Having a wonderful family Christmas, and thinking of our community of blog commenters, hoping that nobody is lonely today.
As regular readers know, my favourite carol is “It Came Upon The Midnight Clear”. Search for the lyrics and you will find that this verse is routinely censored out (missing from 8 of the first 10 versions on a google.com search for “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear Lyrics”):
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.
Cemeron wants us to adopt Christian values. Not bombing people would be a good start in the New Year.
Love to all.
Frank Fitzwalter:
‘My hope is that people will discard religion in favour of a greater, personal spirituality. May your gods go with you.’
Well said!
Orkneylad – that letter from Ficino, and the one you quoted earlier – inspirational, especially in the context of what Frank said.
And Craig – yes, that is one of the great carols, and the verse is so seldom sung that it makes me wonder whether the Churches want to ignore the preachings of Jesus/Joshua/Yeshua (if he existed) at all times.
Kill badgers, kill foxes, kill birds, in fact kill anything on two legs or four that moves.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16331762
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You will remember that there is a trial cull, ie kill, of badgers in the W Country coming up.
Glad you’re having a lovely Christmas Craig.
Hope all the readers of this blog are as well
Peace and love to all
Frohe Weihnacht to you all here and thanks for keeping this blog of sanity on the boil Craig, may you have a well spirited slide into the new Year.
Leaves to remember Dr. Hans Eberhard Richter, a peace activist and psychologist man who dared to speak of the ‘god complex’ and the psychological rift that has permeated western Man, a neurotic disturbance of mythic, even tragic poportions: the narcissistical Ideal of Illusion of mand’s omnipotence.
He was a co founder of the german section of physicians for the prevention of nuclear war and a great thinker who knew what psychological pressures are created within a society underthreat of a nuclear war, may he rest in peace.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/dr-horsteberhard-richter-peace-activist-and-psychoanalyst-6281202.html
Mary,
The policies promoting “nationalism/ethnocentrism”, at times yields comical outcomes. These policies finding a plausible vehicle, get on with reinforcing the underlying message of local uniqueness under danger from the outside hoards of interlopers/agents/immigrants. The preservation of Red Squirrel (European, lovely jubbly bushy tailed) that has come to be endangered by the Grey Squirrel (eastern squirrel, nasty , oversexed, domineering caddish) with the solution being found in culling the Grey Squirrel, in the absence of teaching abstinence to Reds! The grey squirrels drawing the short straw have been in the cross hairs for sometime now.
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Then came the project “seeking ye olde grandeur” (the fantastic old days, with none of the bastards spoiling it all!), and the introduction of Bustard (massive big bird extinct in UK). The operation was started with importation of six pair of birds from Siberia (well it is European at a push, and letting these bustards to roam on the Yorkshire Moors. Alas the silly birds had not seen any foxes in Siberia (no brass monkeys there is no foxes apparently) and the birds fell prey to the local foxes, who were not all persuaded about protecting the bustards, and welcoming these back to UK shores.
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The next step in the battle of the operation bustard was, for these birds to be penned in a gigantic aviary and subjected to fox aversion therapy! The treatment of the birds went; some guy hidden behind a partition, with a hosepipe sprayed the bird, and concurrently another chap entered the aviary with a ferocious German shepherd on a leash. Evidently the birds were to learn to associate four legged barking dogs(ie foxes) with the spray of the cold water, and hence fly away instead of hanging around and winding up on the menu. Although I could never understand why in the rainy UK birds could not associate dogs (foxes) as weather forecast or rain?
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Moral of the story, whence lunatics and psychos find their way into the circles of power, no living being can be safe any longer. Hence the cleansing solutions of one sort or other, cull this, kill that, and liberate the other.
Thank-you – Merry Christmas Craig, Nadira and esp. little Cameron.
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Least we ever forget:
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“While always protesting friendship, the British repeatedly invaded the country and shot at its inhabitants.”
What Mark said.
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I hope everyone is having a relatively carefree time. We’ll be ‘back to business’ soon enough.
