Un Swissroll

Au moment où la commémoration du massacre de Srebrenica rappelle où conduit la veulerie face au fascisme (et il faut rappeler que nombre de ceux qui se sont opposés à  l’intervention en Irak voulaient aussi laisser les Talibans au pouvoir en Afghanistan et Milosevic en Serbie), quelques notes de lecture qui donnent des raisons d’espérer:

• Un émouvant témoignage de quelqu’un qui, à  la lecture du blog Harry’s Place en particulier, a évolué d’une attitude de gauche traditionnelle, américanophobe et « anti-guerre », à  une position internationaliste de soutien à  la lutte contre le fascisme islamique:

Yesterday I found myself replaying George Bush’s reaction to 9-11 in my head (probably deleting the Wild West shit) and feeling that what I had thought was simply jingoistic bullshit was in fact honest disgust and anger at a real attack. Rethinking that what Tony Blair speaks might not just be pious cant but actual determination to improve the world. Now I’m not so idealistic as to think that all that is the whole truth but I definitely think its more true than I gave it credit for previously.

I guess now I realise that to be anti-war (not just Iraq, Afghanistan too) is to tolerate crimes against humanity. I don’t want to be a part of that. Today wasn’t so much a change of heart as a watershed. Last week I went out for dinner with people from work and had a discussion with a co-worker about the war. She was really shocked that I was pro-war, given my « left credentials ». And secretly I felt a bit ashamed of myself too. No more. No more equivalence of Saddam and Bush, no more « but what about… »

• Un exemple particulièrement remarquable dans son honnêteté publique est celui de Dominic Cavendish, critique théâtral du Daily Telegraph, parti pour louer une de ces pièces tellement à  la mode qui trouvent leur ingrédient dans l’actualité. Le journaliste a vu la pièce le mercredi, mais n’a écrit son article que le jeudi… (Via Clive Davis) cité par Andrew Sullivan.

Had I caught up with « Talking to Terrorists » on its official London opening night on Monday, you’d be reading unequivocal superlatives – compelling, harrowing, unmissable. When the threat of a terrorist strike seems only a remote possibility, it’s easy to admire, easy to recommend these two hours of « verbatim » theatre from the pioneering touring company Out of Joint. They give you a first-hand flavour of what it means to belong to that sub-section of humanity, and, briefly, what it’s like to be caught up in the midst of a terrorist atrocity.

The audience on Wednesday night were rapt. How could they not be? Present people in a safe, comfortable environment with the artfully interlaced, carefully edited reflections of, say, a former child soldier from Uganda, the IRA man who planted the Brighton bomb and a Kurdish resistance fighter, and they’re getting the inside story without getting their hands dirty.

• Après avoir quitté le Guardian, c’est désormais dans le Times qu’écrit David Aaronovitch, l’une des grandes conscience du journalisme de gauche, et sa chronique d’aujourd’hui fait justice de la politique de l’autruche censée protéger des terroristes (pratiquement chacun des quotidiens de qualité a sa palette de chroniqueurs reflétant toutes les couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel; il reste occasionnellement des articles décents dans le Guardian, dans The Independant Johann Hari équilibre Robert Fisk, et l’un des plus vulgaires dessins de presse défaitiste est publié dans le Times à  côté de l’article d’Aaronovitch):

Africa? Iraq? 2012? An international city full of foreigners? Give me liberal optimism any day, with the chance of changing the world. Because, either way, you still get bombed.

• Et cet article de Christopher Hitchens, décidément le George Orwell de notre époque par l’acuité sans concession de son regard (via Harry’s Place):

From Srebrenica to Baghdad

There has been a great deal of nonsense published in the last week to the effect that an alliance with the United States can put other countries like Britain in the position of being « targeted ». Why deny this? I reflect on what was not done at Srebrenica, and on what ought to have been done in Rwanda, and on what was put off too long with the Taliban and the Baathists, and I think what an honor it is to have such enemies. Co-existence with them is not possible, which is good, because it is not desirable or tolerable, either. The Srebrenica memorial stands as enduring testimony to that inescapable conclusion.