The number of people still prepared to defend the Iraq War in public is tiny. The interesting thing is the very strong correlation between those people, and those prepared to pretend to give credence to the farcical sexual allegations about Julian Assange. Zoe Williams Guardian piece about what a jolly good chap Blair is I find breathtaking. War crimes like Blair’s result in terrible anguish for millions. I am prepared for purposes of argument to believe that Williams’ anguish for female victims of crime is genuine; why she can’t extend that to the tens of thousands of women who were raped because of Blair’s Iraq War, or had the still worse agony of seeing their children killed and mutilated I don’t know. Nick Cohen is just very, very sad. I just hold up these two in the hope that those deceived by feminist political correctness into following their lead against Assange will see to what they are subscribing.
Rather a side issue, but even if we accept Zoe Williams view that dead Iraqi children don’t matter, she appears not to have noticed that Blair introduced tuition fees, academies, kick-started NHS privatization, allowed the banksters’ bonanza leading to worldwide economic crash and oversaw the greatest widening of the gap between rich and poor in British history.
The fact is that Zoe Williams’ piece does not contain a single mention of women or feminism. Why does the title of this blog post not read ‘The Defence of Blowing Out the Brains of Small Children’?
Because the piece didn’t actually defend it, is that why?
I think it’s pretty unfair to blame all feminists for some of them backing the Iraq war.
Though it’s true there are several feminist columnists in the Guardian and Independent (Burchill etc) who are pro- Iraq war and pretty much just hate all men and to that extent i agree with you.
Gosh, that’s nice of you Duncan – I’m an equalitist myself but I try not to blame all Christians for the Iraq war either.
oh, brilliant, we’re basing our views on female emancipation (they didn’t have the fecking vote here! and were unable to own fecking property fere! and they can be legally raped in Afghanistan) on Julie fecking Burchill?
What on earth has any of that to do with Zoe Williams’ piece?
The US and Britain’s Paedophile Colony
by Felicity Arbuthnot
On February 25th, Iraq’s Cabinet approved a draft law lowering the age of legal marriage for females to nine years old.
Iraq was, prior to the invasion, a fiercely secular country, with a broadly equal male, female workforce and with women benefiting from a National Personal Status Law, introduced in 1959, which remained “one of the most liberal in the Arab world, with respect to women’s rights.”
The legal age for marriage was set at eighteen, forced marriages were banned and polygamy restricted. Cohesion between communities was enhanced and fostered by “eliminating the differential treatment of Sunnis and Shiites under the law (and erasing differentiation) between the various religious communities …” Women’s rights in divorce, child custody and inheritance were an integral part of the Law, with Article 14 stating that all Iraqis are equal under the law.
Equality was swept away from the first day of the invasion when George W. Bush and his Administration started to talk of Sunni, Shiite, Kurds, Christians and other religions and ethnicities and also effectively selecting the overseers of the “New Iraq” not by ability but by religion and ethnicity, effectively pitching Iraqi against Iraqi in what, for all the complexities, had been a very cohesive society. “Divide and rule” pervaded all.
So far, however, the Personal Status Law still stands, if largely ignored by the US backed Parliament and a largely – with honourable and courageous exceptions – woefully wanting judiciary. The draft law, if ratified, as it is aimed to be after the April elections, would sweep its admirable provisions aside and turn Iraq in to a paedophiles’ paradise.
This outrageous plan was first mooted as early as December 2003, just eight months after the invasion, by Abdel Aziz al Hakim, who heads the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. He cancelled the Personal Status Law when President of the Interim Governing Council. Due to opposition by women and others within the Council and from many civil and women’s organizations, the decision was revoked by Paul Bremer, arguably the only thing he got right during his woeful, ill informed tenure.
More from Felicity Arbuthnot’s Piece @
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/03/the-us-and-britains-paedophile-colony/
“On February 25th, Iraq’s Cabinet approved a draft law lowering the age of legal marriage for females to nine years old.”
_________________
A draft law, Fujisan, a draft law. Which means that it is not yet law. And may in fact never become law.
So I advise you to hold on for a while before choking with righteous wrath.