Anyone heard/read the hush hush news about the ground shaking explosions that shook Amman (Jordan) registering 4 on the Richter scale? Jordanians are explaining it as “fighters going supersonic” (I should coco) however, the seismic event could be indicative of Isrealis test firing a nuclear weapon of sorts. The blanket cover up and international Media silence appears to be in corroboration of this notion. (although circulated stories about seismic tests in the area with 80 tons of TNT are around, but that amount does not kick at 4 Richter).
rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/12/14/pak-army-isi-accused-of-aiding-28-terror-groups.html
rawa.org/women.php
Good website. Usual prefixes.
Happy Holiday Craig Murray to you and all yours.May peace prevail everywhere at least for a few days.
“RAWA believes that the United Nations has not been able to address the problem properly. If the UN can send a large number of peace-keeping forces to places like Cambodia and Bosnia, why should it not be adopting a similar policy in Afghanistan? It is all the more important to have large peace-keeping forces in Afghanistan where most fundamentalist groups owe their power to the support of foreign countries. It is very unfortunate that UN activities are limited only to negotiating with fundamentalists, and it is very apparent that the UN is not willing to take any steps that would annoy them. We advocate that the UN view Afghanistan as the homeland of the Afghan people, and not as the property of a few armed militia. The UN should take into account the will of the people of Afghanistan and must not proceed according to the whims of the fundamentalists…” RAWA website.
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“RAWA sees the presence and activities of armed fundamentalist bands as the root cause of the current disaster in Afghanistan. Therefore, we believe that the only way to restore stability and find a solution to the Afghan crisis is by fully disarming all the armed groups and their accomplices. This is possible only by a peace-keeping force not including troops from countries that have involved themselves in the Afghan infighting and that might support any bandit groups. The same peace-keeping force should supervise the convening of the Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) and the formation of a government based on democratic values and comprised of neutral personalities. This government should be assigned the task of holding free and fair elections within a period not exceeding one year. It is only upon the completion of this task and the establishment of a national security force free from the clutches of fundamentalists that the job of peace keeping would be over.” RAWA website.
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Since Pakistan is funding, arming and training the Taliban, the implication of this is that The Pakistan military-security nexus of Pakistan must be compelled to cease the use of these groups, both domestically in Pakistan (where they are used against the Pakistani people) and regional in Afghanistan and Kashmir, for example.
foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/20/libya_knows_better
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foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/06/afghanistan_resupply_nato_ndn?page=0,2
Israeli Arab lawmaker indicted for visiting enemy country and meeting foreign agents
JERUSALEM — Israeli prosecutors have indicted an Arab member of parliament on charges of visiting an enemy country and meeting foreign agents.
The indictment charges that in 2007, Said Nafaa visited Syria and met with leaders of a violent Palestinian militant group.
Presstv has been banned by OFCOM _Freedom of speech curtailed in prep for war.
@ Suhayl and Mark,
First: Suhayl – I read the Foreign Policy article – and here is my reply:-
A REPLY TO TOM MALINOWSKI – ON LIBYA AND THE RULE OF LAW
(READ: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/20/libya_knows_better)
Isn’t there supreme hypocrisy in the Foreign Policy article asking “ What Libya could teach Obama about the Rule of Law”. The following statement from the article reads like a fairy tale:-
“Earlier this year in Libya, rebels rose up against Muammar al-Qaddafi’s dictatorship, and found themselves in control of large parts of their country. They were taking prisoners — officials of the Qaddafi regime, enemy fighters, ordinary criminals — and had good reason to want to detain them at least for a while. But the courts in their part of Libya had closed.”
i) Libya was wealthy ( having the best social and economic indices for any national group on the continent of Africa) and the Libyans came out in numbers beyond 1m persons in support of Gadaffi ( n.b. the population is in the region of 6m people).
ii) A template for regime change was followed by the US and NATO – bomb the resistance strength out of the country, control one city, then launch attacks across the country from that metropolitan command and control base until the government falls.
iii) Then Install and control a regime that supports US foreign policy interests and steal as much as you can of Libyan sovereign finances ( n.b. the process started as soon as the bombing commenced and a billion is lost to the strafing powers).
