Iraq: An Unbridled Success

I wish Blair would shut the fuck up so I could write about something else, but no.
He was with Bush, I think it was yesterday I don't know. They did their standing shoulder to shoulder thing and admitted that "not everything had turned out as we'd wanted" in Iraq. Then Bush invited Blair to dinner and they walked off hand in hand, how sweet. Well, not hand in hand, I made that bit up. Of course there's the opinion that perhaps instead of owning up to "mistakes" in Iraq they should have admitted that the entire thing was one gigantic, blood-drenched mistake. But if they said that, they would still be lying.
It was a mistake only if you view the war on terror as a war against terrorists. We've all heard the Mi6 and CIA reports that Iraq has increased the terror threat, confirming something that anyone with a functioning brain would realise. We know its played into the hands of Iran who are currently providing covert support to the Shia extremists in Southern Iraq. We know there was no WMD, and, thanks to the testimony of the UN weapons inspectors and the downing street memos among other things, we know that Bush and Blair knew there was no WMD and no link between Saddam and Al Quaida.
What the war has done is provide enormous profits for US defence companies with links to the Bush administration. And the continuing chaos in Iraq is making sure that they can continue to make a mint supplying the US forces, building bases and cheating the US treasury and the Iraqi people out of reconstruction funds. But that's still not the biggest success of the Iraq project.
The biggest success is that it prevented Iraq from trading its oil in euros which would have severely devalued the dollar. Iraqi oil exports would have threatened the dominance of the OPEC cartel who would also in all probability have switched to trading in euros too if that was the way the financial wind was blowing. It would have been a full blown disaster for the US economy. The war has all but halted Iraqi oil exports; America's gift to OPEC, who might just be grateful enough to carry on trading in dollars if, say, Iran carries out its plan to euro-ize its exports and America finds that it can't afford to invade them as well.
I'd prefer it if Bush and Blair came out and admitted that the war has been an immense success and then tell us all why. But then they'd have to tell us that they murdered hundreds of thousands of people and condemned a nation to civil war for the sake of economics. Which might give us the impression that they're not very nice people.

Bloody Tony Bloody Blair

So........Now Mr Blair is advocating enlarging the UN security council. Hmm. Sounds good. It would make it at least slightly more democratic. However he doesn't want any old member state to have a vote; just the ones that supported the Iraq war. Great.
Every member state should have a seat at the security council: that's what we call "democracy", Tony. You know: the thing you claim to have gone to war over. It means you won't always get your own way but at least history won't remember you as just a war criminal.
This is of course what's behind Blair's feverish attempts to do something memorable before he goes: he's petrified of being remembered as the PM who started the Iraq war. Because he knows that history will not view it kindly. Behind all the spin and the desperate justifications he knows full well that he has gallons of innocent blood on his hands.

Stop the press! Blair and Bush Lie about Iraq!

Tony Blair claimed again today that America and Britain are in Iraq with the support of a UN resolution. He is talking about resolution 1441 which specifically includes a clause placed there at the request of France, Russia and China that states that a second resolution would be required before military action could be taken. There was no second resolution. The Iraq war is illegal, anyone can read the text of 1441 and realise that, no matter how many times Blair and Bush lie about it. It would make things a lot clearer for people if Kofi Annan would mention this now and then instead of just standing by and watching his organisation being perverted and slandered by war criminals.
Yes, Saddam was an evil maniac but he was America's evil maniac until he threatened OPEC by invading Kuwait. Never forget when Bush and his cronies blither on about removing a cruel dictator that he had their full support when he committed most of his atrocities. Or that people are still being tortured in interior ministry basements and American prison camps and are still being plucked off the street to be driven away and shot in the head. Or that a civil war in Iraq will make the crimes of Saddam and the coalition appear mild by comparison.

Cherie Blair cashes in on tragedy, doesn't apologise

The woman has no shame. Our Cherie recently signed a copy of the Hutton report which was then auctioned to raise funds for the Labour party. This was the report investigating the circumstances surrounding the suicide of Dr David Kelly, a government scientist who had expressed his belief that there was no WMD in Iraq. Dr Kelly had been an anonymous source for BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan, who broke the story, until his name was leaked to the press by someone within the government. During the resulting media storm that developed around him he was found in a field with his wrists slashed.
The Hutton report was a whitewash that exonerated the government while harshly criticizing the BBC for pursuing the story and led to Gilligan and BBC director general Greg Dyke losing their jobs. Dr Kelly's allegations were eventually proved correct by the failure to find WMD in Iraq and the 'downing street memos' which revealed that the Blair government knew that Bush was determined to attack Iraq and was manipulating intelligence to suit this purpose. The government has yet to apologise to the BBC and the family of Dr Kelly and still uses the now-defunct Hutton report to justify its actions in Iraq.
And now we find the report being signed and flogged by the PM's increasingly greedy and shameless wife as a novelty item for some rich campaign contributor. The Tories are gathering signatures for a petition urging her to apologise, but she has so far kept her mouth shut and I doubt anyone will accept responsibility for this. This is a woman who charged a £100, 000 fee to speak at a series of charity dinners in Australia last year, while the children's cancer charity concerned recieved only a third of the total money raised. Kind of puts lie to her desperate attempts to present herself as a humanitarian.