And whilst we’re on about Blood thirsty psychopath Bliar… Another great Piece By – Again Felicity A…. which includes a mention Of Craig – in Nicholas Wood’s Letter Below
” One man is incandescent about the appointment of Peter Welby and has written to his father in no uncertain terms”.
Nicholas Wood is author of “War Crime or Just War? The Case Against Blair”, a meticulous legal compilation of just that. Wood, is also Secretary of the Blair War Crimes Foundation. He writes:
The Archbishop of Canterbury.
Canterbury Cathedral.
Dear Sir,
I enclose my book on Blair, and also a letter to the Prime Minister on his criminality. Though quite why I bother to pay the postage I don’t know.
I cannot comprehend that you are someone who is supposed to think every day of moral values but not realise that Blair is a very dangerous psychopath, who, as well as causing untold devastation and misery in Iraq, wishes to extend that violence into Syria and Iran to protect Israel.
If you read page 570 of his autobiography you might possibly see what I mean.”
Referring to Blair’s advisory position to various heads of State, including Uzbekistan, of which former Ambassador Craig Murray blew the whistle on mind numbing torture, he states: “ Your son will be benefiting, indirectly of coursei from money obtained from despots who boil their victims. This, under the guise of piety.
I was brought up as a child, a long time ago, to think of Thomas A Becket as a Saint, who resisted the power of a military state, and paid the price with his life. I cannot see you doing that.
I also was brought up to worship the medieval beauty of Canterbury, it’s stones and it’s stained glass. If stones could weep they would be weeping now.
Yours faithfully,
Nicholas Wood, MA
The full Piece… AGAIN BY Felicity A. @
http://www.globalresearch.ca/if-stones-could-weep-syria-blairs-plans-and-an-archbishops-son/5377266
Enticing as the thought of Blair being hauled before an international criminal court might be, it’s not going to happen – ever.
So I do wish full and candidate members of the Egregiousness of Excellences would stop getting their rocks off with all this cutting and pasting of letters, petitions, manifestos, “thoughts”, etc etc on this notion. It’s pure phantasy and wishful thinking, which probably makes the posters feel better about themselves and life in general but which is boring in the extreme for the rest of us.
***************
La vita è bella, life is good!
Sorry, I posted the above on the previous thread, then thought I’d made a mistake cos the thread was called … well, the same title as this one … so I posted it on this one instead, only to find out that I was right first time …. and then my head exploded ….
MOD … you’d better check out the Andy Myles thread, title plus Craig’s post.
[Fixed, hopefully. Post another comment if anything still seems wrong now. Duplicate comment deleted.]
A Node, I had that problem too. In fact I commented on it. So it must be a general fault rather than computer specific.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/03/andy-myles/comment-page-7/#comment-451808
Off to bed now.
Gloria Steinem discussing (a little bit of) her time “alongside” the freedom-lovers of Langley
http://youtu.be/4HRUEqyZ7p8
Faux-Feminist’s Ridiculous “Women Under Siege” Syria Map
CIA Asset Gloria Steinem’s “Women Under Siege” Joins Syrian Propaganda Campaign.
by Tony Cartalucci
April 14, 2012 – Ironically, faux-feminist Gloria Steinem’s “Women Under Siege’s” latest campaign to demonize the Syrian government in tandem with the US State Department and its vast stable of media and intelligence assets, stands to set the stage for extremist ideologues to overrun Syria, ending its secular society and entirely stripping away the “women’s rights” Steinem claims to have spent a lifetime fighting for.
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/faux-feminists-ridiculous-women-under.html
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line
Seymour Hersh on Syria.
Essential reading
It’s a strange place that band wagon in which the crazed ride.
“Ban bossy” to re-instate the female gender or to alter perception on a way we perceive girls. Yet the entire media establishment use the term ” child pornography”
Wrong, it should never be called such and always be called what it is.
Abuse, exploitation, indecency!
We are not devising correct tactics to combat wrong doin amongst the astranged masses.
Our use of terms for wrongs is paramount.
The “Iraq war” – really….
