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.
Heartbleed bug? No. Bleeding hearts and no irony. Yes.
Israelis help injured green turtles!! So much for the Palestinians. In the much longer Sky version (on both channels note and repeated several times last night) the scientist credited work on Israeli military aircraft for the design of the fin. What crap.
Turtle in Israel given replacement fin
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26979295
Fred, thank you for your comment. I agree “Either way attempts to discredit the poster are no substitute for having facts to support your statements.”
I have had a look, though not studied, the link provided by Resident Dissident. Remember when I did my first degree the Kremlin archives had not been available so the extent of the purges was not available. Krushchev had hinted at this in his memoirs.
The links I gave to the Tony Blair and George Bush killings in Iraq, and remember that does not include, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, Serbia and wherever else NATO has recently engaged, were direct deaths from an illegal war. The figures provided by RD were not the direct killings of Stalin, Beria and their henchmen.
The reason death through starvation should be discounted is because it was, as I tried to explain, a global problem. Do we call children who died during the Great Depression in the United States victims of Roosevelt’s purges? If you cannot read all this article there is a table on page 40 which shows the decline in infant mortality during the period in the United States.
https://www.princeton.edu/chw/events_archive/repository/02272006_haines/02-27-06.pdf
I am not, and never have been, a Stalinist. Nearly all people who get to positions of supreme power are evil creatures who have climbed on the backs of others to get there. But the argument was made in Zoe Williams’ article that Tony Blair should no longer be called a ‘war-criminal’ because he did some good. If such an argument was true, and I do not believe it is, Stalin changed Russia (the USSR) from being a backward agrarian country into a superpower. In terms of technological advancement that is undoubtedly a true statement. It does not excuse his purges. Neither should Blair be excused his war-criminality.
Anyone think ZW is just trying to attract attention by making obviously false arguments, agitate the digital biosphere and hope from the thousands one person may visit guardian website.
Ba’al; “US mediator Indyk (ex-AIPAC, so no problem there) is dangling the release of Pollard in front of Netanyahu”
Interesting take on this here;
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/04/10/why-free-jonathan-pollard-now/
Herbie
Became heretics…
Tip for correct electrical testing results: zero out the resistance of your leads first.
Tip for correct religious testing results: don’t take for granted the bits of preaching that say it’s a miracle that we as humans are not supposed to understand. Zero out ideas your mind is finding resistance in comprehending or the bits you are told you should not worry your little head about.
Religion above all things is something you have to fully understand. God is in charge of everything and we are being tested in our lives on our primeval promise to worship him only.
Otherwise we are just clutching at straws, slipping into heretical quicksand…
Thanks, Macky. Some interesting links on that page, too. Seems the US palaeoconservatives are alive to what’s going on.
Mr Goss
My advice would be that when in a hole to stop digging. You are just heaping lies and distortions on top of each other, and all the time revealing more and more of your true nature.
You received your degree in 1983. There was plenty of documentation of the extent of the GULAG by that time e.g. Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago was published in 1973.
As for the “famine” line you are taking – you are again taking the entirely discredited Stalinist line that it was all a natural phenomenom. No it wasn’t, it was nearly all man made and was caused by the mass confiscation of grain, including the seed grain for future crops, the murder and deportation of the kulaks, the forced collectivisation of agriculture. All of this was revealed at the time by Malcolm Muggeridge and Gareth Jones, but fellow travellers and useful idiots wilfully chose to ignore what they were saying for many years, and in the case of useless idiots such as yourself still continue to do so. Might I kindly, suggest that you kindly suggest commenting further on matters Ukrainian until you fill the rather large Holodomor sized hole in your education.
