Will do! Sounds exciting!

“Nadira was wondering when the media would stop calling her a lap dancer, ”

All this shows is how important lap dancers are to journalists. Remember these are people who really exceed three or four column inches.

ooops

“rarely exceed”

Don’t see what you are complaining about.

“Murray’s reputation has been enhanced by reports that he reguarly attended nightclubs while stationed in Tashkent, and by his affair with a young lapdancer Nadira Alieva who he married last year.”

Only this bit has not yet been published in the mainstream press..

“Not only did Murray do an exceptional job of promoting British interests whilst Ambassador to Uzbekistan, he also travelled throughout the country with no protection whatsoever, and uncovered multiple examples atrocious abuses including torture, and brought this to the attention of the British Government. He behaved as if he was doing multiple jobs as the lead hero in a James Bond movie, except it was for real and he didn’t harm anyone (except the reputations of Senior Members of Government).”

Tony

If there’s any justice in the world, Tennant should be allowed to play you as sympathetically as Tom Hanks played Charlie Wilson (another ‘teetotal monogamist’ ) in Charlie Wilson’s War.

Problem is, Hollywood had CW down as a ‘good guy’ (despite the terrible blowback his antics created), whereas the Beeb seem to have Craig pigeonholed as a not especially sympathetic member of the awkward squad. Which appears to show, sadly, that justice and celluloid confections don’t mix too readily.

Regularly attended nightclubs?

I’m shocked.

A few of us Brits over here in Congo are going to crack a few beers and listen in via internet. Any chance of David Tennants aurograph

I think the question might be who in the BBC insisted the portrayal of you be “not uncritical”. If I’d been commissioning a play, I would have made the same stipulation for two reasons. Firstly, complex characters are more interesting on stage and in books – I think that, on radio in particular, a one-dimensional virtuous hero doesn’t work. Secondly, there’s a tradition of sympathy for the flawed hero.

Speaking personally, I prefer all human beings to be presented as flawed and complex because that’s how I see human beings. If people are led to believe that only wholly virtuous people can stand up against evil, we’re in a pretty bad way. The idea of humans being either good or bad, with nothing in between, has been advanced by the rhetoric of Bush, Blair, et al with dreadful consequences.

I do, however, agree that Nadira is not being treated seriously or respectfully in press releases. As an actor she’s probably less able to object than you are. Being old-fashioned, I would call the press treatment of her “sexist” in that it diminishes her to one small aspect of her past career. I wondered about writing to the Guardian to point this out when I saw the piece but then thought my objection wouldn’t do Nadira any good.

I’m looking forward to the play and shall try to remember to tell people about it nearer the date of broadcast.

I agree. ‘The People vs. Larry Flynt’ being a good example. I’m not comparing Craig to a porn king; it is the dynamic of the characterisation which embraces similar terrain. People empathise with a flawed (i.e. realistic) hero. We admire Hamlet much more than we admire Superman – unless, that is, one is either nine years old or else is into body-stockings and florid displays of brightly-coloured undergarments.

Oh yes indeed, the MSM is likely to be being sexist and probably racist as well, plus there’s that old hypocritical British prudery and the ubiquitous sin of envy, the combination of which prove a potent recipe for witchhunts and character assassination. Media organs also are likely to have ben penetrated for all time by the agents of influence of the hard state. You ‘betrayed’ both the hard state and its social and racial class loyalties, therefore you are their enemy.

I look forward to hearing the play. I thought Tennant was wonderful in the Boxing Day Hamlet, much against my expectations.

The MSM is a hall of mirrors: I’m sure its images of you are as topologically eccentric as they are of everything else (so don’t worry).

As a PS, I never much agreed with Orwell’s objection to the ‘not-un’ construct – and then I see things like “insisted that the play not be uncritical”. I had to read that many times. Do they mean: “insist that the play be critical”? Or not?

@Vronsky – glad I wasn’t the only one! Re-read until you can parse speedily the triple negative in “The BBC was not insisting that the play be not uncriticial”

That said, I am not sure the two things you mention are identical. With the construct as it is, I think it means that being critical should not specifically be avoided, rather than specific efforts made to make it critical.

Phew!

Yes, not so much insisting that it be critical, so much much as insisting that it be simply an exercise in hagiography. Or something like that. Perhaps.

No, I meant yes, not so much insisting that it be critical, so much as insisting that it not be simply an exercise in hagiography. Wish I hadn’t bothered.

@jon

That’s why I didn’t really agree with Orwell – ‘not unlikely’ is not (to me) exactly synonymous with ‘likely’. But we digress…

The Guardian does have a caption for the photo of you and Nadira saying “Former diplomat Craig Murray, who exposed torture in Uzbekistan, with his wife, Nadira Alieva” and it says “While still married, he had fallen in love with a lap dancer, Nadira Alieva, whom he wed last year”

Maybe they’ve edited it to that since your blog post though? I don’t know

It’s probably to do with a rather English taste for circumlocution and vagueness. Orwell should have realised that. He could be a bit of a git sometimes, though I’m not unadmiring of him for that.

Have you thought about becoming a Tea totaling Monogamist?

I’m a tea totaling monogamist myself. I’ll continue tea totaling, but I might consider a couple more wives if I could afford a couple more houses. Or one really big house, with three master bedrooms and a indoor swimming pool.

Monogamy is over rated.

@arsalan: I have a desk at home made out of that!

Once my wife was staring at me. And I said what’s the problem.

And she said, “I know you are good looking so you can have any woman you want but you should realise that I’m a doctor so I can do a little operation on you while your a sleep if I want”

I’m a Polygamist stuck in a Monogamous marriage.

Jon Bloody hell, you must be loaded?

How much that that set you back?

I have two Monogamy doors in my bedroom. They are really pine, but I used some really good wood dye that makes them look like Monogamy.

What I really need is a Polygamy coloured Desk.

“They are really pine”

For the fjords ?

Frankly, I’d be a little concerned the BBC will do a hatchet job.

“We shall never refuse to be not unimpressed.”

Queen Victoria

“Tea is the great evil of our times.”

Confucius

Now for a tincture of bromide…

Craig

Your picture has disappeared from Wikipedia. No proof of copyright. You have to get permission to use photos.

Polly? Gammy?

Not uncritical is cool. Murder in Samarkand was not uncritical about its author.

dreoilin: no, only one of me, just bored with typing ‘technicolour’!

Richard, sorry for terrible pun.

Has anyone read

a) the Turn of the Novel by Alan Friedman

b) that Seamus Milne piece about Iran?

I’m a little taken aback the BBC would find it necessary to ‘insist’ on any such thing in the first place. Don’t they trust their authors to have any critical skills of their own without being prodded ?

The bbc are owned by new labour. The BBC did try and be independent at the beginning of the Iraq war, but were soon put in their place by threats that the license fees will be taken away.

Probably just covering their own backs? Insulting (or amusing) if you’re David Hare, I agree.

Some Welsh bloke claims to have evidence that Tony Blair lied to Chilcot.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qs391

It’s just getting silly now.

I am suprised you never recieved a mum of the year award for your iresponsible nightclubing. Jade Goody and Kerry Katona recieved one for merely sniffing coke and being horrible.

Take it with good cheer dude.

A year ago, I had never heard of Craig Murray, and I don’t remember exactly how I actually came to be reading his book “Murder in Samarkand”

I realised it was about a subject, the description of which was an instant turn off. It was the last thing I thought I would want to read on holiday.

But there I was on a little Island in the Indian Ocean and the weather was atrocious…

But the weather didn’t matter.

I couldn’t stop reading and turning the pages.

I thought – who the hell is this Murray bloke?

He cannot be for real.

It must all be made up.

And then when I came back to England, he was appearing at some official inquiry about UK Goverment Complicity in Torture.

I was going to go to the House of Commons just to be a witness, and actually meet this person, but on the morning he asked on his blog, if someone could actually record the events and put it up on Youtube.

I had never done this before, and it took me a couple of hours to work out how to do it, and even when I was doing it live from the obscure House of Commons web feed I was not sure if it would work – but it did

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF9spgagSHI

I still haven’t actually met him.

But I am 100% convinced he is totally for real.

Tony

You know what, I about as bothered about

1) Tiger woods having extra marital affairs

2) Clinton getting blowjobs in the White House (not from his wife)

3) Hilary possibly being gay?

4) You copping off with a lap dancer when you were married

as much as thinking about weather i would look good in a dress.

A) No I wouldn’t

B) Who the fuck cares!

Your private life is you own, you only have to explain to those affected, me I think in the grand scheme of things it just ain’t worth occupying any part of my consciousness.

“as much as thinking about weather i would look good in a dress.”

That depends, are you male?

The BBC bends according to which way the establishment “wind” is blowing. It follows the lead of the government on most issues, as it gives disproportionate coverage to the views of the political elite.

One shouldn’t really expect “more” from the “liberal” press; the Guardian, Independent. They too have the same “paymaster.”

Somewhere between 60% to 70% of their revenues come from advertizing, so their primary job is to “sell” their readership to their advertizers.

My feeling is that there’s just one newspaper in the UK, at least on most issues; one newspaper with a lot of diverse supplements.

writerman is it the Sun?

Sunday Sport, surely.

Arsalan, many, many men look good in dresses – Kurt Cobain, the bloke from the Lemonheads, my friend Olaf…Not to mention Scottish men in kilts and all those lovely Arab blokes in dish-dashers (which I know are tunics, not dresses). Trousers, pshaw.

