Ghandi

Thinking about Ghandi again.





That was a good post, wasn't it?

Blatant lies

"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation."
This from the Israeli justice minister. Who does he think he's fooling? The world in general is outraged at the brutal stupidity of the Israeli offensive, which only continues because America and Britain are hell bent on sabotaging any plans for a ceasefire. Kofi Annan was visibly seething as the Italian foreign minister read out the conclusions of the summit, which did not call for an immediate ceasefire thanks to the efforts of America's blood drenched secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
And he has good reason to seethe after the seemingly deliberate murder of four unarmed UN observers by the IDF two days ago. The shelling started in the morning, forcing the observers into the bomb shelter where they telephoned the IDF 10 times asking them to stop the bombardment. Each time an Israeli general said that the attacks would be halted, but they continued until 7 pm when the base was hit by a precision guided missile which collapsed the bomb shelter. The base was clearly marked and identified on Israeli military maps. Draw your own conclusions.

Futile

What has 15 days of Israeli bombardment achieved? Not the destruction of Hezbollah: rocket attacks on Israel show no signs of slowing down and the IDF is facing a fierce resistance on the ground, costing it an increasing number of casualties. Meanwhile support for Hezbollah in Lebanon is growing with each bomb that falls, even among the Lebanese Christian community. The Israeli government is failing to achieve its stated objectives in a spectacular fashion, as anyone could have predicted. Hezbollah emerged and flourished as a result of the last Israeli incursion into Lebanon, the idea that another invasion would do anything other than strengthen their support is counter intuitive.
The bombardment has, however, succeeded in destroying the infrastructure of Lebanon's fledgeling democracy and killing hundreds of civilians, around a third of them children. Lebanon was embarked on a project of reconstruction after decades of civil war, it was a friend of the West, a newly free nation with great potential. All that could be over now because of this senseless conflict. Israel says it supports a peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but its continued assault means that the situation is too dangerous to bring them in. Yesterday they attacked a UN base with precision weapons, killing four people. The US administration voices its support for the Lebanese government while refusing to halt its destruction by calling for a ceasefire.
If the conflict does not stop it will likely widen to include Iran and Syria and the consequences of that eventuality are potentially catastrophic. We can only hope that the governments of America, Britain and Israel regain their senses before everything spirals completely out of control.

Ray of Light?

Kim Howells, British foreign office minister quoted in the Guardian:

"The destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children and so many people. These have not been surgical strikes. If they are chasing Hizbollah, then go for Hizbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation."

"I very much hope that the Americans understand what's happening to Lebanon."

Axis of Insanity

The US, Britain and Israel have become international pariahs, the only three voices in the international community to reject the idea of a multi-lateral ceasefire. Their reasoning is insane, summed up by John Bolton when he said this week that a ceasefire between a democratically elected state and a gang of terrorists was impossible. Clearly he is ignorant of the ceasefire in 1980 between Israel and PLO guerrillas that lasted for a whole two years before it was broken by Israel, or the ceasefire arrangements between the British government and the IRA. Far from impossible, a ceasefire is the only way this conflict can end. Expecting one side to be the first to lay down arms is idiocy.
And we are assumed to be stupid enough to swallow this kind of "reasoning".
Condi Rice has announced a visit to Israel. She has a plan, she says. She won't say what it is. Maybe she doesn't want to "jinx" it. But since she is expounding the same line as Bolton, Bush and Blair it's difficult to see what her visit will achieve. The US can't broker peace with a straight face anymore, the Iraq war has destroyed whatever credibility they may have had. Nothing, it seems, will stop Britain from following them into international isolation.
I love my country. Well, I love London. I have a distant affection for the rest of the island. But if things keep going this way I'll end up stowing away on a ship to France. I have a vague hope that the next general election will be a defeat for both Labour and the Tories, neither of whom should be considered electable anymore. It's not so far-fetched. I don't want Britain to be part of this bloody international madness anymore.

the world is turning to shit

Remember the illegal wiretap thing? Well the official investigation has been halted. By Bush. Apparently presidents have the power to do this, but for 31 years none of them has stopped an investigation in this way. So, unless congress starts asking serious questions, he'll get away with breaking the law. US law, that is; he's already got away with breaking international law, as we all know.

Israel's war is rumbling along nicely; no sign of either side running out of civilian corpses to hold up and use to justify creating more corpses. Saw a charming photo of Israeli children being urged to write messages ("with love from Israel") on bombs about to be used to kill Lebanese children. I'd have thought that the human thing to do would be to leave the kids out of it, but there is no humanity in this situation I suppose. The sensible thing would be for Hizbollah to give up the soldiers it kidnapped, therefore robbing Israel of their main excuse for starting an open war. But they won't. They have as little regard for human life as the Israeli leadership.

In Iraq, Baghdad has descended into anarchy with everyone killing everyone else for a variety of insane reasons.

And so on.

Depressed Utopian Blithering

Violence and paranoia and nationalism and power. I find that I have very little to say about the Israel situation. Who started it? Who cares. If people would just learn that hurting others to achieve your ends is wrong the world would be a perfect place to live. Obviously. But I'm no hippy, I know this is impossible. You can't teach people to respect human life. You'd have to force them to. And it wouldn't work in any case. There will always be bad people, but how can we stop them from getting into positions of power? There are some interesting and workable ideas pertaining to global democracy in George Monbiot's book "The Age of Consent". Read it. It's the only practical solution.
I'm starting to think that it's going to take another world war before we really start to work together. Terrible thought. Of course it's not worth the risk. One of the most notable things about international solidarity is how quickly it falls to pieces as nationalism reasserts itself. I will leave you with this thought: the world will be a smoking ruin before we all learn to get along.

