the truth according to ken livingstone

London mayor blames West

Intervention into 'Arab lands' cited as root cause of terror

Mike Blanchfield

07/21/05 "The Ottawa Citizen" - - Controversial London Mayor Ken Livingstone has blamed decades of influence by western powers in oil-rich "Arab lands" as one of the root causes of the July 7 bombings in the British capital.

"I think you've just had 80 years of western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of the western need for oil," Mr. Livingstone said yesterday on a BBC radio program. "We've propped up unsavory governments; we've overthrown ones we didn't consider sympathetic.

"If, at the end of the First World War, we had done what we promised the Arabs, which was to let them be free and have their own governments, and kept out of Arab affairs, and just bought their oil, rather than feeling we had to control the flow of oil, I suspect this wouldn't have arisen."

Mr. Livingstone's outspoken views are at odds with those of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has suggested that anyone who tries to justify the attacks based on historical grievances or other justification is guilty of "perverted" thinking.

Toronto author Margaret MacMillan, one of the world's leading authorities on the legacy of the First World War on the Middle East, rejected Mr. Livingstone's assessment as too simplistic.

"Western powers interfered with a lot of nations, but you don't get countries like India or the countries of Asia or most of the countries of Africa producing terrorists," Ms. MacMillan, author of the international best seller, Paris 1919, said in an interview from her University of Toronto office.

"You need to understand the historical roots because they're a part of it. But to say that A leads to B, to say that what happened in 1919 leads inevitably to what happened in London in 2005 ignores everything else that happened in between. And it ignores contemporary issues."

Ms. MacMillan's 2002 book chronicles how the Allied powers literally carved up the world after the First World War in drafting the Treaty of Versailles in Paris.

"I'm not sure it's helpful," she said of the mayor's comments. "I don't think he's entirely wrong, but he's making it much too simple."

Mr. Livingstone made clear he condemns suicide bombers and terrorist attacks. But he also singled out Israel for what he said was a heavy-handed approach to fighting terrorism.

His remarks on the London bombings come as the British government contemplates legislation that would outlaw inflammatory remarks by extremist Islamic clerics.

Attack on London

© The Ottawa Citizen 2005