Had there been a genuine majority that simply wanted this regime change in Libya, would the change have had to have been inflicted and imposed by way of some 9 months of relentless bombardment from foreign forces? Surely, a displeased majority can remove a leader without direct foreign support by way of bombardment ( e.g. Egypt?). Clearly, under international law, the conduct of NATO was unlawful in that it exceeded the legal boundaries proscribed by UN Resolution 1973.
What the article does not say is that the Mujahadin in Afghanistan was funded by the CIA and morphed and continued to be supported by the CIA as Al Qaeda. Was it not Al Qaeda fighters ( trained by the CIA) that lent support for the overthrow of Gadaffi, while being fully funded and supported by the US? Connivance does make strange bedfellows.
The strongest assertion in the article is this:-
“What did the Libyans say? These men, who grew up in a country with no rule of law, who have often been dismissed as coming from a backward, tribal society, said “No, we will not adopt an indefinite detention law.” One official told me: “That’s what we had for 42 years under Qaddafi — special courts and procedures, giving the state extraordinary powers. They were always supposed to be temporary. And they never were.” The Libyan transitional government has now proposed that the country’s new constitution forbid emergency courts.”
But then the qualifier comes immediately after:-
“Libya’s rebels have often fallen short of their commitments to human rights, and are far from establishing a proper detention system. But their leaders at least understood this one thing: that it is dangerous to legislate permanent exceptions to normal legal procedures, even to deal with what one may believe, in the heat of the moment, to be a special security threat.”
Then the question is begged:-
“How can Libyans, who have no experience of democratic government, know this, while so many of America’s leaders do not? One can only hope that Americans never have to learn it the hard way — as the Libyans did.”
In straight political terms, what would one have the US/NATO imposed government say:-
i) That it intends to continue abusing legal rights, established as basic rights under international law ( as in fact the rebel forces have done)?; or
ii) State that international law will be abided by?
It would not take someone with a PhD in political science to discern what the only sensible politically correct answer must be.
For purposes of comparison, one can note Wikipedia making this observation about the post-2003 court system in Iraq:-
“The Central Criminal Court of Iraq, or CCCI, is a criminal court of Iraq. The CCCI is based on an inquisitorial system and consists of two chambers: an investigative court and a criminal court. The court was created by the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003 to handle cases involving serious crimes such as governmental corruption, terrorism and organized crime that were previously handled by governorate level judges in the ordinary criminal courts. Candidates for the judiciary had to be an Iraqi national of high moral character and reputation, a non-member of the Ba’ath party, demonstrate a “high level of legal competence”, and sign an oath of office.[1]
Human Rights Watch has said that:-
“ The CCCI is the country’s flagship criminal justice institution. Yet it is an institution that is seriously failing to meet international standards of due process and fair trials. Defendants often endure long periods of pretrial detention without judicial review, and are not able to pursue a meaningful defense or challenge evidence against them. Abuse in detention, typically with the aim of extracting confessions, appears common, thus tainting court proceedings in those cases.”
It has been 9 years of occupation in Iraq, and its court system evidently has to have the “politically correct persons” sitting on the Bench. An automatic bias, for political reasons, had to be built into the system if the US choice of political directorate was to be afforded sufficient supportive judicial opportunity to remain paramount for the desired outcomes (i.e. not seeking the just, fair and impartial results) from the judicial branch of government.
Why should one expect a different paradigm in Libya from these so-called rebels, who do not have majority popular support, and acted like racist savages in their treatment of the black sub-Saharan Africans residing in Libya ( mini-genocide?). This video speaks volumes of what kind of justice has been meted out so far – with regard to the “trial” and treatment of Gadaffi when he was captured:-(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAB6aYDnu1k&skipcontrinter=1).