Will Israel attack Syria?

Things could get quite interesting very quickly if they do. As I've mentioned earlier in this blog Syria has a mutual defence pact with Iran and a big military including God only knows what kind of nasty chemical weapons...they have also promised a fierce response to any Israeli attack. The US has already come out in support of Israel, and as we know they're itching to attack Iran themselves and the Israeli offensive may give them the perfect excuse. It'll be self-defence, see?
Iran meanwhile has been making powerful friends.

WWIII anyone?

I don't know. But what happens in Iran is going to determine who'll be running the world in the 21st century - the US and its cronies or China and Russia. Either way its bad.

Hugo Chavez is travelling this month

I'm scared his plane will crash.

Insanity in the Middle East

The madmen have taken over on both sides. Each will hold up its mangled innocents as justifications for more murder and destruction, ensuring that this war will last forever. America supports Israel because violence is now the American way. Britain shrugs nonchalantly as usual. I'd like to live in a country that stood up for what is right and condemned what is wrong but then I've always been a bit naive I suppose. Civilian deaths are not so bad these days, just regretable. Its not murder, its damage. Sounds a lot less shocking doesn't it? Unless, of course its done by the bad guys. They are the ones who can't drop their bombs from aeroplanes and so have to plant them in cars or strap them to their bodies. The good guys only kill children by accident, then tell us they regret it, though they knew it was inevitable.
Bullshit, all of it. The good guys are the ones with no weapons and no power and they never win.

...but whatever you do, don't listen to this prick

Blair has now basically accused moderate Muslims and, implicitly, anyone who opposes US, British or Israeli foreign policy, of aiding terrorism. He says that you cannot fight terrorists by sympathizing with or attempting to understand their aims, all of which, he claims, are based on "false grievances" with the West.
Blair should note that there is a massive gap between approving of or sympathising with certain views held by people who kill innocents and approving of the killing of innocents. We may agree with someone who hates council tax but if he went and blew up the town hall we'd be rightly horrified. He should also note that such things as "sympathy" and "agreement" are covered by freedom of speech, thought and belief; something he claims to be defending. He should realise, and I can't believe that he doesn't, that accusing moderate British Muslims of hampering the fight against terrorism is not likely to improve their ever-chilling relationship with the government.
He should stop assuming that he can dictate to people what is right and what is wrong in clear opposition to the facts, he should step the fuck down as PM and settle down into his cushy job with the Carlyle group where, thankfully, we won't have to listen to him any more.

Don't listen to me, listen to him

That last post was....inadequate really. If you're reading this and you want to know more about this stuff please, please go to Greg Palast's website, I can't stress this strongly enough. He will explain it better and with wit. The neo-con plan to subvert OPEC by releasing Iraq's oil, the plan to privatise Iraq's economy, how these things lead eventually to a victory for OPEC and the Saudi regime and the fall of the neo-cons: its all on his site.
Aaargh.
I grasp all of these things to a certain degree. I'm not a politician or an economist. I'm a romantic soul...I lived in a complete fantasy world until the Iraq war kicked off and I was just cynical enough to think: why? No, why really? I have more of a feel for the global situation than a detailed understanding of it. I can tell you, for instance, what it sounds like. Yes. It sounds like the "rain down, rain down" bit of Paranoid Android by Radiohead.
How long ago was Iraq invaded? Three years and a bit? This has surely been a brief foray into reality for me. It's entirely possible that I may soon saunter out the other side and spend the rest of my life sitting under a tree with my guitar, singing songs about unicorns.
And so on.

Thoughts about neo-cons, corporate power and so forth

The neo-cons are finished in the states - men like Wolvowitz and Bolton kicked upstairs, Pearle an early casualty...it's a story of idealism defeated by the power of money, really. They were true patriots in one sense - they wanted corporate power to work as a vessel for national interest, not for America to end up the way it is now: a vessel for corporate interests with an empty treasury and a semi-wrecked military. But their ideals were sidelined as soon as big business caught the scent of a big payday in Iraq and Dick Cheney revealed his true colours as nothing more than a corporate stooge. The US can't carry like this and the neo-cons know it.
In another, more important sense they were traitors, driven by Leo Strauss' vision of America as a totalitarian utopia, taking its inspiration mainly from Plato's Republic. It was bound to fail; the US political system is driven by campaign contributions from big business and big business has no vision that stretches any further than a higher profit margin when the next financial year ends. The next government of the US will be more pragmatic, more reminiscent of Clinton's ideologically vacant, business friendly Democrats.
Sadly all the free trade voodoo bullshit will eventually crash the US economy and that will be that for American empire. Meanwhile China rises, proving that state driven capitalism beats capitalism driven state hands down. Especially when a truly totalitarian regime is in the driving seat.
I used to see the future as being dominated by corporations but I'm not sure any more. The love of power is more potent than simple greed. Difficult to tell if the neo-cons wanted power for power's sake in the end. Its all quite confusing.
I will now end this post in the style of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
And so on.