Such might be something Mr Blair might consider highly desirable when an increasingly likely alternative mirrors the fate of Jürgen Frick, 48, the chief executive of the Liechtenstein private bank Bank Frick [Bank chief Jürgen Frick shot dead by ‘Robin Hood of Liechtenstein’] because of the following consideration, which has been aired and shared recently in a number of places elsewhere.
I read Felicity Arbuthnot’s pieces too Brian. The newest deals with the son of our Jewish! Archbishop of Canterbury (YCNMIU) joining BLiar’s Faith Foundation and these ridiculous articles posted on the website.
http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/blogpost/syria%E2%80%99s-fragmented-extremists
http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/blogpost/good-government-issue
Felicity has a long and deep knowledge of Iraq and the people whom she loves. You see that she is heartbroken at what has been done to the country and to the people if you read her essays.
PS I see that BLiar has enrolled Martin Bright of the JC to write on the FF blog.
http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/blog/user/13537
All FF bloggers are tainted by association with the arch war criminal.
As I see it Zoe Williams is an establishment spokesperson commissioned to try and give Blair’s name a sanitised image after earlier revelations this week that the war criminal knew about the torture and rendition.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10747166/Tony-Blair-knew-all-about-CIA-secret-kidnap-programme.html
Even if some of what she says is true Mark Antony’s oration over the body of Caesar comes to mind. “The evil that men do lives after them . . .”
Zoe Williams, if she really believes the tosh she writes, is as bad as Blair himself – who is still proud of what he did in Iraq and would do it again. Neither have any shame. I pointed out yesterday, or the day before, that Nick Clegg’s initiative about providing school meals in the first three years of a child’s life was a good thing. You cannot be in office for years on end without having achieved anything. But Blair’s record as a war-criminal casts a huge black shadow over anything positive he may have done.
The other big error in her article is a comparison between Blair’s government and the coalition. She cannot even see that these are different faces of the same coin.
AmanfromMars writes
“Enticing as the thought of Blair being hauled before an international criminal court might be, it’s not going to happen – ever. …. Habbabkuk (La Vita È Bella) ! 10 Apr, 2014 – 12:36 am
Such might be something Mr Blair might consider highly desirable when an increasingly likely alternative mirrors the fate of Jürgen Frick, 48, the chief executive of the Liechtenstein private bank Bank Frick [Bank chief Jürgen Frick shot dead by ‘Robin Hood of Liechtenstein’]”
_________________
Sounds a little like a hope…and even an incitement? Be careful.
AManfromMars I do not see a narcissistic psychopath like Blair ever committing suicide. He possesses no guilty conscience.
Many bankers though are committing suicide as Max Keiser was saying in a conversation with Stacy Herbert on RT.
‘Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the poor players that are the empires that strut and fret their weapons upon the world stage. The consequences of the tall tales told by neocon idiots full of sound and fury is that the young refuse to rise up and, instead, meekly visit the food bank. In the second half, Max interviews artist, Alex Schaefer, about ‘burning banks’ and the Global Insurrection Against Banker Occupation. Max watches as Alex ‘burns down’ HSBC on set while describing the current absence of artist activism.
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/episode-586-max-keiser-385/
I have a tiny bit of sympathy with the view that Blair (and his ministerial team, riven though it was by Brown/Blair dysfunctionalities) did some good things. The same goes for Mrs Thatcher. However, in Blair’s case it is striking how even the good policies were flawed. For instance, the manifesto commitment to Freedom of Information was implemented slowly, the scope was reduced, the resources to support it limited .. and the fact that even this emasculated legislation helped to hold the government to account led Blair to disown his own legislation as a mistake.
From Mary
“I read Felicity Arbuthnot’s pieces too Brian. The newest deals with the son of our Jewish! Archbishop of Canterbury (YCNMIU…”
______________
Does Justin Welby have some Jewish blood from the (more or less) distant past?
The Nazis used to go back to a person’s grandparents to rule whether someone would be considered Jewish.
How far back would Mary go?
Very sinister.
I have some sympathy with Hababkuk’s point that banging on about Blair is boring, but I’m going to do it anyway.
Resident Dissident said last night that Thatcher and Blair were our two most popular ex-Prime Ministers. This is because they were both conviction politicians.