By the way, poster with no name, I think the point about this, from reading Murder In Samarkand, was that the writer fell in love with a spirited and beautiful woman struggling to survive in a brutal and brutalised country. If Tiger Woods or Bill Clinton had fallen in love with their women, or Hilary Clinton had fallen in love with another woman, I could see your analogy. As it is, I can’t.

I fell in love once, it was a very very long time ago.

I was about 12, in a French Class and out of the window I could see an blond Lady teaching German in another class. I was speachless. My teacher saw me standing there and said, “what’s the matter son”, I pointed and he said, “It’s OK she’s Austrian”.

I never did see her again, even though I always wanted to.

That is the thing about falling in love, it only happens once.

Falling in love is like using a laptop.

You have to keep it plugged in or the batteries run out.

I have no idea what that means, I just made it up because I am using a laptop, And if I unplug it the batteries run out in about three hours.

Arsalan, just from my knowledge of animal nature I tend to agree with you, but we humans often have fear and pressure and expectations attached (like pedigree dogs) so we get the timing wrong and/or mistake the wish for love for the bond itself. Still, I think you can love many people for many reasons and in many ways, and who’s to say it is ever a bad thing, even if it is not ‘the one’?

I’m not sure if that means anything either, except a lack of judgement. Feel bad about discussing someone else’s relationship even if one person has written about it, sorry, Craig and Nadira.

Enjoy the banter, but hear what has been going on in our little provincial EDP. They have just erased five threads, one to do with MP’s expense, another one dealing with a badly desinged roundabout and also my thread about the ex Dr. Who now playing Craig Murray.

I replaced it with another one and also have written something under the thread ‘where have they gone’.

Enjoy all below and treat yourself to a regional excursion into Archant/Arsechant land.

It is quiet amazing how popular the east German methods of the Stasi are being revered by the media of late, I mean ,who really knows whats going on with wrongly designed roundabouts if its not our authoritively driven apostles of the status quo.

MP’s expenses is merely the outcome, the symtoms are here in Norfolk, visible by the incisiveness of dedicated, job hugging Archant staff, what else will they do for the masters of the ever decreasing universe, what will they do when this big red giant turns into a little heavy nugget and swallows all? will they clap their feet in unison, whilst claiming their hands are clean?

The controll of the masses via the media has taken a new turn, the powers to be in Britain are getting cold feet, fearing the worst, all these ‘trusted’ MP’s who are going to resign and they haven’t got control over what is going to come.

But rest assured, their calming and soozing messages will find the ears of Independents like Esther Rantzen, the self proclaimed beacon of Independence.

She failed to sort out the social dis-services under noLabour and she will shine forever over Luton, a new neutron star in the making.

Its called censorship guys and the MI are in it to win it, for the big two parties, the powers to be want us to be controlled by the same old racket and they are trying to influence as many channels as it is possible.

Sod them you might say, stone them somebody else might reply, but thats how the hokey cokey rattles along these days, just make sure you can see through this control freakery

Ingo,

Don’t be too sure ‘they haven’t got control over what is going to come.’

I would think that what’s going to come has been carefully cultivated and, who knows, perhaps getting rid of the MPs to let in those with MI5 credentials has been the intention all along. Hence, the hard/deep state/permanent government/the Establishmnent can have almost total control.

Ruth, not sure at all, just hope you are sooo wrong. I have this little inzy whinzy bit of hope left that we can at least throw a big fuck off spanner into the works.

Voting for the two main parties will mean war, we know it, so lets make sure the bamboozled public gets the drift as well.

nighty night, had a great day today, planted some 20 trees in the rain with a hilarious tree warden, my way of getting some physical balance. ta da.

I hope I’m wrong but I think I’m right

Did anyone else check my Voting Reform link?

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/blog/entry/weve-made-it-to-parliament/

I’m really hoping that structural change could make a big difference. But it is just a hope, I know.

I tried to explain to him, No we don’t do that, and he was telling us the inside story of all the evil things that had been done to our Friend Jack

I said our Friend Jack has risen above all this shit, and We all Love Him To Bits

He said there is not an Evil Bone In His Body

I said We All Know That

And the fact of the Matter he has so Many Medical Problems – He is Lucky To Still Be Alive

And This Guy – Said…

And I Said I Know

But Just Let The Guy Live The Rest Of His Life in Peace

The Last Thing He Wants Is That

Otherwise The Gig Was Completely Phenomenal

No Aggro Needed

Just Love & Peace

If You Know All The Villains They Are Easily Tamed.

Its The First Rule You Need To Know If You Are Opening a New Venue

But Don’t Be Surprised if More Thab 10 times More People Turn Up Than You Were Expecting…

I Think it Maybe a Goer

Its Like a Stately Mansion

I had no idea it was so big, or the band would be so LOUD

But I Tested The Outside Environment – and it Passed The Sound Test

I thought Well Unless They Get Motorhead on Next, There is No Way It Will Be Any Louder

I’m Not Sure If this Came Our Right, but some Friends of Ours Put a Band on at a New Venue…

And Everyone and More Turned Up

And It Was FREE

And They Didn’t Have Enough Change

So – Were Rescued By another Friend of Ours

All In All I thought it was a GREAT START with MASSIVE POTENTIAL

And No I haven’t Invested Any Money In It.

Its a Fun Thing

I’m Retired

Tony

What people don’t seem to understand – is that we had never actually been through the front door before…

We didn’t realise it was a Mansion

It was just this old house on the edge of the Park where we had only been in twice over the past 15 years or so

They had a posh restraunt and expensive crap beer = but somethimes you just want a drink when you have been cycling round the park

So we of course went on a pub crawl tonight before we got there

And both my wife and I were walking past…

But our friends said

No – It’s in Here

And There Was This Tree Lined Drive Which We All Walking Down

And at The End Was This Palace

I said You Must Be Fucking Joking

But It Was All Real

The Band WERE FUCKING LOUD

Tony

Go to the source! The kernel! Go west, my son! Go west! 11/9. 9/11, 11/9, 9/11…

Tick-tock, it’s twelve o’clock

They’re coming out tonight

Tick-tock, I’m on my broom

Visiting your room

Tick-tock, it’s twelve o’clock

If ya wanna be a mouse, alright…

Les Fleurs Du Mal

Craig,

I have to thank you for introducing me to Eustace Mullins. Such a dark part of American history, which apparently ended just a day ago. I had never heard of him – and there’s probably a reason for that.

And of course, the freaks at your blog are in praise of that dead anti-Semitic racist creep. But you’ve come to expect that, haven’t you?

Is this what your life has become? Throwing white meat to the nuts to once in a while distract them from their red meat?

We are the Moles and we stay in our ho-wo-woles

Hiding away, not revealing our so-wo-woles!

The Moles, 1968

Anent (useful Scots word) men in skirts, I used to play bagpipes in competitions around the highland games – if you were good, you could make a bob or two. Sometimes I didn’t play and just showed up to watch and listen, and on those occasions I wouldn’t be kilted. Any piping friend I met would inevitably say, in a very condescending way: ‘I see your wearing slacks today’. Ever since I’ve regarded trousers as a bit effeminate.

Hey, Vronsky, that’s wonderful, you play the pipes as well as the lute! You need big lungs for the pipes, all that circular breathing! I like those C18th-style, black or white Byronic shirts that go with kilts.

Oh no Larry is back infecting other threads.

As I said before, Larry go back to the 911 thread and agree with angry some more.

Those “Jew hate” slogans of yours might work with Americans. They may shut up everytime you throw that accusation at them. But this is a UK forum.

The only one who brings up Jews and hate is you. because you are an antisemite!

You are racist against Jews.

I’m off for the weekend in a bit, but arsalan, that’s not actually true. The hate bloggers seem to have gone rather quiet (maybe they all went to a big party) but they exist and Larry was not one of them.

Suhayl, you don’t need circular breathing for the pipes, because they have the bag to act as a reservoir. However I have a piper friend who also plays recorder in a small early music group – he can circular-breathe. Says he learned from a monk. Very odd – why would a monk know? He can also drink a pint of beer in 1.5 seconds (my friend, not the monk) – don’t know if that is related.

maybe the monk just did it out of habit?

Vronsky, monks learn circular breathing in their meditation exercises and to chant their omani padre ommm as of one, reverberating in resonance.

thanks ingo, I always thought it was great that om and amen shared the same resonance. Will have to find out the Hebrew and Arabic equivalents; anyone know?

Larry,

I did not lie about nobody mentioning the Protocols of Zion. Some nutter had mentioned it – and I deleted it when I found it. What I objected to is your continual attempts to reintroduce the subject on new threads – just as you are doing now. Which is why your comment is deleted.

I do remove racist comments when I see them. But I don’t read all comments.

Thanks, ingo. Now that you’ve explained I think I remember something about that.

Technicolour,

Amen is Amen in Arabic too. Pronounced ‘Ameyn’ and it’s said at the end of every prayer. Muslim equivalents of ‘Om-Padme-Om’ might be ‘Allah-Hu’ or ‘Ya Ali’.

Vronsky,

Ah right, thanks, of course, the bag is the reservoir. That’s magical. Of course, some Christian monks do a lot of Gregorian chanting, so breathing is part of that and of prayer and contemplation and recorder-playing, as you say, is a great staple of Early Music consorts.

Re. beer: Was the monk at Buckfast Abbey, by any chance…(!)