The video confirms the nature of due process that had been applied to the captured leader and other evidence exists of nationwide summary executions, torture and brutally inflicted attacks accompanied by rape and mistreatment of civilians across Libya. An indicative template, one might say, based on the ethos of the very grouping that seized power supported by the US and NATO. This kind of conduct is far more telling and truly indicative of the likely future of justice to be applied in Libya under its new rebel supported government. Judicial systems are established by people, and within any established legal system the nature of justice delivered is reflective of a national ethos, value systems and tolerable moral boundaries that a society is prepared to abide by. This observation about collective will – gives a more accurate indication of the likely future of Libyan justice than does this supportive US politically motivated article published in “Foreign Policy Magazine”.
It is sophistry to pose the question as the author did. Is it not the same American government that had illegally invaded Iraq, that promoted the attacks on Libya and is now erasing the rights of its own people by imposing legal rules for indefinite detention and the abolition of habeas corpus? When viewed in this way, one finds more consistency than inconsistencies between the type of legal treatment being designed for the American people and the more extreme forms of legal compromises and abuses in the places where America has imposed itself in the Middle East – a la Iraq.
Given the balance of global power, a more honest title, surely could have been worded:-
“What the US is teaching Libya about the abandonment of the Rule of Law”.
But, the direct logic as dictated by considering immediately observable facts, as distinct from the ignoring of consistency of US illegal conduct, was the necessary inversion that the article had to make, if the illegality of bombing Libya was to be given a palatable political spin of – a principled, promising and hopeful future for justice in post-decimated Libya.
Courtenay Barnett – is an Attorney-at- Law
Mark: You post on Press TV worries. Yes – what else could it be but a prep for war? Do you have any knowledge about what the authorities accused Press TV of? I have a guess – publishing and exposing too much truth.
@Suhayl,
The Foreign Policy article on Afganistan is neatly summed up as follows:-
“…the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke: “There is no solution in Afghanistan unless Pakistan is part of that solution.”
Yes, I saw that, Courtenay, thanks. It’s correct. Unfortunately, the military-security apparatus in Pakistan sees the Taliban (its ally and so some extent, its creature) as the ideal rulers of Afghanistan. It is totally against the Karzai/Northern Alliance regime, which is (of course) an ally of India. Ideally, neither of them would be ruling (as the RAWA site makes clear). But for the people of Afghanistan, it is not an ideal world and the Taliban are the worse of the two ‘evils’. The only hope for Afghanistan is for the schools, clinics, etc., to remain and expand (female literacy and so on is key) and for whatever flawed electoral process to embed.
@Suhayl,
And if the US pulls out then Russia has an immediate problem.
Thus, strange partnerships are made and the devil is in the details.
What do you see happening with the closure of rights of passage to NATO for supply lines through Pakistan – is this a mere temporary impasse? :-
i) Drones bomb Pakistan and the people are outraged ( what else can they be?)
ii) While, a failure by the political directorate of Pakistan to respond to popular will is political suicide.
iii) A failure to succumb to US dictates to Pakistan as regards how it should react to the resistance to the occupation in Afghanistan leads to increased tensions between Pakistan/US.
iv) But, Pakistan has to act in its own political interest.
v) While, the US is more concerned about its own interests and strategic global hegemonic designs than is it in Pakistan’s immediate need for internal peace and immediate political viability.
So – does the CIA now try to supplant the existing government in Pakistan and impose a government that will do its bidding – for reasons that the US needs political support from Pakistan if the objectives in Afghanistan are to have traction?
Frankly, when I think the whole scenario through – maybe the US has limited choices:-
A) Pull out now and leave the Afghan situation as a mushrooming Russian problem; or
B) Stay and face irreconcilable differences with Pakistan; or
C) ( Someone insert and state for this blog what the other options are).
Good points about Libya, too, Courtenay. My point in posting the piece was imply to indicate the manner in which indefinite detention in the USA goes against everything the Administration supposedly are striving for and indicates their hypocrisy. So, while going on about freedom and democarcy abroad, they are eroding it at home. Nothing new, then. yet this indefinite detention for US citizens is new – an extension of what they’ve been doing to non-US citizens for a while, of course. Foreign Policy is obviously a pro-US establishment magazine, so one would expect to be largely oppositional to it. Nonetheless, it may be instructive to peruse the sophistries – to read b/w the lines and apprehend the multinodal dynamics of power – at play within the ruling elites of the empire.
lETTER TO THE EDITOR, INDEPENDENT 26 DECEMBER 2011
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Israel keeps up the arrests
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While we in the West have been congratulating Israel for the release already of 477 Palestinian prisoners with more to follow, Israel has quietly imprisoned a further 470 Palestinians to take their place, some of them from the first ones released, a brief taste of “freedom” for them.
