The greatest boost ever received by Islamic fundamentalism was the invasion of Iraq. Closely followed by extraordinary rendition, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and drones, and Israeli bombings of Gaza. All of those things lead some Muslims to believe a violent response by terrorism is required to defend themselves. So for Tony Blair, who has promoted huge hatred and caused unnumbered deaths through a career of deceit and self-enrichment, to warn about the dangers of Islamic terrorism is something nobody but a few Guardian and Murdoch acolytes wish to hear.
Blair of course has many tens of millions stuffed into his capacious back-pocket by oligarchs from the ex-Soviet space, so it is unsurprising to hear him call for understanding between Russia and the West. It is even more to form that this understanding should be based on joint hatred of Muslims.
There is an alarming failure by many in the UK to understand that Russia is an Empire. Russia’s Asian possessions were taken by invasion from their indigenous and Muslim populations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, at precisely the same time Britain was taking its own colonies. The Russian conquests were no less colonial from the accident of geography that they were contiguous. Dagestan and Chechnya were only conquered in the 1830’s. Most of Tartarstan later. The “Islamic fundamentalist threat” Russia faces jointly with the UK, is actually the struggle of colonized peoples for their freedom.
Blair includes China, which likewise is the colonial occupier of the Uighurs and other suppressed Muslim populations. To conflate the struggle for freedom from colonial occupation of these people with an over-reaching monster of “Islamic terrorism” is part of Blair’s trick. His examples in Africa are again born of despair from the consequences of centuries of colonial and now neo-liberal exploitation. I find his pronouncements on Boko Haram ironic, given that Blair’s single biggest legacy is to move the United Kingdom close to Nigerian standards of equality of wealth distribution.
The extraordinary thing is that Blair is somebody so hate-filled he wants to see yet more hatred, killing and violence. It is worrying that the establishment media are so happy to promote his view without providing any balancing opinion. I comfort myself that the real motive of this silly speech was that, other than his media acolytes, absolutely nobody cares what he is saying. It wasn’t so much a speech as a public display of ADD.
Obviously, that isn’t tens of millions. The real cash stream doesn’t come from oligarchs’ generous donations in respect of business being put their way by Tone, although that must help. The heavy money comes from European and American taxpayers funding those forms of foreign aid which are in demand by autocrats. TB gets a rake-off on these to cover the vast expense of pointing out that they exist and putting up a brass plate in the autocrat’s capital. And he is additionally rewarded by JP Morgan and Zurich Insurance for the trade he can drum up from dodgy governments. I’m guessing. But that’s what it looks like. When Tone tells some dodgy and brutish state leader that he would like to work in partnership with him to deliver expensive and right-on improvements, Tone’s money isn’t on the line. The funding source is described in the most nebulous terms but is occasionally identifiable as an EU or UN initiative with which Tone has no formal connection whatever.
Jemand,
Just watch who can hear Blair, and responds favourably. And read the whole speech, if you haven’t. What he says, essentially, at one point, is that we can give up on Israel making peace with the Palestinians and instead attack everyone who threatens Israel in the hope that that will solve the Palestinian problem*. But he doesn’t say it very clearly. Keep your eye on the JPost to see who got the message…
I think the Israelis are already very much aware that Blair is an honorary Chosen Person. He’s bought and paid for. And has no real need to impress them further. It’s more than a desire to please.
*It will. Israel will then be able to expand its settlements and squeeze the Pals out completely, without let or hindrance.
“We don’t take a position on this piece of land or this piece of rock but we do take a position on the peaceful resolution of these disputes.”
Obama – Japan – April 2014
Translation= “We don’t have an opinion on this piece of land or this piece of rock unless that land (Diegi Garcia) or rock (Gibralta?) is strategically important or commercially cardinal to us but we do not want China to take back $1.317 trillion they hold in US bonds.
CanSpeccy wrote “The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion.”
Not one of those has been done to British or English people. Their political system remains if anything backward, still using an electoral system that throws most votes in the bin unrepresented and unchanged since the 19th century.