Thanks Suhayl; am looking forward v much to your book, by the way. Just looked on wiki and amen is the same in hebrew too, and comes from the hebrew verb ‘aman’, apparently.

“America’s Secret Afghan Prisons”: Investigation Unearths New US Torture Site, Abuse Allegations in Afghanistan

“A new investigation by journalist Anand Gopal reveals harrowing details about US secret prisons in Afghanistan, under both the Bush and Obama administrations. Gopal interviewed Afghans who were detained and abused at several disclosed and undisclosed sites at US and Afghan military bases across the country. He also reveals the existence of another secret prison on Bagram Air Base that even the Red Cross does not have access to. It is dubbed the Black Jail and is reportedly run by US Special Forces.”

http://tinyurl.com/yktm2n8

bastards

Dreoilin, yes, that’s scary. Interesting, and makes one very angry, doesn’t it. Good on Mr Gopal.

Btw, another journalist, Lila Rajiva, who in fact is a right-wing libertarian (a genuine one), wrote a book on ‘Black Sites/ Rendition’ (shamefully, as I reviewed it for the ‘Asians in the Media’ website, the title has slipped my mind right now, but it’s on the web) several years ago and found herself almost completely shut-out – re. even reviews, etc. – by the MSM in the USA and UK. It was an explosive and detailed account and it was written and published before the official ‘acceptance’ (such as it was) that stuff like this had gone one and before most of the other (excellent) books on the subject. British journalists, Andy Something wrote one, and Stephen Grey. My mind is fading, clearly, I can’t seem to recall names, even of stuff I’ve reviewed. Argh!

Technicolour, I do hope you enjoy the book. If it’s ‘Joseph’s Box’ you’re meaning, it’s densely-textured and in some respects is playful (with the reader) and, if I may suggest, may go well with some almonds Turkish coffee. But I have no doubt that it also would go with the right kind of fish, suitably-prepared…

dreoilin

http://tinyurl.com/ybgtbhk

Well done. It is quite something to be the subject of BBC 4 radio play, and your story and example of personal integrity and courage will reach more people.

Tech

I’m going to have to disagree with you because I hate seen nothing but hate in Larry’s posts.

Both Larry and Angry seem to see Antisemitism everywhere they look. And both of them seem to introduce it in to everythread.

They have turned the veil of antisemitism which Israel, America and all other forces of evil use to end all discussion against them in to a filthy rag by over use.

So I call them Haters of Jews, because they are calling on right thinking people to hate Jews by mixing Hatrid of Zionism with hatrid of Jews.

It isn’t so strange. Hating Jews and Loving Zionism has always gone hand in hand. The racist nations supported the creation of Israel to get rid of their Jewish citizens, because they hated Jews. Now Nick Griffen leader of the Nazi BNP visits Israel to collect funding, because he wants all Jews out of the UK, While the Zionists want them all in Israel. So Both the Nazi and the Zionists want the same thing.

The evengelicals Zionist Christians in America want all Jews in Israel because they hate Jews! Ask them what will happen if all Jews go to Israel and they will tell you there will be a war, and all Jews will convert to Christianity or will be killed.

So Zionist Christians want no more Jews, because they hate Jews.

Sorry first senence is meant to read “I haven’t seen nothing but hate from larry and angry”

Arsalan, thanks for the reply. But (before I go):

“Both Larry and Angry seem to see Antisemitism everywhere they look”.

When Craig went away you didn’t have to look very far – jaded/steelback/apostate – for the most virulent self-congratulatory race hate it’s been my misfortune to read. You still don’t have to look far. They are still at it on the 9/11 thread.

I take your point about the curious permutations of anti-semitism. I still think you are missing the point that anti-Zionism is for many people simply a cover for anti-semitism, and a convenient way of attacking Jewish people with no comeback. I say this because a) most people who use the word have no idea of what ‘Zionism’ means b) most people who use it now do so in the conspiracy context of ‘the Jews are ruling the world’; and c) most people who use the phrase offer no positive solutions or proposals or an awareness of the fact that Israel is a legal state, even though its government, like many governments, is now behaving, and has frequently behaved, with murderous illegality.

I’ve decided, as most people have here, to put such posts in the ‘ignore’ category. Given the vicious and vile language which ensues when these people are confronted, I think that’s the sensible option. But I think it’s a shame.

I sympathise with Craig. These posters are on other blogs as well, like Oliver Kamm’s, using exactly the same language there, but pretending, successfully, to be of the left.

I firmly believe that somewhere in their brains and hearts must be a modicum of reason and decency, which is why I admire Clark’s attempts to engage with them. But.

By the way, I had to leave an earlier thread where I think you said something like “no-one can live in Israel and be decent”, though I think you did make an exception for children. Did you mean that? And would it be fair to say the same about the UK now, I wonder? Or Burma? Or Russia, since Chechnya?

I like you from your posts Arsalan: you are far more engaged and interesting than either Larry or angrysoba (sadly, since I had hopes of the latter). However, I still sympathise with their cries of outrage at statements like “As an elite, the Jews have wielded power vastly disproportionate to their numbers so that anti-Jewish attitudes and behaviour are odds-on phenomena when Jewish power conflicts with the interests of the vast majority” because – guess what – it sounds just like Nazi ‘philosophy’.

And of course you could argue the same about any minority group, including Muslims, and blame the resulting crimes of violence and hatred on the victims, if you were a nasty piece of work, and they do.

Tech, can you please tell me the tread and time of that post because I don’t remember saying that. That isn’t the way I write. I don’t even know what odds-on Phenomena means, so I will be very surprised if you used that word.

I wasn’t referring to the word Anti-Zionism. I was referring to its meaning.

So when people attack Israel, or attack the idea that people can go to a country, kick out the population and claim the country as there own they are not attacking Jews, they are attacking Racism.

Because that is what Zionism is, it is racism.

I repeat what I said about Israel and people who have chosen to settle their. They are thieves, racists and criminals.

Because they are accepting stolen goods. The brown people who owned the houses and lands which they are moving in to, still have the deeds and the keys to the doors. The Brown people who own the property have not been paid for it, so when it is taken it is stolen.

So they can claim to be good if they want, but I call them racist thieving bastards.

You can not compare attacks on settlers in with attacks on British or others.

With Israel we are not talking about citizens of a nation that does evil, we are talking about invaders, who have slaughtered people to take their land and property.

I own the house where I live because my dad worked hard to pay for it. They own the houses where they live because they killed the people who lived their first.

Do you understand the difference?

They choose to be part of the genocide and ethnic cleansing by moving there.

And tech I repeat, I blame Angry, Larry and Zionists like them for people using Anti Zionism as a cover for antisemitism. These AngryLarry and their likes have removed any negative connotations to the word Antisemitism by over use. They seem to scream it every time someone says something they disagree with.

Because Zionist shout anti Semitism every time they disagree with someone. people seem to think Antisemitism means disagreeing with a Zionist.

Tech sorry.

I reread your post and it is clear now that you were refering to what someone else wrote.

You were not accusing me of writing that.

Sorry, I need more sleep and les sinternet.

Arsalan; again I appreciate your reply. But you know and I know that history depends on how far back you want to go. For example, according to the wiki history of Israel:

“In 628/9, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius conducted a massacre and expulsion of the Jews, at which point the Jewish population probably reached its lowest point”.

People have been killed over and on that region for centuries. Where does that leave us?

I assume you are talking about the settlers on illegal territories when you say they are all racist criminals now. Because if I were Jewish and moved to Tel Aviv, I would not be killing anyone. I might, in your eyes, have no right to be there, but in the eyes of international law, I would. If I had family and ancestors there, and the climate of fear in the UK (which, as you say, is promoted by the far right) continued, I might well want to move there. It would be a human desire for safety, not a political decision.

But I don’t at all disregard what you say. Friends of mine have just got back from the convoy to Gaza. I just don’t see your solution. The majority of Israelis do not support their government, by the way.

If you haven’t noticed that jaded/apostate/steelback/various other aliases are, as angrysoba pointed out, ‘raving anti-semites’ then I’m pleased for you. Reading their posts is no fun. The quote I posted was not from you, of course, it was one of apostate’s more thoughtful contributions. I used it to show that the word ‘Zionism’ easily slips into the word’ Jew’; since it is being used by those people as an attack on Jewish people, as it does here.

NB Actually, I can’t see these minority bully boys ever generating such a fear here that Jewish people would emigrate as a result. It’s easy to forget in the heat of this blog what a tiny number of people they represent. I can see people wanting to leave England full stop, mind you; the weather, my dear! And the prices!

Possibly time for Bush, Cheney et al. to throw away their passports:

http://www.redress.cc/global/redress20100206

Btw, people, I’m doing a free event in London next Wednesday evening, 10th Feb., along with Ziauddin Sardar – if anyone’s interested in coming, please feel free to e-mail me through my website: http://www.suhaylsaadi.com

The contact e-mail address, which is at the bottom of the Home page, is: info@suhaylsaadi.com

On another note, as you may have noticed, I think it prudent to deal with the outright nutters (as opposed to the mildly insane like me) who post here – or anywhere – in the appropriate semiotic manner. The time? 5050. The realm? Absurdistan!

PS. That’s… semiotic, not ‘Semitic’ (!)

Being a “tunes” person myself, I can’t let the pipes sub-thread go without saying “Gordon Duncan – the Circular Breath”, wherein he does mindboggling things with a chanter. Great fun, and some fantastic tunes.

“You married a lap dancer,” so what! I was engaged to one many years ago. I met her in a club in Sembawang village, a Naval port near Singapore.

