Co-editors: Seán Mac Mathúna • John Heathcote
Consulting editor: Themistocles Hoetis
Field Correspondent: Allen Hougland
Bagdhadograd
- Siege of the Iraqi cities At least 250,00 have
marched through London, as well as tens of thousands in Edinburgh
and other British cities; yet others demonstrated outside the B-52
base at Fairford and the US - controlled Listening station at Menwith
Hill. There is one consolation
in this; the British people are finally deciding to take on their
political class, tired of their lies, moralising hypocrisy and continual
spin, in which freedom means control, and democracy means whatever
your masters want it to. It is a fact of history
that the results of actions can spin out of control, leading off
at tangents the protagonists could not ever expect. We are in a period of
massive destabilisation which will leave the world looking totally
different from the one we have known for the last 50 years. Blair, the failed rock
singer who hijacked the British Labour Party, steering it from socialism
to free-market liberalism, has been abandoned by his masters in
Washington. A quick reading of Norman
Lewis' history of the WWII invasion of Sicily would
perhaps have educated him on the general conduct of American military
policy vis-a-vis their 'allies' (the British). A quick look at the
published writings of the Project
for the New American Century would have informed him
of the true ambitions of the regime that he has been so quick to
follow; a regime empowered by a Supreme Court against the stated
wishes of the American people; made up of a sinister collection
of individuals who represent what President Eisenhower warned of
nearly 50 years ago, the military - industrial complex. They have destroyed
perhaps everything that Blair, the international statesman would
have wanted to be remembered for; Britain as a bridge between the
US and Europe; international human rights court; global concensus
on the environment (Kyoto); the resolution of conflict and poverty
through the UN. They have abandoned
ballistic missile treaties, blocked inspection powers for the 1972
Biological Weapons Convention (last year, just before accusing Iraq
of the same thing) and used so called 'free-trade treaties' to manipulate
world markets in their favour. At home, the only project
Blair's Government completed to any degree is devolution, which
will probably save the people of these islands from a future Yugoslavia
situation. But everything else
that you promised and we expected when we the people consigned the
Tories to the dustbin of history and gave your Government a mandate
has been reneged on. The end of child poverty
and social inequality (both increased), a democratic government
and constitution (non-existent, all efforts abandoned, probably
major reason for Robin Cook's resignation), personal freedom (virtually
disappeared - we live in a police state), liberalisation of drug
laws (prohibition has led to gun-law and gangsterism), an end to
the slavish following of US policy on trade and geopolitics, particularly
with regard to Palestine. No clamping down on offshore profiteering,
arms manafacture or city corruption. Increased privatisation and
the selling-off of public or national assets to the same small class
of businessmen, or 'profiteers'. No opposition (unlike the French)
to the One World Order doctrine of monopoly capitalism ruled from
the US through the
World Bank, the WTO, IMF and various enforced 'treaties' such as
GATT. For fox sake, you have
even sabotaged every attempt to ban hunting. I reckon it's a long
list, but you have had six years, and you've not turned round one
major policy from the time of Thatcher, or kept one promise in your
manifesto that meant anything substantial. If you had done any
one of these things, the war might just have been seen as a terrible
mistake, While we were working
to overturn Thatcher, you were earning money expelling the 'activists'
from the Labour Party, so perhaps we should not be surprised. Our only surprise was
when the seemingly healthy socialist leader John Smith keeled over,
and left the position vacant for Mr. Blair, a loyal BAP member (British
American Project) and friend of Israel, just in
time to win a battle it would have been hard to lose. I predict one basic
outcomes from this conflict. Tony Blair, as a
British politician, and Labour leader is finished. He may last as Prime
Minister for a while, but the ruling class in Britain are ruthless
with their representatives in the face of popular discontent. Even
if the war finished tomorrow, with crowds weeping with joy at their
