Who would have thought that it would be Owen Smith – the alleged moderate in the Labour leadership race – in trouble for saying he envisages the monsters of Islamic State being involved in peace talks? And not Jeremy Corbyn. Of course Corbyn is opposed to the West defending itself, because he is a clown who hates the West, but even he had the sense when pressed today when the pair debated on TV to spot the giant trap labelled “do not suggest negotiating with ISIS, it will destroy your career.”
Here is what unfolded on the Victoria Derbyshire programme on the Beeb this morning:
VD: Would this process involve anyone from so-called Islamic State, yes or no?
JC: No, they’re not going to be around the table, no.
Owen Smith: My record is I’m someone who worked on the peace process in Northern Ireland for three years. I was part of the UK’s negotiating team which helped bring together the loyalist paramilitaries and the DUP in particular into the process alongside Sinn Fein. My view is that ultimately all solutions to these crises, these sorts of international crises, do come about through dialogue. So eventually if were to try and solve this all of the actors have to be involved. But at the moment Isil are clearly not interested in negotiating. At some point for us to resolve this we will need to get people around the table.”
From Smith that is the Jonathan Powell school of thought, understandable as a musing on the nature of conflict resolution at a Chatham House discussion or in an interview to promote your memoirs out of office. As a position taken by an active politician seeking to become leader of the opposition it is utterly bonkers. To normal people, catching a sentence or two on the news, if they care at all about Labour, it will sound quite simply as though Smith favours peace talks with the murderers, thugs and rapists of Islamic State.
Smith is so carried away with himself and his own experience that he fails to realise not everything fits the Ulster parallel. Islamist fascists are even worse than the IRA and more brutal. They are more in the Nazi mould. They seek to construct a state, enslave people and destroy the rest of us if possible. As with Nazism there can be no accommodation. We must defeat them or be defeated. Here’s a phrase Smith might recall from his time involved in Northern Ireland: no surrender.