She was fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. She was loyal and without fail fetched me passion fruits every day. She had a huge breadth of understanding of the human condition and her talents ensured her survival. Like Nadira she was beautiful and captivating.

My ship sailed and we lost contact. Several months later I received back the ring I gave her and she thanked me for such a wonderful and enlightening time.

what a tune. I can feel the fresh wind blowing from the isles.

Tech

“you know and I know that history depends on how”

When I said criminals and thieves I wasn’t talking about history. I was talking about the present.

I am talking about now, and when referring to criminals I was referring to the people who committed the crimes. Not people who are the descendants of criminals and not people who may share the same race or religion as a criminal.

Israel was established within this present life time. The people who did the crimes are still alive and are still treated as heroes. So everything I said is about the present and nothing I said is about history.

It is the Zionists who use history to justify or belittle their present crimes. And the Antisemites do the something. So the Zionists might use the example of what Heraculus did to justify what they do to the brown people who live on land they want. Even though the Brown people who have been expelled and massacred from the lands that the Zionists stole are the true descendant’s of the Children of Israel while the white Zionists are Europeans who converted to Judaism(I will tell you why I use these words at the end). At the same time Antisemites might use the Jewish massacre of Christians there that took place just after the Persians conquered it and just before Heraculus reconquered it.

“People have been killed over and on that region for centuries. Where does that leave us? ”

People have always killed people. But crimes are still crimes and criminals are still criminals. Zionism is colonialism. It is what happened in America when the natives were killed so Europeans can steal the land, it is what happened in Australia and NEw Zealand. The difference with what is happening in Palestine is, the owners are still alive and so are the thieves. And the thieves scream antisemitism every time any one criticizes what they do, or refuse to recognise their so called historic justification, which is total bollocks anyway.

Just think about it, think about your house. What do you think would happen if a druid came to the UK from Australia and kicked you out of your house without paying for it, with the excuse that druids have lived in the UK before Christians? And when you complained they accused you of being anti druid?

Can you see why the Historic justification of Zionism is complete bollocks?

Just think about it, yesterday the mayor of Jerusalem marked 200 more Palestinian homes in Jerusalem for demolition so Jews from all over the world can move in to them.

Even though the demolition hasn’t taken place yet, is it already history? Doe it become history as they are destroyed or the day after destruction? Or when New houses for Jews are built on them?

” assume you are talking about the settlers on illegal territories”

No, I call each and every piece of it illegal territory. There was a time when Tel Aviv was called Jafa. The people who owned the house that you would move in to still have the deeds to the land and the Keys to the door.

If it would be ok for you to take their house with some kind of historic justification, please give me your UK address so I can pass it on to someone who has recently become a druid so he can take the house that you live in now with the same justification.

“I would not be killing anyone.”

You will be killing people, or you will be rotting in prison. Israel has full military conscription for all Jews, both male and female.

Everyone who moves there knows this, so they move their accepting that they will kill children just as they move their knowing that they will live in a stolen house whose rightful owner still has the keys and the deeds.

International laws are just a few words written by colonialist nations. These laws are ignored by the very nations who writ them when ever it suits their purpose. You might say pre 67 is recognised by the UN, but so is the right of the brown people who were kicked out to return. Do you see a contradiction there? Every City, town and village in Israel is built on an Arab city town and village that was destroyed. The people who are kicked out number more than the Jews who live their now. So if international law is the criterion, Israel still stop existing.

I rely find it hard to understand why you can’t see the racism inherant within Zionism. To go back to your example. If you converted to Judaism and moved there you will be given a house(They call it the right of return, even though you have never ever been their to return). But the Arab family who were kicked out of that same house have no right to return there.

The same thing apply to your family ancesters issue. The people being kicked out are the ones with the family and ancestry there, not someone from the UK, whose entire family and ancestry are from the UK.

Now getting back to what I said about Brown and White people.

Why did I use those words instead of Jews and Arabs like everyone else?

Because the real issue why Israel was created was the belief that Whites, including Jewish whites are superior to browns including Christian Arabs.

That was Why the writers of international laws as you might call them, or racist imperialists as I prefer to call them created Israel on a land which already had a population.

Winston Churchil:

I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.

To the Palestine Royal Commission (1937)

Notice it wasn’t about historical rights(if anything it was negating historical rights), it wasn’t about safety and security(If anything it was saying browns have no right to safety and security).

It was all about one thing, and that is whites are Superior to non-whites. And that is why Israel was made. And that is what Zionism means. Does it really matter that the Zionists have replaced white with Jew, and Brown with Arab?

Does that really make a difference?

In regards to Jadad . I’ll take any support where it is given. And the Zionists have no right to complain because they have have now allied themselves with Nazis like the BNP. Israel has even forgot about its holocaust denial laws by inviting BNP leader and famous holocaust denier Nick Griffin to go there and raise funds.

The worst of what Jaded has said has not come close to what the Zionists have said. If you don’t believe me, take Larry and angrys posts where they mention Muslims and Arab, replace the words with Jew and then compare them to what Jaded has said.

Let us not forget ever the atrocities at Chatilla and Sabra. Fisk described the carnage as, “women lying in houses with their skirts torn torn up to their waists and their legs wide apart, children with their throats cut, rows of young men shot in the back after being lined up at an execution wall. There were babies – blackened babies babies because they had been slaughtered more than 24-hours earlier and their small bodies were already in a state of decomposition – tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded US army ration tins, Israeli army equipment and empty bottles of whiskey.

“On the other side of the main road, up a track through the debris, we found the bodies of five women and several children. The women were middle-aged and their corpses lay draped over a pile of rubble. One lay on her back, her dress torn open and the head of a little girl emerging from behind her. The girl had short dark curly hair, her eyes were staring at us and there was a frown on her face. She was dead.

Another child lay on the roadway like a discarded doll, her white dress stained with mud and dust. She could have been no more than three years old. The back of her head had been blown away by a bullet fired into her brain. One of the women also held a tiny baby to her body. The bullet that had passed into her breast had killed the baby too. Someone had slit open the woman’s stomach, cutting sideways and then upwards, perhaps trying to kill her unborn child. Her eyes were wide open, her dark face frozen in horror.”

The Zionists Haganah had not only taken part in the killings, they had certainly sent militia into the camp. They had trained them, given them uniforms, handed them US army rations and Israeli medical equipment. Then they had watched the murderers in the camps, they had given them military assistance – the Israeli airforce had dropped flares to help the men who were murdering the inhabitants of Sabra and Chatila – and they had established military liason with the murderers in the camps.

“take Larry and angrys posts where they mention Muslims and Arab, replace the words with Jew and then compare them to what Jaded has said”

Indeed, and with inadvertent and grotesque irony they display the very “anti-semitism” of which they are so quick to accuse others, for a much higher proportion of Muslims are semites than are Jews.

Mark Golding

It is very important for us to remember, that what you listed isn’t history. The people who did it are in Israel.

They are not hunted as terrorists, instead they live like Heroes.

Those Palestinians who went to lebanon thought they were safe by allowing the Zionists to keep the homes and farms they had stolen.

But they were wrong.

The Zionists came for them in Israel as the Zionists have come for the Palestinians who escaped to Iraq.

Chatilla and Sabra has repeated itself in Iraq, but the Zionists learnt from what happened before so have hidden the Iraq repeat from the media.

There is only one way to stop this from happening again. And that is if Muslim nations reunite in to a single state with a single army. That is the only way there would be piece because that is the only way we can defend ourselves.

The kings of the gulf should kiss the feet of the Palestinians instead of using them to clean the shit from their toilets. Because if the Palestinians ever stop fighting, the Zionists will invade their oil fields next with the same excuse they used to invade pre 67.

“They are not hunted as terrorists”

I recall that Sharon was once the subject of war crimes charges in Sweden for these incidents. Key witnesses were murdered before the trial and the case collapsed.

Thank you Mark for reminding us of theses atrocities. This is the the most dangerous nation on earth. This is the country that has nuclear missiles trained on the UK. That the major political parties all have “Friends of Israel” groups is beyond belief.

And then after that the Zionist killers cried a few crocodile tears for the people they murdered and raped. They elected the man who they themselves said was responsible as their priminister.

As I said, all Zionists are killers, murderers and warcriminals.

There is no such thing as a nice Zionist because their is no such thing as a nice racist.

There is no way of changing Israel in to a peaceful non-racist country.

It has to be reintergrated in what it was divided from. The carve up that toop place after ww1 has to be reversed and the Khilafah has to be reformed.

“This is the country that has nuclear missiles trained on the UK.”

http://tinyurl.com/yjasffh

Be Afraid, Very Afraid.

Lucky (?) my lunch date turned into dinner. Arsalan, OK, so, where does that leave us? With a situation which makes no sense, again, yippee. My heart cringes for people of all shades involved.

Still, I am not persuaded by the solution of electing even more ruthless leaders, with a concomitant increase in hatred and hysteria. I know it sounds old-fashioned.

But thanks for that: I learnt from it. I can’t find any reference to Mr Griffin visiting Israel to fundraise, btw, though he did, of course, go to Libya.

Be afraid that Israel will nuke the UK? I’m sorry?

I’m off to dinner.

Yes I remember his visit to Libya, he went there to get some money but came back with Gadafis Silly green Books.

At that time he wanted to get Muslim help against Jews. and Now he is trying to get Jewish help against Muslims.

