists and other malcontents. I bet if there was a gun in EVERY Iraqi household there’d have been fewer executions of dissidents.

    ‘We trust you to run your own country.”

    “But we don’t trust you to own guns.”

    Nice.

  • Sandy P.

    If Britain were surrounded by Iran, Turkey and Syria, he’d be handing out the ammo.

  • Fred Boness

    Don’t try to make Basra look like Manchester because well, Basra will end up looking like Manchester. (Yes, I’ve been to Manchester.)

  • S. Weasel

    Unfortunately, the US side is asking people to turn in their weapons in Baghdad, as well. Heard it on radio news this morning.

  • We tried to warn you about your Big Government war….

    I hear Iraq is also going to get nationalized health care.