Peacewisher is quite wrong in thinking Blair went wrong on a Texan ranch. Long before that he was on a mission to destroy the Islamic world’s political power. If you don’t believe me read Seldon’s biography or Rawnsley on the first Labour government.
And in my view Zoe Williams has a point at least in that it is foolish to underestimate the political skills of Blair. I actually applaud what he did in Northern Ireland and Koxovo, and especially in NI I can’t think of any other contemporary politician who could have achieved what he did.
Blair should not be underestimated especially as he seems to be trying harder than ever to make a comeback.
Finally I think Craig has a point about feminism as ably demonstrated above by BrianFujisan. Increasingly in fundamentalist Islamic areas women are being routinely crucified, having their health ruined for life by early childbirth all because stupid men want to know their wives are virgins. To ignore the destruction of what seems to have been a sophisticated and in many ways enlightened civilisation in Iraq, despite Saddam,is puzzling for a feminist.
Compare and contrast…and then wonder
AmanfromMars : “[Bank chief Jürgen Frick shot dead by ‘Robin Hood of Liechtenstein’]”
Mary : “I do not see a narcissistic psychopath like Blair ever committing suicide.”
????????
Conjunction
I have no problem with people examining what might have made Blair tick and similar activities. After all, we still welcome new biographies of other, long-dead British political personalities as new evidence or new takes come to light or are advanced.
What is extremely boring is this constant phantasizing about international criminal courts, citizen’s arrests and so on. It’s boring because it’s grounded not in reality (actual or foreseeeable) but simply represents the expression of inner rage. I suppose I don’t see this blog as a pyschologist’s couch.
‘I suppose I don’t see this blog as a pyschologist’s couch.’
V funny remark in view of its provenance.
PS Sp. psychologist not pissologist.@)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-13/another-trader-commits-suicide
Staggering statistics for this year alone.
This latest death brings the recent banker death tally to 10:
1 – William Broeksmit, 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London, on January 26th.
2 – Karl Slym, 51 year old Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok on January 27th.
3 – Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of the JP Morgan European headquarters in London on January 27th.
4 – Mike Dueker, 50-year-old chief economist of a US investment bank was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State.
5 – Richard Talley, the 57 year old founder of American Title Services in Centennial, Colorado, was found dead earlier this month after apparently shooting himself with a nail gun.
6 – Tim Dickenson, a U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG, also died last month, however the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown.
7 – Ryan Henry Crane, a 37 year old executive at JP Morgan died in an alleged suicide just a few weeks ago. No details have been released about his death aside from this small obituary announcement at the Stamford Daily Voice.
8 – Li Junjie, 33-year-old banker in Hong Kong jumped from the JP Morgan HQ in Hong Kong this week.
9 – James Stuart Jr, Former National Bank of Commerce CEO, found dead in Scottsdale, Ariz., the morning of Feb. 19. A family spokesman did not say what caused the death
10 – Edmund (Eddie) Reilly, 47, a trader at Midtown’s Vertical Group, committed suicide by jumping in front of LIRR train
I think Craig is complaining about what Williams didn’t say – she skated elegantly round Iraq – rather than what she did. There’s an awful lot of space to play in the field of what people don’t say, and IMO if they’re not too important, like Williams, it’s probably a waste of time going there.
Most of the usual points re. Blair were made in three uncontested letters to the editor in the same (print) issue. (CiF is generally a nonsense, and censored by any intern not currently making coffee for the subs – also under continuous pressure from CiF Watch – a hasbara outfit.)
Williams eulogised Blair’s reforms without managing to mention PFI – which is actually worse than privatisation, because the taxpayer continues to pay for the service, plus thirty years’ interest, or his and Brown’s massive borrowing against the assumption that the derivatives bubble, of which Blair was sublimely unaware, would continue to grow indefinitely…or selling the gold reserve at a discount…or….or… So much was unsaid.
Me, I think they put Williams’ thoughts in because Blair had been pontificating in the paper the previous day, and they needed a positive thinkpiece by someone whose strong stomach reduced the risk of an in-desk vomiting event. As has been noted above, hardline feminists are quite capable of toeing the Tony line, possibly because for some unfathomable reason they want his babies.
IOW, pffft.