“Be afraid that Israel will nuke the UK? I’m sorry? I’m off to dinner”.

Provided we don’t talk about enforcing UN Resolutions or International Law we should be OK. Bon appetit.

I believe it is time not to be afraid.

I think fear is their best weapon.

Israel uses fear to get its own way. Whether they scare palestinians in to leaving by killing their babies. Or whether scare jurnalists with accusations of antisemitism in to saying whatever Israel wants them to say.

We need to stop fearing and start acting.

Muslims need to reunite in to their own united states or EU, the Khilafah.

Once Muslims have that powerful state, then we can deal with Israel in the only way it is possible to deal with Israel. And after that happens, Muslims Jews and Christians will live in peace.

Just as they did after the Crusaders were kicked out.

Remember Rachel Corrie PBUH

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK8Z3i3aTq4 )

http://tinyurl.com/Rachel-Corrie-RIP

@Arsalan. Thank you for articulating a rationale for your opposition to Israel – that clarified your stance much better. The stuff you wrote before that sounded just like bilious racial hatred, so I’m glad you’ve eased off on the rhetoric.

“Once Muslims have that powerful state, then we can deal with Israel in the only way it is possible to deal with Israel.”

…politically, I hope. You wouldn’t be advocating ethnic cleansing, would you? Because if so, you’re every bit as bad as those you condemn, just with a different ideology.

MJ

In my link above…

Professor Martin Van Crevel said “We possess several hundred atomic warheads”…Why that many?.

George, Creveld has also said:

“We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen, before Israel goes under”.

That’s why so many.

MJ, you said:

“That the major political parties all have “Friends of Israel” groups is beyond belief.”

On the “Blair getting away with murder” thread at February 4, 2010 11:03 PM, Mark Golding posted:

“George Galloway has just said, “Iraq was invaded because it did NOT have WMD; North Korea will NOT be invaded because it HAS weapons of mass destruction.”

Could this help explain why the UK government has so many “Friends of Israel”?

Jesus (Issa, Yeshua) wept. He’s still weeping.

“Could this help explain why the UK government has so many “Friends of Israel”?”

You may be onto something there Clark. To quote from Yes Minister: “When you’ve got them by the balls, hearts and minds will surely follow”.

Russia still has plenty of nukes, but there’s not so much deference in that direction.

“Jesus (Issa, Yeshua) wept”

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28151

Brilliant link, Richard. Thanks for that. Scathingly humorous and very moving, too.

“Russia still has plenty of nukes, but there’s not so much deference in that direction.”

http://tinyurl.com/ykga3wn

“Scathingly humorous and very moving, too.”

I look at the date on it occasionally, and think – yes, it’s really true, the whole damn _world_ knew better than the Powers That Be, even so quickly.

It’s a bit more complex than that. You forgot about the smallprint:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_verses_in_the_bible_advocate_killing_non_believers

Logos,

I think God covers that in his paragraph about Leviticus. None of that stuff was on the stone tablets. I think the lawyers had got involved by then.

Ingo

You can’t trust anyone…

http://tinyurl.com/yekndbn

“I think the lawyers had got involved by then.”

heh.

I’d like to see a follow-up interview, to discuss the way “his” ideas developed between the various old-testament books and the Quran. A systematic cull of lawyers might be one explanation.

Suhayl,

I think the name you was grasping for was

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/

author of The Guantanamo Files

“None of that stuff was on the stone tablets”.

He shoots, he scores.

Steve,

You worry about my sanity.

I wouldn’t bother worrying about me.

Sure, at times the words I write on the internet may give you the impression that I am completely insane.

But they are just words.

In the real world, I have a Wife and Kids I Love To Bits, and Loads of Friends and a really Interesting and Diverse Social Life

And I still Travel The World with My Wife and Get To Places That Even I didn’t Know Still Exist.

Can you understand what it is like, when you are in the depths of rural India, and you are the First White Man and My Wife is The First White Woman, that over 99% of the Festival of over 10,000 People have ever seen

And the People cover us with Garlands of Flowers and Pass Us Their Babies To Bless.

I mean, you may think I am making up all of this stuff I write, and you simply cannot believe, that I get out of my pit and travel around the World

And You May Think I am Insane

But I Cope with My Insanity, without harming or threatening any other person in this World

And I go to places with my wife, that others would not dare go.

She is a Heart of Gold, and Her Love Shines Through

Whilst it is entirely possible that we might end up in the wrong place at the wrong time – and we both get tortured to death

We have already lived such fascinating interesting lives, that I reckon we will be able to cope with pain and death too.

Sure, we don’t want to experience it, but everyone who survives gets old, and their body decays, and sometimes the decay comes with enormous pain, such that death is a release…

And I do not apologise for shaking the hand of a musician tonight I first saw 38 years ago.

I told him you are one of my all time heros, and its fantastic , you are still doing it now, and I hope you will still be doing it in 20 years time when you will be over 90 years old.

So Steve, I mean in the nicest possible way

FUCK OFF

She Looked like a Teenage Boy’s Wet Dream, Beautiful Face, Slim Fit Figure, Nice Boobs, and Incredibly Long Blonde Hair…

So when she went outside for a smoke, I tried to engage in conversation with her, and got virtually no response whatsoever.

So I thought beautiful looking Angel with no personality whatsoever

But I was wrong

She followed me back in, and took her hand, and took her away from me

And I could then see Two Beautiful Angels Dancing Together

She eventually let My Wife come Back To Me

The Music Was Exceptionally Good

And so after the gig tonight I do an Internet Search – and Yes there were various Cameras there – and I know that I was right at the Front of The Stage When The Vestal Virgins Came on, but I didn’t realise that anyone had actually included me

I look more or less the same now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sDUjOKi69U

Tony

Almost The Same Birthday as Me.

Personally I Reckon Dave Brock Did The Right Thing Telling Him To Fuck Off

Dave Brock Has a Better Voice and Can Also Play Guitar – And I went To His Last Wedding

But even so

Mr Nik Turner Can Play Sax

And seems to be Surrounded By a Rather Large Number of Beautiful Girls

And He’s Only 69

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nik_Turner

Tony

I know this might seem harsh, but the Financial Director Has Done Absolutely NOTHING for the company, since he went to University

He Has Put Absolutely No Money Into It Whatsover – Ir Any Other Contribution

It is My Son’s Company

He Has Done ALL The Work

It Was Him – And He’s a Techie – Not a Smooth Talking Marketing Bloke

Who is Planning a Massive Expansion of His Company

And Realises

That it Must Be Completely LEGAL

Because The LAW is All We Have To Protect Us

Its about Justice and Fairness

I try and explain this to Americans nut all they seem to Understand is That The Who are playing at the Superbowl

And I Really Didn’t Like Rugby When I Was a Kid

But I got into the Second Team at Football

Oh The Mud

Tony

“Sure, at times the words I write on the internet may give you the impression that I am completely insane.

But they are just words.”

Yes, but that’s all we’ve got here, is words. That’s what people are, in this medium; what they say.

And so she phones him up from about 70 miles away at 3:00 am

And I say – well go and sort her out – and her friends

You are completely sober.

He says I know I am, but they’ve phoned The RAC

I say its no big deal

Its not that Cold Tonight

And They can all Cuddle Up Together To Keep Warm Tonight – Until The RAC turn up – and hopefully Fix It

They Will Survive

But The Contingency – Is There

Tony

Lagos

What I am calling for is the recapture.

And homes going back to the people who own them.

The reason why what I wrote may have sounded like racial hatred to you is that is what you have been programed to think.

Israel is what I hate and I have made that clear. Israel is not a race or a religion. It is just a country created by ethnic cleanings.

Zionism is ethnic cleanings, people who call for Zionism are people who call for ethnic cleansing. And Israel was created and is being maintained through Ethnic cleansing.

But the Zionists play with words and reverse their meanings.

Let me be clear on this. Zionism is racism. Israel is a racist apatite state. It was created as such. The acts of Ethnic cleansing that take place in Israel are not abhorrent mistakes. They are part and parcel of the very nature of Israel and it is impossible for Israel to have come to being or continue without such ethnic cleansing.

For Israel to be created as a nation of Jews, 80% of the Non-Jews who lived their had to be expelled of exterminated. They had to do this to form a Jewish majority, and every so often they have to repeat massacres and expulsions to maintain a Jewish majority.

And Lagos, I do not think I am anything like a Zionist if I call for lands and houses to be returned to the people who own them. If the thieves decide to pay for the stolen property and the owners decide to sell, that is their business. But owners don’t become thieves if the take back what was stolen.

I do not believe ethnic cleansing will take place after the destruction of Israel. Because it did not take place after Saladin recaptured Palestine from the Crusaders. Muslims are better than that.

Homes that were not paid for may be returned to the families who still have the deeds to the land, but I do not call that ethinic cleansing.

Do you?

I just watched deer hunter, it was rubbish. Not many deers got shot. And it didn’t show people cooking the meat and eating them.

It just showed people playing Russian rullet.

Mel Gibson Blew Me Away With His New Film Edge of Darkness

I Only went To See It, Because They Wouldn’t Even Let Him Promote It or Even Speak About It

I Have got a Daughter Too

Go and See The Film

It is Brilliant at Several Different Levels

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226273/

And Yes She Does Too

Tony

All we can do as Parents is To Try and Give Our Children All our Love and Encouragement, and The Confidence, That Our Home is Always Welcome To All Their Friends Too.