liberation (increasingly unlikely) he would be finished. Even more than after
the first, massive , 2 million march through London just before
the war; the one on Saturday 22nd March - the biggest wartime demonstration
ever in Britain (at least quarter of a million people) - as well
as many others is an indication that his power has slipped away
as swiftly and invisibly as quicksand. He is not trusted, with our
security, or to tell the truth. One reason that Harold
Wilson was so loved by the British people, and
so feared by the Establishment was that he had the guts to stand
up for what he thought was right, both morally and for the people
of this country. I think he offered Lyndon
Johnson the loan of a company of bagpipers to raise the GI's morale
in Vietnam, but that was about the limit. So the divisions which
rent US society in the 60's, and the fall-out from such a terrible
war were not felt here in anything like the same way. Blair has
walked right into a trap, whether from hubris, arrogance in his
own persuasive and diplomatic powers, or even a certain naivete
regarding the true nature of the Bush cabal. Despite the TV talk
shows with their hand-picked audiences, making speeches straight
from intelligence briefing sheets; the news coverage (especially
on the BBC, with its pornography of militarism); the relentless
propaganda pouring out from uniformed PR men from Kuwait to the
Pentagon; the nation DOES NOT BELIEVE YOU. Despite all the 'polls'
being produced under the auspices of news organisations in the last
few days, showing remarkable leaps in public support for the war;
and despite the usual run for cover under the cloak of patriotism
- "Support the bad decisions of your stupid Government, or
you are a traitor to your homeland" - the lie is not working
the same way as it has before. Yeah, maybe we have
all read Brave New World, or seen the film of 1984, and once life
starts imitating art we wonder who is trying to fool us . . . Those most ungullible
creatures in our population, the schoolkids, who can usually tell
a fake when they see it, have called the bluff of all those old
men and career women still hoping for preferment in your next non-existent
government. It is perhaps a sign
of the British real attitude to work that they usually put up with
the facade of concensus here, much like they did in the Soviet Union. But there is a smell
in the wind now of something impermeable falling apart. In reality it fell apart
a long time ago. The Empire went first,
and then its political party, the Conservatives. When it looked like
they would rule for a thousand years, no-one realised they were
already finished. The
Poll Tax Riot of March 1990 was the end of the Conservative
Party in this country, just as the latest Stop the War March is
the end of Blair and New Labour. Whether the Labour Party
can extricate itself from this is as yet unclear. They will probably be
decimated in the forthcoming local elections; the Liberals may well
increase their vote; the Greens, and other parties of principle
on the left will definitely benefit. A few people will never
vote Labour again; many will not vote for them now until the entire
discredited leadership is gone. This vote will not be
transferred to the Conservatives. There is a distinct
possibility that if this war goes much 'wronger' than it has already,
this country could be to some extent , ungovernable. Whatever one thinks
of Blair, there is no obvious alternative. Duncan Smith and the
Conservatives are a laughing-stock amongst most people on the street;
and Charles Kennedy has very little respect after adopting the usual
supine position at the onset of the onslaught. How can you want to
Stop the War and support the troops? We all support the
British troops to defend the people of the British Isles; that's
what all that hi tech-weaponry is for, and all that training. We
have no illusions that in the final ditch (1939, for instance) it
is the British Army which is called on to defend the nation; it
is not there to act as the mercenary vanguard of a distant Empire. May the Gods help us
if someone attacks us now; we would have to fight like the Iraqis,
in the streets and fields, because our army has been risked for
the ambition of a foreign power. At the present rate,
our armed forces will have been decimated by our 'allies' by the
time Bagdhad disappears in the mushroom cloud. Journalists are being
wasted at a similar rate.(Terry
Lloyd of ITV NEWS). Iraq has become a town
with 200,000 Men with No Name, obliterating anything that moves.
