Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Illegal immigrants = enemies

A story has popped up today about an illegal immigrant making it to become a soldier guarding the Queen. I guess there are a couple of ways to look at it. You can either think, good on this plucky immigrant for pulling himself up by his bootstraps, using a bit of gumption, bending the rules and working tremendously hard to be a soldier for his adopted homeland - what a sparkling way to say thank-you to the country which took him under its wing.

Or, you could go the other way, which is predictably enough what the screamsheets have done. The Telegraph says:

The guardsman is believed to have used fake documents to join the Army – where he was trained in marksmanship, grenade throwing and how to use a rocket launcher – and his scam was only uncovered after a car crash when police discovered he had numerous aliases.

Imagine that! A soldier trained in using guns and weapons. Whatever next? I bet they'll be teaching bus drivers how to fucking drive buses.

But let's not blame the Telegraph. The lazy, pointless drones in Canary Wharf aren't doing any investigating of their own to try and find news. No, they've just lifted this story almost in its entirety from the Sun. You can see how complete a cut-and-paste job this is when you compare some of the paragraphs.

But here's why I find this story a little disturbing:

A senior military officer told The Sun: "This is a blunder of unparalleled proportions. For an illegal immigrant to gain membership of any Army regiment is unbelievable when you consider the potential damage an enemy could do there."

It's the likening of illegal immigrants to enemies. As if somehow they're more likely to be 'enemies' than British people - which, given the recent history of terrorism and terror convicts in this country, isn't actually the case. Did this illegal immigrant ever show any likelihood of being a terrorist? No, so it's kind of irrelevant whether he might have suddenly become one or not - that's just as likely as any other soldier.

Illegal immigrants aren't evil bogeymen, they're just illegals. They're not more likely to assassinate the Queen than anyone else. I imagine this man just wanted the money and a good career. There have got to be easier ways of making a few quid than grafting away in the armed forces, after all.

Related posts:

1. Bloody immigrants, coming over here, stealing our racism
2. More on the dirty swan-eating immigrants
3. Does the benefit system favour migrants?
4. Have yourself a merry little illegal occupation
5. New Enemies