And So With This

They Suddenly Realise

That They Can FLY

And Achieve ANYTHING They want to and sometimes they crash and don’t get burned cos they walk away from the wreckage

And do it all again except even MORE

I reckon there is a Fair Chance That We Have All Only Got One Life

So Fucking Go For It

There is No Point Waiting For The Starting Gun

Tony

And so all the kids got home, safe and warm, and I was so pleased to see them.

But, later today they are all going their seperate ways – back to Universities all over The UK

I said – well you can try and phone him in the morning – he is an Auto-Electrician – but it is exceedingly difficult to fix intermittent Electrical Faults – And He is a Jehovar’s Witness – and I’m not sure if They Do Sundays

Apparently The RAC were left in Peace – and They Never Even Phoned Them

Tony

Possibly relevant book review here: tinyurl.com/bible

Containing this paragraph…

“It is here in this world without a personal god who can be shared that we find ourselves trapped in the nature of shared opinion. Each of is liable to be captured and brain-washed in mass hysteria by mobs enthused with religious doctrines, mobs that relieve us of the need to reflect on any question – political, social, or personal. As members of congregations and audiences we happily give up our freedom of thought for the comfort of conformity, becoming puppets controlled by ventriloquists.”

…and this…

“Any book that has to be interpreted must be avoided.”

Arsalan: “I do not think I am anything like a Zionist if I call for lands and houses to be returned to the people who own them.”

No, but you are if you advocate or excuse lethal violence against a pre-defined group to achieve your goals. You haven’t addressed that issue here, but it seems to be what your earlier polemics were encouraging.

I’d like to be reassured that you don’t cheer when a bomb goes off in an Israeli market, killing and wounding civilians. Hopefully you view the agony and distress caused with a heavy heart and feel aggrieved. Perhaps you already have some insight into how such events arelinked to their defensive nationalist mindset. Because the Israeli aggressors are also thinking that the Palestinian terrorists and their supporters are irredeemably evil and twisted, and conclude that they ought to be violently suppressed and weakened. (Zionism + fortress mentality = dangerously aggressive state.)

The crucial element that perpetrators worldwide and their supporters have in common is ‘Them & Us’ thinking: identify good and wholesome characteristics with your own group and smear the opposition with an evil essence; then you can legitimise any atrocity that would infuriate you if committed against your own group. The stereotype of the evil ‘Other’ hides all the good and wholesome people on the other side who you impugn and seek to destroy.

It’s a multi-purpose rationale, used by all sides to justify their aggression. Just plug in a different set of values and the turret turns wherever you want. Be it Apartheid or the ANC, Israelis or Hamas/PLO, the IRA or Loyalists, LRU, Zapatistas, Judean People’s Front, whatever. That kind of divisive moral mindset has been used to justify indiscriminate killings the world over. The US has refined its persuasive techniques and are mass-marketing fear of the ‘bogeymen’ to their population.

My worry is that I detect similar logic in some of the ant–Zionist messages here, and even though I agree with the moral foundation, I dig in the heels when I see what it leads to. The anti-thievery explanation is unobjectionable; but the virulent anti-Israeli rhetoric built around it is not.

As a child I was also taught to despise a particular group for racial/religious/historical-landgrabbing reasons, with a clear moral rationale, and was even well trained in armed conflict. I transcended that mindset. I’ve also witnessed some developments that are quite remarkable, where fear, anger and hostility have been replaced by positive attitudes that improved the lives of all those involved. I gave up a sizeable estate and homestead to the ‘other side’ without complaint or compensation, but not because of some faux ‘birthright’ philosophy. Once the barrier was down it was no longer a transfer from one side to another. That’s the key.

I’d far rather you hate the barrier than the opposition. Because if you hate the opposition, you’re strengthening the barrier, and deliberately perpetuating the conflict.

Incidentally, I detect an undercurrent of personal greed in any argument based on property, inheritance and birthright – i.e. more acquisitions (or ‘recapture’) for self and kin folk; this can be philosophically shredded if claimed as an absolute. Freedom, autonomy and the right to self-determination are much more noble causes.

PS. A pertinent quote, indeed, Vronsky. I think the Pythons got it on the nail. (Maybe we should all follow them.)

According to the Qur’an there were two occasions when the Jews were expelled from Palestine. The first is understood to be the Captivity, after which they came back to Palestine speaking Aramaic from Iraq. The second was at the hands of the Roman Empire. At this time their custodianship of the religion of Islam and their line of pious prophets such as David and Zachariah was terminated.

In my book, and for want of a better word, zionism, small z, describes any present or historical force that has wished to restore the position of the Jews back to its pre-AD 70′s condition. This is easy to achieve because the line of prophets and the tradition of Islam continues with Muhammad pbuh. Re-connection is free and previous errors totally forgiven. Angels assisting them from over their heads and under their feet.

Any attempts outside of that route, to restore their earlier respect and property is zionism. It is a title that has been taken over in recent times by people I am not in a position to judge as an Englishman. It seems to me that there has been a long history of barbarism from my own country to match any of the atrocities of the new Zionists who have captured back control of Palestine.

But if these gonks who have wormed their way into power and influence, believe that they have restored their original position of respect, like the honour with which Muslims revere their prophets, Yahya, ( John the Baptist ), Elijah etc.etc., they are well mistaken. It would be so much better if the gonks of the US and our own gonks,i.e. British politicians, were not taken in by them.

Apologies to Craig for being so far off the original thread. I am looking forward to hearing the BBC production. I must confess to being very lazy about reading and I have not read Murder in Samarkand. One day God willing.

My view is that the yearning for absolute solutions and ‘replays’ of historical situations is futile and may actually be counter-productive. There needs to be a political, not a theological, solution to Palestine, in which all sides will need to negotiate and compromise.

I would like that every displaced Palestinian family got back their house, or else was compensated appropriately.

I understand – and often share – the rage against power.

Yes, ‘my’ ideal, for what it’s worth, would be a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, probably secular, certainly tolerant (tolernat, in its active sense) state in that area. But others will have other ideas.

There are many situations (in living memory) of illegal dispossession in the world – Hindu Bengalis in East Pakistan in 1971; Muslim Biharis in Bangladesh in the 1970s; Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs post-1947 in India/ Pakistan; Tatars in Crimea; Bosniaks in Bosnia; Serbs in Croatia. The list, sadly, is endless. History lies heavily on the shoulders of the dispossessed.

The Palestine issue has been used also by leaders in Muslim countries to distract their people from injustices they themselves commit on a daily basis. This does not take away from the issue, but I think that sometimes one needs to turn the lens on oneself, on one’s own society.

The central problem to-date in relation to the Levant is that Israel has not been willing to cooperate in any real sense with seeking a final settlement; any ‘concessions’ have been duplicitous and designed to hoodwink, while they continue rapacious colonisation. The power imbalance is key here, and in this the USA, with its own internal dynamics of power, bears prime and ongoing responsibility.

I agree entirely wrt avoiding demonisation of ‘the Other’.

.

Richard,

“Yes, but that’s all we’ve got here, is words.”

True but,

Words not only convey meaning, words convey thoughts – you really are looking inside a person’s brain. Unless of course the mind has separated from the thoughts – then there is a problem.

I don’t think it’s Tony_opmoc’s words that are the primary source of his image problem; I think it’s his rather enthusiastic use of the Return / Enter and Shift keys…

Iran – Strike inexorably moves closer – We may have to march and sit this time!

http://tinyurl.com/Iran-strike

AP

“ran said Saturday it arrested seven people, including two Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives, who planned to stoke unrest and violence on a march scheduled for February 11.

The rally on Thursday will commemorate the 31st victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Intelligence forces, according to Borna News Agency, arrested the men who had plans to leave the country for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and then head to the United States.

According to the report, some of those arrested work for the US-backed Radio Farda, a Persian language station based in Prague and Washington.”

“I don’t think it’s Tony_opmoc’s words that are the primary source of his image problem; I think it’s his rather enthusiastic use of the Return / Enter and Shift keys…”

Personally, I Find the Stylistic Issues to be a Minor Consideration.

Compared with My Inability To Connect The Words To Anything Except Perhaps Some Internal Stream Of Consciousness Monologue.

I Can Make Out Each Word, I just Can’t Make Any Connection Between The Sentences And The Price of Fish.

Lithium.

That is a worrying link indeed Mark Golding, it puts Prof. Crevelds musings into a frame,i.e. ‘don’t you dare interfere, we have the means…’

Four days to get into the Gulf of persia? make that three in my book.

Unless there are manouvres planned including these missile ships, this news is worrying, because it could mean a unilateral attack, which is then supported by the western allies, text book stuff, totally outside the UN and Ban KI MOON.

I wonder hwat they are saying to Israels latest, highly worrying move?

Any thoughts on this:

http://www.clickliverpool.com/news/local-news/127906-ricky-tomlinson-challenges-luciana-berger-for-key-liverpool-wavertree-seat.html

Left winger vs Nulab good-looker in ‘safe’ Liverpool seat. Whom do you support? Let me guess: for the majority of readers, it won’t be the Nulab candidate, looks notwithstanding..

Richard Robinson: for goodness sake don’t mention fish. You’ll set Arsalan off as well.

“Whatever you do, don’t mention the fish. Oops !”

I don’t see Arsalan’s comments in the same light, they give much more the impression of being part of a conversation.

But, it’s a delicate balance, between pursuing somebody else’s comments and sticking to other other peoples’ idea of ‘the topic’; I’m not sure I have it right here, yet.