Has the English language been abolished or people discouraged from speaking it? No. Is is no longer the language taught in schools and the official language of government? It remains the language of education and government and the dominant language and there is no prospect of that changing.
The government whether Labour or Conservative never shuts up about Britishness. The Anglican Christian Church remains the official state religion and the Pm bangs on about this being a “Christian country”.
Can Speccy wrote “It may be accomplished by wiping out all basis of personal security, liberty, health and dignity.”
While the NHS and welfare state and public services are being eroded this has been applied to immigrants and people applying for refugee status even more harshly than on people born here.
You are giving all these definitions of genocide, not one of which applies to English or Scottish or Welsh people in the UK today. Not one. Give it up. You’re only making yourself look foolish.
I just saw the whole speech on Bloomberg’s website and thought it was very good, with the qualification that Blair may have muddied his own waters by his treatment of China and Russia – not emphasizing human rights as much as cooperation in fighting terrorism. I would say that Boko Haram and ISIS are indeed a worrying sign of the threat from Islamism increasing. Also Blair’s support for the war in Iraq has unfortunately undermined his credibility and hence the ability to exert a good influence by means of this speech.
Quel surprise!
Israel suspends talks with Palestinian Authority over Fatah-Hamas unity deal
Seeks clarifications of make-up and policy of new Palestinian government.
By Barak Ravid | 17:56 24.04.14
The diplomatic-security cabinet voted Thursday to suspend negotiations with the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the PA’s unity agreement with Hamas the previous day.
/..
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.587237
or
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27146734
BBC News on Middle East: still broadcasting the discredited trope of US as peace-makers
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1398333470.html
C’mon, Mary. Millions of people believe them so they have to keep up the narrative! If they change their story all these people will start thinking… The question is, how long can they, or anyone else, keep up the lie(s) in these times of twitter, instagram, etc. Congrats to Brazil, by the way. Do you remember their stand-off with CNN way back in 2001?
Craig said, ‘Blair of course has many tens of millions stuffed into his capacious back-pocket…’
We remember £1.4 billion out of tax-paying wages in 2003/4 was underhandedly used to guarantee the BAE Al-Yamamah arms deal. Moving forward, Blair and his pal Lord Goldsmith attempted to block BAE and others bribery allegations on grounds of strategic national security (after consulting another mate, Saudi Prince Bandar) whose slush kitty funds weapons to proxy fighters in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/dec/15/politics.armstrade
No company or individual was convicted of bribery and BAE paid a small fine.
http://archive.today/SaMU
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6182125.stm
Turkey troop movements in Syria
Erdogan has sent some 300 forces and several armored vehicles to the neighboring country to protect the tomb of Suleyman Shah, who was the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s Today Zaman daily said on Wednesday.
The convoy also consists of six tanks and a food truck.
Turkey considers the tomb of Suleyman Shah as sovereign Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921. The tomb is located in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo.
An Ottoman tomb in or near Qal’at Ja’bar has historically been associated with Suleyman Shah. In accordance with Article 9 of the Treaty of Ankara (1921) signed between France and Turkey, an area of 8000 meters square containing the tomb remained Turkish territory despite the main border between Syria and Turkey being some 100 km north, thereby creating a Turkish Exclave.
‘MILITARY REINFORCEMENT AT SYRIA TERRITORY IS PLANNED ACTIVITY’
http://www.dailysabah.com/nation/2014/04/24/military-reinforcement-at-syria-territory-is-planned-activity
@Jives:
There’s really no point in attempting to argue rationally with posters like you.
Genocide??
I understand your failure to offer a single fact or argument to rebut the claim that the English are being progressively replaced by people from elsewhere, as have the majority already been replaced in London, Luton, Leicester, and Slough, for there is no argument available. As for refusal to accept the description of the process as genocide, that is understandable, too. I expect the Nazi’s jeered at, and sneered at, and called insane any Jew who might have objected to the Holocaust. How else, can an advocate of genocide respond to those who mention the crime?