Sign this petition then read my vague reflections on Iran

Just read a big piece of bad news here http://lifeuncensoredamerica.blogspot.com. Go read it and sign the petition.
Iran is taking a lot of international flak but none of it seems focused on its abysmal human rights record, which should be the real reason for advocating regime change in that country. By regime change I don't mean J-DAMs and cruise missiles and white phosphorous, I mean changing the government - something the people of Iran could easily do with the right kind of help from the international community.
A war will not solve these problems. For a start it will kill thousands of innocents like Nazanin and secondly America does not tend to put human rights at the top of its agenda these days. Witness Iraq where hardline religious factions have been allowed to gain control and to perpetrate the same kind of abuses we see in Iran, and Saudi Arabia, a horrifically repressive society which has prospered and flourished under American assistance over the years. Abu Graib, Guantanamo, extrodinary rendition; if Iran is invaded there is no reason to believe that human rights will improve.
I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons. Unlike Iraq, it is known that Iran has sponsored terrorism in the past and probably still does, it's not inconceivable that an Iranian warhead could fall into terrorist hands. But they are still at least a decade away from producing a weapon and there is plenty of time for the UN to investigate ways to ensure that they do not and ways to improve their medieval justice system. But I doubt America will give the Iranian people the opportunity.

Hugo Chavez is Doomed

I need to show some support here for Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president who was in London on a private visit this week. He has been on the receiving end of American and British criticism for the stance he has taken against Western economic hegemony and has already survived a US-backed coup attempt. He has been called an autocrat and a tyrant despite the fact that he has acheived three landslide victories in UN-monitored elections. Chavez renationalised the Venezuelan oil industry at the expense of US energy giants and has been using the proceeds to fund an unprecedented health and education program that has changed the lives of the vast majority of Venezuelans who live in poverty. He has proved that socialism beats capitalism hands down when it comes to providing a better quality of life to the people who need it most. Because of all this, it is only a matter of time before he is assassinated.
Chavez's policies are extremely similar to those of Jaime Roldos in Equador and Omar Torrijos in Panama. Both were populist leaders who successfully regained control of their country's resources and used them to help the poor-oil in Equador and the canal in Panama. Both rejected the IMF's insidious loans that would have made them personally rich but left their nations hopelessly in debt to the United States-a policy the US uses not to regain its investment (the loans are funnelled back to US corporations anyway in the form of payments for construction projects) but to influence its debtor's voting power at the UN. In short, both leaders successfully challenged US economic dominion in Latin America and cost the US political power. And both had predicted that they would be assassinated by the CIA.
Jaime Roldos died in a plane crash on May 24th 1981 and Omar Torrijos died in a plane crash on July 31st 1981. They were replaced by leaders who did not have their courage and determination-Equador's oil is now back in corporate hands and the US still controls the Panama canal. Make what you will of that.

Great Shitain

Well at least one thing has cheered me up this week. I've been thoroughly enjoying watching New Labour disintegrate.
A big chunk of the party are now calling for Blair to step down, which he has no intention of doing. I know this guy well enough by now to tell you that he's addicted to power. Also, he's probably worrying about the fact that most of the population are growing increasingly horrified by the disaster in Iraq, an attitude that was reflected in the recent hammering Labour recieved in the local elections. He doesn't want to be remembered for that. But he will be. Sorry Tony.
Sad thing is the ones who want Blair out seem to want Gordon Brown in-a man who has spent the best part of two years sulking because Tony won't let him play at being PM. They think he'll be more left wing. Silly sods. PFI - the gradual sell off of our public services to profiteers- blossomed under Gordon Brown; an economic policy even further to the right than those of mad demon-bitch Margaret Thatcher. He's kind of vague about what he'll actually do once he's in charge, nothing at all to make me believe that he isn't just another power hungry egomaniac.
Even sadder is the fact that voters are turning back to the Tories. When they're not voting for the fascist BNP that is. Another fine display of gullibility from the great british public. Or a large enough chunk of it anyway.
I hate this fucking country.
No. I just hate the political system. We got rid of the monarchy as a ruling force but we are still ruled over by a wealthy elite with no real connection to the people they supposedly represent. We just get to choose our dictators every four years. These people will never have to use the NHS, will never have to rely on benefits to survive, will never have to work at minimum wage to stay above the poverty line- how can they be trusted to run these services?