MJ

What do you have against Fish?

good luck to Ricky Tomlinson, he would make a great candidate, I’d love to see him in Parliament.

Arsalan, I love fish, although I have no been brought up on fish and chips.

I love fish so much, I would agree to a ten year moratorium on stopping all fishing in the North sea, a breeding sea for many speacies due to its shallow depth.

The North sea has been emtpied by successive generations and fish needs poetic support( Suhayl?, indeed such a ban on all fishing would revitalise this important source of protein.

We must insure Arsalan has something to eat in future, what would he chow otherwise?

I am willing to give up Fish for ten years so our kids can have the odd expensive nibble in future.

off course I’ve fallen into the thread diversion trap and its about time someone posts a link to Nadiras Stage review article….(:-)

“What do you have against Fish?”

Nothing whatsoever Arsalan (though if you eat too much fish these days you put yourself at risk of mercury poisoning).

Mj

That goes for everything these days. If your breath too much, you are at risk of poisoning yourself with the crap that they put in the air.

Wildfish is just safer than other foods, even with the added mercury.

Suhayl: There needs to be a political, not a theological solution to Palestine…

George Bush, the descendant of Jewish Slave Traders adopted a far-right Christian fundamentalism which centred on the Christian legacy from Judaism. I’m not the one to mix up theology and politics.

After it was made fashionable and easy to make money for UK politicians to follow the trail of chicken feed into the trap of US fundamental Christianity and they started to eat the Zionist War on Terror agenda prepared for them, they can’t escape from the trap and they just have to carry on justifying the unbearable awfulness of the catastrophe that Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine have been. Again, it was not Muslims who mixed politics and theology.

It was our lovely, very own UK politicians following the political gravy train.

Now that our politicians have got themselves and us and Europe, as well as the US, into this monumentally stupid position, and we are not allowed to shoot them because they are an endangered species which has pushed us all into virtual, financial and cultural extinction, what should we do to sort out the mess they have made?

1/ Correct the false theology adopted by George Bush, and followed by western politicians.

2/ Recognise the truth of Allah’s statement that if they come to power, ( i.e. He is talking about politics, not race, thank you very much, ) the Jews will not give you ( Muslims ) even as much power as the black dot on a date stone.

Therefore there is no political solution, while the present politicians are in power supporting Zionism.

3/ All United Nations resolutions against Israel, its possessions of WMD and other illegal weapons must be implemented.

5/ Recognise that existing USUK politicians are unable to admit their errors, because it would expose the financial scandals which trapped them into supporting Zionism in the first place.

6/ Negotiate a political settlement for Palestine. Yes,I agree with you.There has to be a political settlement for Palestine.

We cannot get to 6/ without going through points 1/to 5/.

p.s. Talking of Fish, There are places in Pakistan where you can see the great fish swirling round the black sewer-spouts into the river. For all the reassurances that the fish being served came from clear mountain springs, I didn’t eat it. Same with the politicians. Nobody now believes that they have the credibility to solve these problems, after they followed crazy Bush and Cheney into 3 WMD 21st century wars. Not a hope in hell of any political solutions coming from them. Possibly Zionism has achieved its immediate goals and a new election will allow shiny new clean hands like Obama to sweep away all the nasty memories and sooth all our angry feelings. Or possibly not. None of us is Spider-Man.

sorry, can’t count, no.4 is missing.

Gaza in Plain Language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFK5TNcmEmg

Tony

She is just so happy and full of energy and confidence and determination. She has also probably got a job. She has been trying since she started at University.

He said at about 1:00 am, you have got the right attitude.

Yes but I really need a job – what do you do?

He said – well this is my place – come back with your CV – and ask for me, and I will give you an interview.

Its expensive being a student, if you do everything she does.

And her brother fixed her car – well temporarily. He knows what the real problem is – a faulty component – and by passed it. He will fix it properly next week.

Now, sure, there are lots of horrible things happening in this world, that you can’t do much about.

A friend of my wife’s phoned her up, and said her cousin had decided to take the ultimate solution.

Now, I thought she would be really upset about him committing suicide, but she bizarrely (from my point of view) understood why and actually seemed to think he had done something positive.

What the Fuck is Wrong With People?

Why are Some People So Sad, that they seem to enjoy being Miserable?

Get off Your Fucking Arse and Do Something To Help Someone Else.

You will then feel a lot better.

You Can’t Do Fuck All When You are Dead.

Tony

THE NAVAL STORY THAT WILL NOT GO AWAY – U.S.S LIBERTY

Israeli governments have always maintained that the attack on ‘Liberty’ was a mistake. But, by the grace of God, some American sailors lived to tell their stories. Men like Rocky Sturman, Ernie Gallo and James Ennes Jr.

James was on the bridge at the time of the attack and has said in his book, ‘Assault on the Liberty’ that the Israeli government tells a story of the attack totally at odds with the physical evidence and the account, as remembered by the surviving crew members. We were showing the US flag, we were screaming into the UHF channels and we were flashing our call-sign.

Columnist Roland Evans spoke to US ambassador Dwight Porter in 1991, who said that the Lebanon CIA station chief showed him the transcript of intercepted Israeli messages. Israeli planes had been given the order by the IDF to attack Liberty three times after a pilot queried the command, saying the ship was friendly, flying a US flag and correctly transmitting IFF response codes.

Chief of Naval operations Thomas Moorer spent a year investigating the attack as part of an independent panel which included US ambassador James Akins. The panel came to the conclusion that it was a deliberate attack; sadly the inquiry failed to get Congress to investigate because of many diversions that included references to the ‘Holocaust’ Nazi’s and cries of anti-semitism.

http://www.usslibertyinquiry.com

http://www.ussliberty.org

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/90418.php

Tony,

Most times suicide attempts are a cry for help when bouncing off the bottom from the pit of depression. Being that depressed means that life has lost purpose, devoid of meaning. I am no psychotherapist, but I have learnt to recognise the signs (and there are many) which at first were beyond my understanding. I have never experienced acute depression and my previous lack of understanding was often a cause for rebuke. I now realise that depression can be a very serious illness.

Oh yeah, anno, I know the politicians in power with their terrible economic militarist system aren’t going to do anything positive about it. They represent the problem, not the solution, I agree.

“I know the politicians in power with their terrible economic militarist system aren’t going to do anything positive about it.”

http://tinyurl.com/2qzvz9

Mark,

It has never afflicted me to that extent. If I feel that bad, like I KNOW I have finally LOST Someone I am Completely and Utterley Totally in Love With – But Realise It Is Never Going To Work

Then I Just Cry Myself To Sleep

And in The Morning I wake Up, and it is like the end of a Chapter.

I have to go on, and try and not make the same mistakes again.

I probably am, my sister definitely is – like Craig

When she should have been the happiest person in the World

Yes her daughter was born about 12 weeks too early, and despite the odds she survived in the incubator and fought for life

And She found Life and Was and Is a Completely Normal Human Being

My Sister Couldn’t Handle It

She Tried To Kill Herself – The Young Mother With a Perfect Baby – And Loving Husband

She Turned The Gas On

And Stuck Her Head in The Oven

If She Had Done This Two Years Previously, She Would Almost Certainly Have Suceeded in Killing Herself

But Her Husband Was a Gas Engineer

And He Had Already Converted Their Home in Yorkshire To North Sea Gas

I did suggest to Margaret Thatcher that they should perhaps mix some nitrous oxide in with it as well

You see when I was 15, I did a little experiment, and left it bubbling away at the end of the lab, whilst our Science Master was trying to tell us how chemical reactions work

And then – Everyone Started Laughing

But Margaret Wouldn’t Have It

Whilst it was very easy to Kill Yourself With Coal Gas, it is Far More Difficult with North Sea Gas.

My niece Now Has 4 Children and Lives in America and is a Black Belt in Karate

My sister lives in Derbyshire and is Still Not Happy, That She Wasn’t The Baby of The Family and I got the job.

She Mood Swings Like Fuck.

But She’s O.K.

She does the most Tremendous Art when She’s Manic.

Her IQ is off the scale

Tony

George,

thank you for the link to the video “The Secret Government”.

I guess some people have never been in love and they don’t know what it feels like, or maybe they were in love but were too afraid to actually do anything about it.

I guess it was like she thought…

I actually can’t write it from a girls point of view – but I’m sure its the same.

You are so Much In Love

That You Are Not Sure What To Do

You see if you do nothing, nothing happens and you stay sad and lonely – and she may well feel the same as you – but that moment of communnication never happenned, because you were just so frightened. If you asked her, and she turned you down, then suicide was the only sensible option.

And you didn’t want to die, and you didn’t want to lose her – but do…

And then go on

And you try the opposite approach – far too much far too soon

And you frighten her away

And then you try the slow approach again, and after 6 months as being just friends – she says she is thinking of going away with her friends…

And I burst into tears

Aren’t I invited?

So her friends dissolve away, and we borrow her sister’s tent

Tony

I Try and Do My Best Re US/UK Diplomatic Relations

I have been asking her to come over to the UK for over Two Years

Sure, I know She is Sometimes Completely Nuts, But sometimes she comes out with the most amazing evidence and says things that even I find hard to believe…But I reckon She is a Good Girl and Two Weeks Drinking British Bitter Off Her Californian Grass will do her Good.