We won't even hear about the Bedouins and their camels used as a
target practice by bored or resentful 'grunts', or the desert hamlets
obliterated by mistake in aerial bomb runs, or fly-by-wire playstation
soldiers, sitting on ships hundreds of miles away. If Blair had been a
true friend of the American people, he would have made a stand like
France, Germany and Russia, older and wiser nations who can see
the dark shadow of disaster crossing the sun. It would have strengthened
the hand of the US politicians and advisers who knew what a potential
disaster they are being coralled into; in terms of a diplomatic
and geo-political future; as well as the V word. VIETNAM. A definite risk for
Blair would be the disaffection of the higher echelons of the British
Army with the progress of the war. They have been put in the unenviable
position (especially by a lawyer like Blair) of potential future
arrest and trial by the International Criminal Court - as the UK
Government itself is similarly exposed. This does not apply to the
US forces, who have no recognition of the court in their Constitution. The harrowing pictures
on Al-Jazeera of the poor (mainly black) GI's being paraded on Iraqi
TV are no surprise; after the establishment of Camp X-Ray, the parading,
psychological torture and illegal detention of 'suspects' at Guantanamo
Bay, what the hell do they expect? If you 'suspend' the Geneva Convention
for prisoners that you take in conflict, why do you think that your
soldiers can expect better treatment from their captors. Sadly, it seems that
you will not learn these things until you too are an 'old' nation. Here, as many commentators
have pointed out, there has been no shortage of footage of humiliating
pictures of beaten, shivering Iraqi troops surrendering to US/UK
forces; this does not seem that different. Not only that, you are
invading someone elses country. You are doing it illegaly, and against
the wishes of both the population of that country and the majority
of the people in the rest of the world. You are destroying their
social infrastructure, bombing their cities, terrorising their children.
Their old people are dying of fear, their young of disease. 40%
of Iraqis are below 16, and yet you have dropped more bombs on them
than you did in the entire Gulf War. And you expect to be
welcomed in with open arms. Think again. Look at Serbia and you
will see what will happen when Saddam falls. Look at Northern Ireland
if you fancy staying longer than a few days. A country the size
of North Yorkshire (half an English county) kept 30,000 troops busy
for 30 years, with constant attrition and the near-assassination
of the British Cabinet on at least two occassions. You know what's happening
in Afghanistan . . .(we don't any more - why not? Just the odd
story of Afghan prisoners being tortured or killed by their captors
- US troops . . .) KIDPOWER Students - and even
school students - have taken the Government's continual lectures
on "citizenship" to heart. They are often better
informed and more articulate than their elders. What's more, they
are impervious to your bullshit. The language of international diplomacy,
the old rehearsed phrases and cliches of politico-speak are of no
more interest to them than the blandishments against cannabis or
loud dance music ever were. And the generation raised on video games
and crap television can tell the difference between illusion and
reality. Growing up is not about
learning in this society as much as forgetting. Forgetting the true
meaning of life and what it means when the world is yours to inherit,
if the fools who own it do not destroy it before you get there. They have no illusion
about the real cost of every bomb dropped, every bullet fired in
Iraq. Fathers who never come
home, mothers who never see their sons again, children remembering
the shadows of their sister or brother, pieces left lying round
the ruins of their yard. For what? Oil and power, sheer
unadulterated military power; which impresses kids the least of
all. Bullying is perhaps every kid's worst memory; and what is happening
in the deserts of the middle East looks like the most barbaric bullying
you could imagine; of a people already depleted and weakened by
bad government, war, sanctions-led famine .Little people will always
have empathy with little peoples. The next generation
is not just rejecting Blair, but party politics; and the 'historic'
link with the USA. If nothing else, like
Margaret Thatcher he has politicise a generation, and radicalised
it in a much more focussed way that she ever could. We had to hang all our
hatred of what Thatcher's Government represented on the back of
a tax, which most of us, the young people would never pay anyway. Now the young have a
chance to push their opposition to the bullshit around us; the constant
excuses for no money for schools or hospitals, nurseries or college
fees; suddenly being forgotten in the obscene expenditure each day
being wasted on weapons of mass murder being launched on a virtually
defenceless people. For the continued ,