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Presumably, the second tranche of released prisoners is also being quietly replaced by other Palestine prisoners; thus the release of Gilad Shalit has been achieved without any significant gain to the Palestinians and Israel’s status quo is maintained yet again.
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It is time that the West, the Arabs and the blinded United States take Israel to task and force it to comply with all United Nations resolutions and to stop its double-dealing at every chance it believes it can get away with it.
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susan walpole
Dorchester, Dorset
You’re right, Courtenay, there seem to be limited options. RAWA seems to be arguing for a large peacekeeping UN force in Afghanistan. But since peace has not yet come to some areas, it of necessity would be a fighting force, which is a completely different thing and which vis a vis UN armies, does not have a wholly successful history (to put it mildly). UN armies are effective (when properly resourced) in peacekeeping but not in fighting.
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In Pakistan, meanwhile, it looks as though, partly due to the tensions to which you allude, the PPP Govt is being ousted by stealth and degree and Imran Khan – the preferred ISI candidate (one of many) – ultimately installed at President. And that is likjely to mean no rappochment with NATO/the USA.
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Really, wrt Afghanistan, there also possibly needs to be a work-up to a peace conference involving all regional and other interetsde powers where a Cambodian-style process ensues. But remember that Vietnam had had to invade Cambodia and to rule it for a number of years before that became possible. Peace conferences tend only to be useful to the parties concerned once the various parties have reached a stalemate through war.
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Not good.
Courtenay Barnett,
authorities accused Press TV of? I have a guess – publishing and exposing too much truth.
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You bet, in fact truth is definitely a danger to the health of any broadcasting organisation.
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Hence, little reports like;
The Saudi Arabian monarchy will be overthrown by Qatar very soon, a leaked confidential conversation by Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani has revealed.
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This is the kind of stuff none of the embedded Media would dare to publish.
@ Suhayl -and – Fedup,
“Nonetheless, it may be instructive to peruse the sophistries – to read b/w the lines and apprehend the multinodal dynamics of power – at play within the ruling elites of the empire.”
Could I just stick with “stupidity” – and make my response short?
Fedup: If the US back Saudi clan are to be ousted – then which next puppets are to be installed> I ask this, because in Egypt – the face and figurehead of Mubarak was overthrown. That is not the same as saying that there has been regime change, for that if the power structure and its operatives that surrounded the leader ( read: military) then the change is merely cosmetic. One must assume that the Egyptian people are still on the streets becuase they want true democratic change. But, then the US would not be happy with that kind of change, because the will of the majority would have a voice. So – based on those observations – is it that in Saudi Arabia – the US is aimed at cosmetic change? Methinks it must be so.
@ Mary,
“It is time that the West, the Arabs and the blinded United States take Israel to task and force it to comply with all United Nations resolutions and to stop its double-dealing at every chance it believes it can get away with”
And if it did:-
i) The 1967 boundaries would have to be honoured.
ii) The demographic reality of a Palestinian 20% of Israel would have to be given true and meaningful democratic rights, inclusive of political representation in the Knesset ( correct the spelling for me please).
iii) The Golan Heights issues would have to resolved in accordance with international law, which is a variant of my observation at i) above.
iv) The idea of ethnic exclusivity in a “democratic state” would have to be abandoned – but – how does one do that to the “chosen people”.
v) The Israeli position on its nuclear arsenal would have to come under international scrutiny and accountability and the IAEA schema and international accountability would have to be effected ( cf. Iran is within the NPT – Israel is outside – and the war with Iran looms – and non with Israel from the West).
vi) On the broadest level – there would have to be lawful just resolution between the Jews within Israel and the Palestinians in Israel, and the dispossesed from 1948 who are in Gaza, South Lebanon, Jordan and scattered in the Palestinian diaspora across the world.