You made the assertion that Blair killed more children than Stalin and Beria – the only piece of evidence you have produced to support that wild assertion has been estimated total death figures for Iraq, which do not identify the number of children killed. Rather than supporting your own assertion, you resulted to your usual trick of asking others who challenged your assertion to demonstrate the opposite (quite how a reputable University gave you two degrees if this is your normal modus operandii is quite beyond me). RD made a sound attempt to take up your challenge, and in the process wiped the floor with you, he/she also explained the futility of getting a fix on the proportion of children among those who died in the Gulag – but lets just say it was likely to be many millions given the proportion of children who were sent there (which surprised even me) – but still you press for a precise number. Might I suggest that it is up to you to do that given your original assertion – which you know need to support or apologise for.
“But the argument was made in Zoe Williams’ article that Tony Blair should no longer be called a ‘war-criminal’ because he did some good.”
Which of course is not the case if you actually bother to read it – what you are giving is your own inference/straw man.
ESLO
Brilliant post at 11h30; even the Master Evader won’t have a come-back for that one.
Congratulations.
ESLO, I’m sorry. I have never been an apologist for Stalin, whereas you are an apologist for Blair. Also you are so full of it all the senna pods in Arabia could not clear you out.
I gave you a link.
http://www.coia.org.uk/
Your hero’s handiwork. Look at it! Shame on you!
Also you are digressing off topic bec. I made a speculation using the word ‘probably’ that Blair (when the total number of directly-attributed deaths are known) will have killed more children than Stalin. You ignored my link once and said I had given no figures. Let’s see if
Herbie
How did you get on with your purchase of Chinese currency yesterday?
I’m assuming you did buy some since you’d previously posted predicting doom for the USD and exciting prospects for the renminbi.
Apologies I hit the wrong key and it posted before I’d finished.
ESLO, I’m sorry. I have never been an apologist for Stalin, whereas you are an apologist for Blair. Also you are so full of it all the senna pods in Arabia could not clear you out.
I gave you a link.
http://www.coia.org.uk/
Your hero’s handiwork. Look at it! Shame on you!
Also you are digressing off topic because Blair is the subject and whether Zoe Williams is right that he should not be called a war-monger rather remembered for the good he has done. I simply made a speculation using the word ‘probably’ that Blair (when the total number of directly-attributed deaths are known) will have killed more children than Stalin. You ignored my link once and said I had given no figures. Let’s see if you do so again.
There have been huge anti banker/austerity demonstrations/protests/riots going on in Spain since before the Arab Spring, pretty universally ignored by the media because it doesn’t suit the preferred narrative.
I’m trying to decide if this is new footage or from last month. It’s got a tag saying 53 cities:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=762_1397160302
I’ve found this piece in today’s Mail Online but nothing anywhere else:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-105333/Demonstrators-riot-Spain.html
Anybody know?
ESLO = supporter of Guantanamo.
ESLO = opposer of gulags.
I oppose all this wrongdoing. So kick me off the moral high-ground bullshitter.
You were right Habba
The Perpetual Evader
I did not say you gave no figures – just that the ones you gave did not support your claim.
That site (which appears to be for an unregistered and therefore illegal UK Charity) does not give the total number of children killed in Blair’s war or for those killed by Stalin and Beria – your original claim is still entirely unsubstantiated.
BTW Senna pods are from Egypt not Arabia.
ESLO
Have you noticed how conspicuous Mr Goss’s fellow-Excellences – usually so quick to rush uninvited to each other’s defence – are by their silence at the moment?
Not a peep on this matter from Mary, Ba’al Zevul, Herbie, Macky and the other vocalists.
The Tovarish stands isolated.
I wonder whether it is the silence of agreement or the silence of embarrassment?
ESLO = supporter of Guantanamo.
ESLO = opposer of gulags.
Wrong and wrong – stop digging
From the Great Evader aka Mr Goss
“ESLO = supporter of Guantanamo.”
_________________
When he’s not “doing a Goss” or evading, he’s lying.
Links, Mr Goss? And don’t come out with your “implicitly” bullshit. And when you’re at it, please supply links for your repeated assertion that I support torture (again, no “implicitly” bullshit).
ESLO, stay on topic. Tell me you agree or disagree with Zoe Williams support for Blair. I’m sure you do. I would be ashamed to own it. But then I have some shame.