Ba’al Zevul (Dark Artist)
Lol… where do you find these wee snippits…Thank you for the video 🙂 They are correct…
i’ve been in the highland arts joint maybe 3 times…and that’s twice more than enough… aye the place is Dark alright… Creepy as fk… even a huge Male chastity belt contraption up on the wall… AND the effin Music, i should think, hope the Staff get Danger money for having to listen to that old Scottish stuff all day…all week… its torture…NEVER GO THERE… Not even for a gift…just grab a wee slate off the beach…( that’s illegal though…but fuck em )
A final note though, the wee Village of Ellenabeich, is a wonderful place… we sat oot under the Black Starry sky.. listening to the music of big Atlantic Rollers… And a wee dram of course…. Bliss man.
oopps gotta dash to the Dojo
@Eslo
What you are spouting is racism pure and simple
Yes, I understand that anti-racism is the correct term for the kind of genocide being perpetrated across Western Europe by the advocates of globalization and the unrestricted movement of labor, capital, goods and profits across international boundaries.
But calling opposition to genocide racism doesn’t alter the reality of the process as defined by Raphael Lemkin who I quoted above.
your claim that your views are supported by evolutionary biology are just laughable.
You may well laugh, since what else can an ignoramus opposed to reality do.
But having graduated in biology with first class honors and the Faculty Prize from a decent English University, I don’t find basic concepts in evolutionary biology laughable.
As for your statement if anything the evidence shows that those with mixed race backgrounds are more intelligent and beautiful than those with more pure ethnicity
it is beside the point. I said nothing about the hypothesis of hybrid vigor in humans, I was talking of the destruction of human biodiversity through the destruction of the European nations.
Just as you consider opposition to genocide racism, you are probably one of those who claim to be a champion of diversity while advocating policies that destroy human biodiversity.
Mixing of races as opposed to the in breeding you are so keen on is actually what evolution is about
That is mere drivel. Evolution is not “about” anything, it just happens. Today, human evolution is being driven by the political needs of a globalist empire that finds nationalism the chief obstacle to establishing a global plutocratic system under which the mass of humanity will be reduced to the status of a domesticated animal to be bred, culled, and brainwashed at the behest of undemocratic international bodies of governance subject to the money power, i.e., the global banks and other mega corporations.
“I was talking of the destruction of human biodiversity through the destruction of the European nations.”
Garbage – anyone with half a brain would realise that there is a lot more human biodiversity in European nations than used to be the case – and jolly good thing too.
“Evolution is not “about” anything, it just happens. Today, human evolution is being driven by the political needs…………….”
“the second sentence contradicts the first, and although I am not a trained biologist I’m pretty sure that Darwin didn’t say that evolution juts happens – are you sure that your English university was that decent, or perpahs you have just forgot what you were taught.
ESLO clearly has your number I’m afraid.
I don’t know why anybody listens to Tony Blair; it is just a deep and baffling mystery to me.
Yes, Russia is an empire. So is the continental U.S.A. from sea to shining sea and between Mexico and Canada – never mind the overseas stuff.
My suspicion is that we should have as good relations with Russia as possible, though not on the basis of some fanciful, non-existent “Muslim Threat”. We should just treat them with all due respect. That excludes “gas station” remarks of the kind which recently emanated from John McCain.
God knows what’s happening in Ukraine, but it is all very dangerous, too many people have already been killed and it is all totally unnecessary. Russia, I feel, is more sinned against than sinning in this case. They didn’t pick this fight, though whatever happens in the short term, in the long term they are going to win it.
RD, biological evolution happens without a guiding hand. The environment, however, constrains the possibilities of what exactly can “happen”.
But to reduce it to its elements, evolution involves change (random mutations in nature, intelligent design in man-made systems), a test of performance, an elimination of competition and a consolidation of change by reproduction and propagation.
The statement “Evolution is not about anything”, simply means that evolution is not an invention or prescription that conforms with an ideology, it is a description of a natural process which “just happens”. You can describe that process at any level that you wish if you are not satisfied with it “just happening”. But be sure that with or without your knowledge and/or approval, it will “just happen” anyway.