So Mary – when you look on the situation on the ground – is it not an easier political choice for Netanyahu to embrace Jewish fundamenatalists, let God declare the Israeli boundaries for Israel and use Israeli and US military might to protect the “chosen people’s” declare right to remove all those who encroach on God’s given land? Confront this fact and then you are termed “anti-semitic” -but I defend ( tongue in cheek)…
PS. Some of my best friends are Jews ( as I was told – with my own ethnithicy imposed in lieu of “Jew”). But, when you put it all together ( with the help of my ‘dirty half dozen’ – do you now begin to feel the pain and difficulty which the Western political position in unconditional support of Israel – co-joined with the Israeli intransigence – yields and poses for the safety of the world?)
PPS We are faced with a “mad dog” US foreign policy that does more by way of mainstreamm media spin, militarism, breaches of international law and global imposition of and support for inequities – than it ever will for a fair and just solution to the “chosen people” problem.
Courtenay Barnett,
If the US back Saudi clan are to be ousted – then which next puppets are to be installed
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Let us play a thought game;
We know that US has always used hired thugs as charge hands to run various enterprises/countries, ie Saddam, Gaddafi, Mubarak, Noriega, etc. Also empirically these thugs have little immunity in the way of job/life security, and are wholly dependent on the circumstances and events.
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Current status
1- Isreal is not a viable state.
2- Palestine is not a viable state.
3- There can be no two state solution, given the current trends of the settlement (increased geographic occupation) building program.
4- Palestinians cannot be given Isreali citizenship
5- Palestinians cannot have a state within the current geographical boundaries.
6- Genocide of the Palestinians is not possible (Rwanda solution).
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7- Unrest in the whole of the area; Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi, etc.
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What if;
Troubles in Saudi were to result in a partition of that country?
pro partition propositions;
1- Large swaths of land at the disposal of Saudi, have given an undue influence to the Saudi in the area (greater number of oil wells aggregate), no harm in dividing these into three separate subdivisions.
2- The tripartite can be divided as “sunni”, “shiaa” and “Palestine”.
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The new arrangements can result in low population countries that will be easily retained in US orbit, and their economic dependencies will ensure the petrodollar recirculation.
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This solution can address return of the refugees issue, as well as ending the Jordanian and Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp problems in addition to keeping the Palestine in a preferable geographic location, futher weakening the pro Palestinian politics .
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The above is a condensed and shorthand power-point representation, but enough to start the debate.
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What do you think?
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PS this is not exactly the most debated plan, and I don’t know if it has been published anywhere else?
@ Fedup,
When you ask:-
“What if;
Troubles in Saudi were to result in a partition of that country?
pro partition propositions;
1- Large swaths of land at the disposal of Saudi, have given an undue influence to the Saudi in the area (greater number of oil wells aggregate), no harm in dividing these into three separate subdivisions.”
A variant of that always existed:-
i) Some 700,000 expelled around 1948.
ii) No compensation given by the Zionists
iii) The West and Zionists had always hoped that the Palestininans would resettle in surround Arab countries.
Questions:-
1. Why do you think that the solution of re-settlement in Arab countries never materialised?
2. If your plan is original – what is the difference with bribing the Palestinans and/or bribing the surrounding Arab states to accept them as fully citizens decades ago?
3. Since soulution 2 never materialised and refugee camps survived this long – what will you “solution” offer?
I proferred that you have just placed a formula for greater and continued hegemony for the US in the region – a la – Iraq = Sunni – Shia – Kurds. Now, repeat the fomula in Libya which had been the result in the former Yugoslavia. What can Moldovia do in the wider world?
Please to have your reply
Courtenay,
‘Libya was wealthy ( having the best social and economic indices for any national group on the continent of Africa) and the Libyans came out in numbers beyond 1m persons in support of Gadaffi ( n.b. the population is in the region of 6m people).’
Of course Libya was and is extremely wealthy but most of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of the Gaddafi family and supporters. A great part of the population was impoverished. As regards one million people demonstrating in support of Gaddafi, please provide the evidence.