“ESLO = supporter of Guantanamo.
ESLO = opposer of gulags.
Wrong and wrong – stop digging”
So you don’t oppose the gulags? It’s not what you’ve been suggesting.
John Goss
Yes Mr Goss – I do oppose gulags. Perhaps not surprisingly I am not paying attention to your current warblings.
No I don’t disagree with Williams support for Blair on the specific items where she indicated support was warranted – that is not the same as saying I agree with everything he did since I don’t. Some of us don’t toe the Party line as slavishly as yourself.
John Goss
You still need to support your claim or apologise.
A Node, thanks for that. Yes it never makes it onto our media because they do not want us to know. The same is true of Bosnia. On fire but the MSM press are absent. It is why we need the alternative press and writers like Binoy Kampmark.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/02/11/bosnias-violent-protests-he-who-sows-hunger-reaps-anger/
Anyway it’s a nice day in Birmingham.
Blair easing his friends into Ethiopia –
http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php/explore/13001-pm-hailemariam-holds-talks-with-tony-blair-
President educated in China, strong Chinese investment presence, tantalum (scarce strategic resource), gold. Enormous aid recipient.
Ethiopia is a locus of international attention in the Horn of Africa due to both its consistently high rates of economic growth and for its continued problems with widespread hunger and poverty. The nation is also significant for being among the most dependent on foreign aid. Topping the worldwide list of countries receiving aid from the US, UK, and the World Bank, the nation has been receiving $3.5 billion on average from international donors in recent years, which represents 50 to 60 percent of its national budget.
Development aid has become essential in funding the Ethiopian government’s so-called development strategy, outlined in the 2010 Growth and Transformation Plan. Through extensive infrastructure construction and large-scale agricultural production, the government of Ethiopia seeks to reach middle-income status by 2015. A key element of the development strategy is the relocation of 1.5 million people from areas targeted for industrial plantations under the government’s “villagization” program. With more than 80 percent of the Ethiopian population dependent on agriculture and pastoralism for subsistence, the disruptions caused by the villagization program are resulting in increased food insecurity, destruction of livelihoods, and the loss of cultural heritage.
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/development-aid-ethiopia
https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Economy_of_Ethiopia.html
And Senegal-
http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/africa/news-entry/AGI-agrees-new-partnership-in-Senegal/
Fairly democratic government, gross inequality, major exports fish, peanuts, phosphate – this last is something we really don’t want the Chinese monopolising as it is a rapidly dwindling resource essential for fertiliser – major international aid recipient.
“Some of us don’t toe the Party line as slavishly as yourself.”
I toed the party line that slavishly I got out.
I thought you were a Blair apologist. Won’t be able to address any of your other comments but you could try picking on somebody else for a change. Or am I your only target today?
Here’s Ba’al Zevul, still maintaining an embarrassed silence re the Great Evader’s vapourings LOL
Just joined the habbabreak club and I hear that Clark is calling for a tedium break. I’ll second that, after all we are living in a new Millenium and revisionists are at work in the here and now, dare I say Bliar.
Sorry John that you are standing alone against two of them who in concert have made at least eleven attacks on you this morning but as you know I refrain from falling into Habbabkuk’s enticements to join in. If I was you, I would ignore them. They are adept at twisting other people’s comments to what they see as their advantage. They are so transparent. Agent Cameron/Heir to Blair could do with some of transparency at No 10.
More Greenwald stooging for the corporate state.
Back to Blair and his part in the blowing out of small children’s brains.
This is the truth behind the toppling of Saddam’s statue. Do you remember the US flag being put on the top and the ‘crowd’ stamping on the statue after it was brought to the ground?
All staged.
The photographs tell the story…
Is This Media manipulation on a grand scale?
Updated: 04/15/03
New pictures of ” crowd” in the square: Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4
Yes, the occupation has begun.
See Also: A tale of two photos
04/10/03
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm
Comments added April 09, 2014