‘anyone with half a brain would realise that there is a lot more human biodiversity in European nations than used to be the case’
One consequence being that Europe can boast of 8 athletes on this list, although only one of them is ethnically ‘European’. In fact 88 out of the 90 men listed here are either mainly or entirely of West African origin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10-second_barrier
@RD
Garbage – anyone with half a brain would realise that there is a lot more human biodiversity in European nations than used to be the case – and jolly good thing too.
Biodiversity results from isolation of populations that diverge over time in response to differences among them in selective pressures and as a consequence of random mutations, genetic drift and other factors. If you take diverse populations long separated by barriers of geography, politics, class or caste and mix them together you create, over time, an increasingly uniform mongrel race lacking the diversity evident among the original populations, which is to say that you destroy diversity.
To take an obvious example, instead of white brown, yellow, red and black, all fine colors, you have a more or less uniform khaki pigmentation. You will also get some pretty weird combinations of physical features, some good some not so good. In my opinion, the most attractive features are to be seen among those from long inbred societies, for example, a Vietnamese girl’s beautiful nose (what a tragedy to marry that with a Greek or Jewish Schnozz).
The English were a somewhat mongrel race even before the recent mass influx of aliens, which perhaps explains why so few of them are really good looking. But I wrote about this elsewhere (In Praise of Diversity) so no need to go on about it here.
I could, following your lead, add some comments about your half-brainedness, the probably deficiencies of your education, etc., etc., but I am not so unsure of my argument as to resort to such gratuitous insolence.
CanSpeccy, 24 Apr 7:08 pm:
and
Alfred, if people choose to have few or no children, that is their own business, not yours. Likewise if they engage in recreational, non-reproductive sexual activities; it’s no more your business than it is the Pope’s. Faster breeding by some groups does not decrease the biodiversity of other groups that breed more slowly.
After millennia of relative stability the human population has quadrupled in just over a century (I’ve seen it double in my lifetime) so presumably there is somewhat more human biodiversity than in the past. Natural genetic mutation only increases the gene pool at a modest rate. Mutation due to pollution (radioactive isotopes and chemical mutagens) has presumably increased that rate; the “globalist empire” you mention has presumably increased such pollution and thereby accelerated the increase of the gene pool, so perhaps you should write and thank them.
Personally I’ve chosen not to have children because the alarming population rise suggests that a population crash is likely, and I’d rather not bear personal responsibility for subjecting any offspring to starvation, disease or combat over resources.
So I shouldn’t have to have given you the lecture above. What happened to your beautiful mind? Or did you cheat? I’m pretty sure you used to click the +1 button on your own comments here before IntenseDebate was uninstalled.
One consequence being that Europe can boast of 8 athletes on this list,
Yes, that is undoubtedly one of the reasons the UK elite promote mass immigration. For any role or function in society, including athletic competition, you will almost certainly find a prospective immigrant better qualified than any indigenous Brit.
Britain’s ruling elite have decided to import a better population than the one they started with. But that exposes the deeply anti-democratic tendency of the New World Order and its Blairite/Cameroonian/Murrayite promoters.
The policy also ignores what happens in generations two, three, etc. The hybrid population will not have the range of special talents that the original immigrant population had. There is reversion to the mean among the children of those of superior talent and there is disruption of particular gene associations that make for superior speed, or strength or mathematical or verbal ability (the last two being among talents for which the English have in the past been distinguished).
if people choose to have few or no children, that is their own business, not yours
Who said otherwise? Certainly not I. If you are referring to my comment about promotion of non-reproductive sex, that is another matter altogether. That is a question of government seeking to control individual choice through brainwashing, something of which you evidently approve, but I do not.
And like a good liberal-leftie, I see you cannot resist adding some punch to your feeble argument with a raft of insults. I guess that should make me feel good since it surely indicates that even you can see the weakness of your own case.
CanSpeccy, 1:51 am
Not if the populations are free to move – which is exactly what you are opposing. I hope your hypocrisy is accidental.
I suppose your assertion may be true in experiments, where the environment and thus selection pressures are artificially restricted. But breeding between diverse populations does not reduce the gene pool. Those genetic alternatives persist within the population, where they will be available to respond to varying selection pressures in diverse environments.