All Fucked Up

As you can probably tell I haven't really been in the best of spirits recently. Had a slight sense of humour failure. Everything seemed very serious. Getting better now. I've started drawing again - for the first time since I left school. Its quite therapeutic. Yes, a writer, a musician and an artist, I truly am a renaissance man.
Shit at everything.
I also discovered some papers from back when I was even more fucked up than I am now - living in what I thought was a house(but everyone who saw it described it as a squat), ingesting serious quantities of cannabis and, as it turns out, writing prolifically about how fucked up everything was...happy days. I'm thinking of putting it all on a new blog about how fucked up I was, am and will forever be.
As opposed to this one which is about how fucked up everything else is.
I'll get back to that soon-promise.

Why I am on Drugs:

I had just written a long post about Britain and nations in general, but I don't think it made much sense to be honest. Anyway, the essence of it was that nationality is a concept as flimsy as religion - that people are so ethnically diverse in their ancestry as to render the idea of national identity pretty much meaningless. Nations are just convenient devices for the rich and power hungry to further their own interests at the expense of anyone who gets in the way, and generally in opposition to the beliefs of the people who live in them.
I think that nationality is a concept that should be discarded. Patriotism is just a gentler version of fascism; why should one group of human beings be regarded as superior to all others?

I should point out that I'm well aware that, looking at things realistically, people will never be equal unless it is forced on them. And it would take a force so powerful that you could only describe it as God. And that kind of power could only be wielded justly by an entity without the frailties of a human personality.

Essentially my conscience has forced me into a fantasy world. It's a pattern I recognise in all the other aspects of my life, too: the things that I hope for are completely at odds with reality. This is why I have to take drugs.

HOLOCAUST

I'm not going to write this one, the article below is by Dahr Jamail; one of the few reporters in Iraq who risks his life on the streets rather than reporting from behind walls ten feet thick.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050306J.shtml

Every week there is a massive suicide bombing in Iraq, a steady trickle of dead American soldiers, hundreds killed by death squads or simply as a result of the loss of law and order. Meanwhile the only "reconstruction" that is happening is the building of three huge military bases for American personnel. The abscence of sufficient medical supplies in the hospitals that are still standing is resulting in hundreds more deaths that could be prevented. Add to this the enormous toll of the medieval siege that was called a "sanctions regime", including half a million dead children, the horrific effects of depleted uranium which will be killing and deforming infants long into the future, the flattening of Falluja and the thousands killed during the invasion itself. America and britain make Saddam look like Mother Teresa. He is currently being tried for executing 200 people because the worst of his crimes - the 1 million killed in the Iran/Iraq war, the gassing of the Kurds, the genocide of the marsh Arabs - were committed with our full support and sometimes with our own weapons. All of this to preserve America's economic empire, with britain tagging along begging for scraps.
One day I hope there will be a huge memorial built to the victims of economics.

Fat Bastard in Affair Unpleasantness

Its been a bad old week for the government. Home secretary refusing to resign after he allowed over a thousand criminals who were scheduled for deportation to be released. Whoops. The numbers include three murderers nine rapists and two paedophiles. Nicely done there Charlie. Excellent work. Of course Blair's administration has an excellent record over deportations when it comes to genuine asylum seekers: we've been sending people back to Zimbabwe and Iraq for years despite the fact that any number of them were liable to be tortured or murdered when they got there. Once again Tony and his boys have managed to turn the world upside down.
On a lighter note, John Prescott, deputy PM, language abuser and puncher of hecklers has had an affair with his secretary. That's him there in the picture. They do say that power is an aphrodisiac. All I can say is it must be a pretty fucking powerful one. This did amuse me for a while until his secretary claimed that in fact she didn't have much choice in the matter and that our Jonny boy is in fact a serial groper and sexual harasser-this was corroborated by a former Labour press officer who was also on the receiving end of his advances. Of course Blair and his cronies have all spoken out in his defense, expressing their sympathy for what must be such a difficult time for him. Poor John. Strange creatures politicians. Any normal person would be disgusted by that kind of behavior-even from a member of their own family- but these snakes have to rally round each other every time.
My prediction: they will both resign but after a year or so has gone by all will be forgiven and they'll be brought back into the fold as always tends to be the case. Tony always looks after his friends, no matter how corrupt, incompetent or morally bankrupt they are.