Yes She Looks a Lot Like My Wife

Sister_Lauren,

First of all watch this film

The Holiday

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457939/

It features a place not that too dissimilar to yours in California ( I have seen your place on Google Earth, and know about your dispute with one of your neighbours )

Meanwhile, our place isn’t that disimilar to, and that far from the Chocolate Box village on our side of the pond, in fact sometimes we go there for Sunday Lunch

And our village is nearly as beautiful

And our friends are lovely ?” and would welcome you and be delighted by your company

So do you fancy a House Swap?

You come to England (Less than 1 hour from Central London)

And we come To California

We live in Your House for a Couple of Weeks

You live in Our House for a Couple of Weeks

You see, Our Daughter has fallen in Love with Several American Boys at University, and has been invited.

No Money Involved

We just swap houses

Or you could just come over by yourself

At the top of our house we have a guest room.

It is actually quite Big, and has its own en-suite shower and toilet

And we’ve got too nice cats, who always seem to want to sleep with our guests ?” but the door does close, though I think we have probably lost the key to the door

But you will be perfectly safe and welcome, and I think you will have a good time.

Tony

February 8, 2010

“Ukraine braced for conflict as polls signal end of Orange Revolution”…

http://tinyurl.com/ykfbvrx

George,

We know a Lovely Girl From Moldova, is that near the Ukraine?

She works for a friend of ours in a Greek Island

They have taken her in as if she is a part of the family and spends a lot of her time looking after his Grand Children

None of them speak great English, but they keep inviting us back and we understand each other completely most of the time

They are all going on about the Greek economy being fucked?????

Well, they are all lovely people on this incredibly fertile island with the most glorious food

Sure it Pisses Down like Fuck in The Winter, but the Summers are Glorious and The Food Wonderful

And They All Smoke Like Fuck and Live To About 110 Years Old

I think it Maybe The Centre of Human Civilisation

Though I haven’t seen any decent Rock Bands There

YET

Tony

I Cant Currently Get a Fast Connection to My Friends in The USA

But All I was Trying To Do was Patch a Live Feed Back From The UK To The USA

The WHO

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl/09000d5d81528b1d/Won-t-Get-Fooled-Again

Tony

“Now that our politicians have got themselves and us and Europe, as well as the US, into this monumentally stupid position, and we are not allowed to shoot them because they are an endangered species”

I can’t see that, there seems to be no end to them. But, keep theology out of politics, I reckon, yes. People who believe in absolutes often don’t really seem to _do_ politics, do they ?

And, incidentally, “Talking of Fish, There are places in Pakistan where you can see the great fish swirling round the black sewer-spouts into the river.”

I remember seeing exactly the same thing, somewhere near Falmouth, when I was a kid. Huge great sewage pipe sticking out into the sea, look for the end of it and that’s where to go and catch as many mackerel as you can carry, no problem.

They’re not bad eating, either.

Useless Cunts

Look I Couldn’t Give a Fuck About American Football, But I want To See The Who Live

And My SkY+ Box is away for Repair and Won’t Arrive Back for another 6 Hours

I thought you were supposed to be able to do all this stuff on the Internet

I could ask my Son, but that would be cheating

He Knows BANDWIDTH

Some people think of a little fibre connection and he is utilising a Tunnel of them

What was that about Dark Fibre?

WANKERS

Tony

O.K. So Maybe it Was on BBC For Free, But I don’t Watch TV Live Much and When I do I expect it To Be in High Definition, and Can Also Rewind It and Skip Through The Boring Bits Like Some Cunt Like Me Talking His Book

Tony

As strange as it may seem I was actually working at Midnight at the Turn of The Century

And I was completely confident that Everything Would Continue OK

But it Didn’t

Nothing Worked, except for the most primative forms of communication

Not only was the Mobile Communication Completely Apparently Non Functional

But so was the Ordinary Land Line Phones

I was Trying To Get Data Through

And All These Humans Were Phoning Each Other Up and Wishing Each Other a Happy New Century

And Then it All Went To Fuck, even though all the computer systems worked fine

We Got Dick Cheney and Tony Blair and 9/11

So Tell Me When I can See The Who

They are Just a Band

Tony

Unless you have been a Kind of Roadie You Have No Idea How Heavy Some of the Fucking Gear is…

And you Never Know what The Venue is Going To Be Like

You Might Get a Palace with a Thousand Cheering Kids

Or You Might End Up in a Tiny Little Pub in The Middle of Nowhere and Its Like The Final Darts Match of The Season and They All Seem Extremely Nationalist England Supporters with Their Really Short Hair and You are Kind of Black with Really Long Dreadlocks

And you Walk into the Pub – and ask The Guv – Where Do We Set Up Mate?

And He Says – Over There Where They are Playing Darts…

So what the fuck do we do?

We say Hello Mate…

We are the Band Tonight – and The Guv has asked to set up here – but we will wait until you have finished

And they finish the game quickly and move all their stuff out of the way – and help us set up

And the band blows the pub away

Tony

Most people even in England and even many Indians who have never actually been there think that India is about the same kind of place like for example is East Anglia

But India is an Enormous Place Full of Different States Which are Largely Self Governing and Really Should Be Recognised as Independent Countries In Their Own Right – and Hundreds of Different Languages and Dialects and Cultures – Largely Untouched and Unknown By The Rest Of The World

Its Like an American Thinking He Has Done and Knows Europe cos he stayed a few days, a few miles away from where his Plane landed.

Sure, I’ve been to Africa too

Tony

Are the Iraq Enquiry panel going to ask Jack Straw about his connections with BAE?: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100208/tuk-straw-to-face-iraq-inquiry-again-6323e80.html

If not, why not?

I’m sure that there was no link between BAE’s influence and how Jack Straw made his choice: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/12/bae-bribery-case-brown-intervene

(is it Inquiry or Enquiry? oh, the wonders of the English language… was it 45 minutes that WMD would be able to hit Britain?…)

Richard Robinson

Why would anyone want to_do_politics? The definition of Politics is the service of self-interest. The definition of Faith is the service of God’s commands. I only discuss politics to analyse the self-service of politicians in order to protect myself. We are all absolutely fed up of Bush and Blair wrapping up greed and lucrative contracts for services in their war zones in the tinsel of faith. It’s pretty disgusting to have to listen to Alistair Campbell’s fig-leaf of emotion. Where was the feminine side of his personality when he was castrating the BBC for telling the truth about Iraqi WMD?

Distasteful though it may be to some, it is absolutely essential to spike, once and for all, the US Christian/Zionist Far Right’s religious justificationing for worldwide aggression against Islam.

Surah Baqarah, Holy Qur’an: Authu billahi minashaytanirrajeem. ‘ Evil is what your faith commands you to , if you ARE people of faith.’

BAE paid 1p ( a mere £ 40 million ) to avoid going to court. The blood on their hands and their politician allies like Jack Straw is only tomato Shut-up. How could you possibly imagine otherwise or cast aspersions on our juicetice Minister?

Do they burn the coffin when they cremate disgraced politicians? or do they tip the body out ready for another service in the next door chapel, to keep up with their busy schedule?

Tony – chill.

Scutineer: As I understand it, ‘inquiry’ is the North American English spelling for use in relation to everything and also is the British English spelling for official investigations. ‘Enquiry’ is the British English spelling for use in relation to everything else.

But language is mutable and usage changes constantly.

Just like 45-minute claims…

The problem is that under any of the proposed electoral systems, politicians will remain self-selecting. I used to be an advocate of fixed (and short – 3 year) terms for politicians, and maximum lengths of service (ten years or 3 elections, whichever comes first) but as history unfolds I see more and more that sortition is the answer. A political class cannot be controlled once it has been allowed to emerge.

And I’d apply something similar to the civil service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

European court has decided that we cannot get away with excluding prisoner from voting. It is said that two of the wests arch devils are letting their inmates tick a box.

Would that mean that a party could question the whole election if the Government does not open the doors to our correctional facillities?

I’m looking forward to canvassing in prison, must make sure to leave the pocket knife at home.

“Why would anyone want to_do_politics?”

Because the alternatives are even worse ?

“The definition of Politics is the service of self-interest”

Given that competing self-interests exist, what else would we want them to do ?

Self-defence, you say ? case in point. Other peoples’ self-interest isn’t necessarily yours, the things you think are in your self-interest might not necessarily be the same things I think are in mine. Hence, “politics”. What else are we going to do, kill everyone until there’s no-one left standing to disagree ? or find ways that disagreeing can be done without it being the end of the world ?

I agree, that the sight of what goes on under that heading can be fairly appalling (it’s why we’re all here at this blog, no ?); so, we’d like it different, if we could see a way towards that. That’s politics, too.

What I mean is, the choice seems to be between that and the mindset that “deeply and passionately believes” that he’s right and is prepared to acccept “collateral damage” (other peoples’ deaths) on the strength of it.

If it reduces the amount of business that’s done across the pointy end of a gun/IED/Tomahawk, it probably starts with something in its favour.

As a writer myself who has been on a number of BBC training schemes, there is a relatively innocent explanation for the mandarins making sure your character was not handled ‘uncritically’ – it’s simply more dramatically interesting for a protagonist to an unalloyed force for good. Giving them an emotional flaw, an achilles heel, makes them much more empathetic as we see ourselves in them. It’s a cliched ploy, but a resonant one – how many films have you seen a brilliant but womanising/drinking/gambling protagonist?

“it’s simply more dramatically interesting for a protagonist to an unalloyed force for good.”

Given that they have an experienced playwright writing them a play, it seems odd that they’d not expect him to know that already ? Do they micromanage all their stuff that way ?