Canspeccy, nature is cleverer that the eugenicists were. That’s why they all but disappeared.
CanSpeccy, 2:12 am:
What exactly are you hinting at? It look suspiciously unpleasant, and I’ve only heard of one case of legal action for allegedly improper use of condoms.
Canspeccy,
Ugly ugly ugly worldview fella.
Go find the love and compassion you in your life so obviously lack.
I’m not sure Blair is “hate-filled”. Hateful, perhaps. Selfish and driven for sure. Driven by ego and a desire for self-enrichment.
I don’t think he really believes in the politics of hate that he uses. He’d say the exact opposite if he thought it would get him where he wanted to be. Which perhaps makes him even more hateful than the hate-filled zealot who actually believes in the shit that he preaches.
Fifty nine percent of the UK public believes that fewer than 10,000 Iraqis died as a result of the Iraq War – a very extensively covered war.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/poll-deaths-iraq-ignored-media
Professional polls have found the same stunning level of public ignorance in the USA.
http://www.spinwatch.org/index.php/issues/war-and-foreign-policy/item/5468-media-communication-and-the-consequences-of-war-counting-the-casualties-in-Iraq
Where does the fault lie? With the people themselves or with the corporate mainstream media who carry the warmongers’ messages and spin?
Interesting that the “journalist” (?) kidnapped by the nationalists in eastern Ukraine as being suspicious has dual US-Israeli citizenship. Another mega mmmmm!
US journalist released by pro-Russian gunmen in Ukraine, Vice confirms
Simon Ostrovsky was held hostage in eastern Ukraine by armed separatists, who accused him of spying for enemy groups
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/24/us-journalist-simon-ostrovsky-released-ukraine
Murdoch has a 5% stake in VICE for whom Ostrovsky works.
http://www.vice.com/en_uk
The abuse levelled at fellow scientist, CanSpeccy, for daring to DESCRIBE phenomena rather than PRESCRIBE some emotional dispositions and PROSCRIBE other ones, is the typical form of this blog’s commentators who demand that a political declaration is attached to every single idea expressed under penalty of personal abuse for non-compliance. It’s a bit like being required to give the ‘Roman Salute’ every time you enter the room.
CanSpeccy is entirely correct in relation to his description of biodiversity being a PRODUCT of isolation and not one of integration. Isolation gives minor differences an opportunity to amplify rather than diminish under pressure of overwhelming competition which has a tendency to eliminate differences that fail to propagate.
We can extend these observations, without resorting to name calling, to culture. Does anybody have the courage to champion the aggressive march of Anglo-US culture across the globe? Anyone happy to see cultural barriers erode to allow Asian and African teenagers in shitty parts of the world to clothe themselves in Levis, wearable US flags and corporate logos while listening to hip hop on their iPlods? Anybody happy to surrender their language with its embedded cultural history to a uniform American version? Should we send them to ‘gaol’ or ‘jail’?
There seems to be some confusion as to what “diversity” means. How about difference vs volume? Making superficial or minor changes to large populations does not give you diversity. So multiplying a single pasty, curry-eating Brit by 10 million doesn’t give you multiculturalism.
Thanks to the erosion of barriers that once prevented rapid, large scale migration of people throughout the world, we have seen the extinction of many different types of plants, animals and humans. The Floresian Hobbits, by virtue of ISOLATION, evolved as a distinct species of human. Unfortunately, their much larger and more powerful cousins invaded and wiped them out.
I could go on and on about European colonisation that has seen the genocide of unique variants of humans like the Aboriginal people of Tasmania and their pet Tasmanian Tigers. But who cares? The brain-dead followers of the false Gods of multiculturalism and multiracialism cannot be touched by the hand of calm reason.
“Interesting that the “journalist” (?) kidnapped by the nationalists in eastern Ukraine as being suspicious has dual US-Israeli citizenship. Another mega mmmmm!”
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
It certainly makes you think, Mary.
I know Simon Ostrovsky. From my limited acquaintance he seems a very decent person.