‘Had there been a genuine majority that simply wanted this regime change in Libya, would the change have had to have been inflicted and imposed by way of some 9 months of relentless bombardment from foreign forces? Surely, a displeased majority can remove a leader without direct foreign support by way of bombardment ( e.g. Egypt?)’
Has there really been any change in Egypt? Surely the army is still in control and is supported by the US. It’s very unlikely that Gaddafi could have been removed without outside help simply because the West had armed him to the teeth and the UK in particular had trained and armed the police and intelligence services to deal with rebellion. How many demonstrators in Tripoli and other cities were shot with UK sniper rifles?
And surely it would be ludicrous to think that after such a brutal regime of forty plus years things would instantly be perfect. How many years are we in the UK meant to have had the rule of law and been an upholder of human rights? And yet whose army kicked and beat Baha Mosa, an innocent Iraqi to death. And in spite of continuous denials of being involved in rendition we have recently found out that the British were delivering up Libyan dissidents to Gaddafi.
“I congratulate you on the safe arrival of Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq,” wrote Mark Allen, head of MI6’s counterterrorism unit, in a March 2004 letter to Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kusa. “This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years. I am so glad.”
Sadiq was held and tortured in Abu Salim prison for seven years.
You speak with disdain of the rebels and yet the rebels are in the main just ordinary people. Whether they’ll be content with the interim government remains to be seen.
Courtenay Barnett,
You have posed pertinent questions, needing further explorations.
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However, at the outset I must clarify this is not my solution (I am an ardent anti zionist, as well as being even less tolerant of imperialism), but my analysis/take on the probable future of the course of conduct of US. In fact your conclusion also corroborates my take of the US desire for proliferation/promulgation of weaker states, that in effect cannot offer any kind of resistance or competition; “What can Moldovia do in the wider world?”. In addition to rendering these weaker states to be ripe for corporate take over in various fields, specifically finance, and oil.
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Unfortunately, for us, we are living through an era, that shall come to represent the darkest of times in the modern history. the events unfolding have been reminiscent of the old Sykes Picot, although much more doped up, and on heavy doses of steroids.
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Fact that “defence of the realm” (preparations for decoupling from a weaker US) came to be the blue print for the project; “New American Century” , and for the duration of the last decades the relentless wars have resulted in the current map of the area. However the overstretched and out of money US is no longer in a position to carry on fighting even more wars, despite the pressures from within the US political machinery. Hence the “solution” that is sought for to solve the problem which would probably end the zionist project if left unaddressed.
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With respect to the bribing of the surrounding Arabs was in fact bribing the charge hands, such as Mubarak, Gaddafi, Saddam, etc. However these bribes in effect were the precursor for more strife for Palestinians, given their use as collateral for an ongoing revenue stream for these various charge hands/leaders.
You are right when you say nothing has changed in Egypt Ruth, it leaves to be seen whether Libya can mould its own post ghaddaffi politi and government. The Arab spring, lets not dare to call it revolution, yet, has come to a spluttering halt, so it seems, but signs are deceptive. I expect Iraq to go the same way, again, because Maliki is not Independent enough, he’s partial to succumb to the chants of the medhi army, with sunni’s and Kurds being shunted off out of Government. Critics of Maliki’s are not well received by him, indeed he has a warrant out for his vice president, not a good sign.
If Iraq indeed needs a strong leader, ala Tito, then its not Maliki, but who are we in the west to say what should happen, whether in Egypt, Libya or Saudi, it is our mongering that has kept these vasalls in power, now they have to fall before a new politi gels out of what was there before, I expect it to be bloody, because of our medlling.
Tito, whatever western propaganda said, was fair to Croats, Bosninas, Serbs, Montenegrians and Albanian interests, he had the seats in Parliament allocated according to their populace,a quasi proportional representation, but pulled together at the centre.
Raise the flags high and give thanks unto the Lord! HRH is safely delivered from Papworth’s gates. Perhaps the Poet Laureate could put pen to paper. Where is McGonigall just when we need him?
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Just listen to the gushing of this BBC idiot woman.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-16337357