expanding power of a small group of men in Washington, who control
a nation which has some of the most serious internal problems of
any of the major powers. A budget deficit which
defies belief of economists; which can never be paid except by either
taxing the rich 1% who own 95% of its wealth, or continuing to swallow
the economies of other nations. (President Bush has just asked Congress
for $75 billion to pursue the war - he reckons it will last a month,
and thats all it will cost. This in a nation which cannot even provide
a basic health service to their own people. . .) A prison population
of 2 million, the largest in the world; and a penal code of increasing
severity the further down the social scale you go. A history of involvement
in the affairs of other nations which is not seen as benevolent
anywhere except their own isolated country, and a population that
rarely travel outside their borders, many of whom never see anyone
but fellow Americans. The fragmentation of
the British political establishment will be nothing compared to
the implosion in the US if this does proceed as seems likely. A large part of the
American population is completely disaffected by the Bush regime,
and the war has given them a focus for thjeir discontent. It will
not be like the Vietnam protest era, times have moved on and forces
have coalesced around different polar points than before. Even the
Pentagon and Defence Department are in conflict over stategy and
the rush to war. Intelligence has been
demonstrably poor - on the diplomatic front and with regard to the
progress of the war. The Iraqis are not capitulating
as we were told they would. Even the conscripts are fighting back,
and however much people hate their Government, they will fight to
the last drop of blood to stop a 'conqueror' walking in unopposed.
Maybe the Americans, who have never been invaded (they took the
land from the Native Tribes) do not realise that expelling the Iraqis
from Kuwait was not the same as taking Iraq itself. If 'victory' is not
swift, the news coverage will become veiled and the US will raise
the ante, broadening its list of 'targets' to include civilian infrastructure;
becoming less and less careful about 'colatteral damage'. We cannot rule out the
use of WMD's by the US - by that I mean tactical nuclear weapons,
if Bagdhad remains resistant to their 'Shock and Awe' (Sturm und
Drang) campaign. By the way, watch out
for the 'find' of CBW's or laboratories in the next few days. On British ITV Dimbleby
programme, Reagan -era spook Lawrence Eagleburger admitted that
if no Iraqi WMD's were found by the end of the war, the Bush Administration
was probably finished. So they are probably flying one out at the
moment. (Apparently, as I write,
a 'chemical complex' has just been discovered in the desert of Southern
Iraq by an American regiment with a 'Chemical Exploitation Unit'
attatched to it, as well as the reporter from the Jerusalem Post.
Well, that's alright then). As we speak, the US
Administration is suddenly having to explain to more poor white
and black families why their children are returning in coffins. Why others are now in
exactly the position forecast by everyone except the arrogant isolationist
empire - builders in the White House when the USA so casually abandoned
any pretence at abiding by the Geneva Convention with the prisoners
taken in Afghanistan. No-one feels comfortable with the pictures
of the poor, frightened captives on Iraqi TV. But at least they are
not being held without any legal notice or representation in open-air
cages, taken on trolleys drugged and blindfolded for 'interrogation'. Every time one of those
sinister Washington freaks appears on UK television complaining
of the treatment of their POW's, the words
'Guantanamo
Bay' and 'Camp X-Ray'
leap into our consciousness. And the Iraqi people
have shown more forbearance to the US servicemen and women, than
was shown in many cases by British people to the Nazis who were
bombing their cities and families to broken, bloody pieces in the
Second World War. The US Administration
and UK Government are also having to explain now, a bit too late
perhaps for the relatives of dead servicemen, why the Iraqi people
are not welcoming them in with open arms, but hails of lead. Why our countries' forces
are murdering an increasing number of civilians in increasingly
desperate aerial bombardment (very brave); with two major cities
under effective siege with no real humanitarian aid. We cannot hold the criminals
leading this illegitimate war from Washington to account at this
time; that is up to the American people and the world community. But we can ensure that
every screaming, shattered child, every starving family is remembered
when our Government asks for another mandate. You cannot say you
were not warned. Even the children know
that it is wrong, and as the great Mark Stewart once sung, one day
they will rise up against us: "because we'll be the ones they
blame - and they will give us a new name - hypocrites, hypocrites,
hypocrites !"