A while ago a friend asked me why the western media ignored the Naxalite rebellion. I confess I looked at them in some bemusement. They gave me a quick briefing and I went to read more.
Yesterday the Naxalites killed 74 Indian para-military forces in a huge gun battle in Chatisgarrh, bringing to over 200 the number of Indian security forces they have killed this year – before we get into the officials and landlords they have killed. A Muslim suicide bamber killing six Pakistani civilians makes broadcast media on every channel. The Naxalites are fighting a burgeoning civil war in the heart of India, yet totally ignored.
The Naxalites are a rebellion of impoverished castes against landowners, and of indigenous people whose environment is being ruined by mineral mining against the government and big business who make sure they don’t benefit. They characterise themselves as Maoist, and their leadership includes Indian university intellectuals with links to the cult of Bob Avakian in the USA and to the Maoist rebels of Nepal. The Naxalites have real control on the ground of a great deal more territory in India than Karzai and NATO control in Afghanistan.
This low level war has been rumbling on for decades, but has burst into real fire by a decision two years ago by the Indian government to switch policy. From trying to undermine the Naxalites by social policies assuaging the greivances of the poor in the region, they dramatically changed to a policy of wiping out the Naxalites militarily. The cause of the change was India’s economic growth and the urge to speed up multinational company access to mineral resources. So far, it looks like a very stupid decision.
How much of that did you know? I maintain that if the Naxalites were Muslim, they would be on the front page of every paper as a threat to India, and the Americans would be bombing them. But they aren’t, so you will find them hard to track in the mainstream media.
They are however just an extreme example of the fact that the losers in India’s economic miracle are not dependably complacent.
India also used the Bangladesh War of Independence (1971) as an opportunity to crush the Naxalites.
So we had the Pakistani Army mass-murdering Bengalis in ‘East Pakistan’ (as it was then) and simultaneously the Indian Army murdering Bengalis in West Bengal.
I confess to never having heard of the Naxalites before. It just shows how true Marshall McLuhan’s famous phrase is ?” “The medium is the message”
I didn’t know anything about them whatsoever. But as you suggest, that’s because they get a vanishingly small amount of coverage. But again, how much is generally reported on the far-right christianists of America, who like going around bombing, shooting and terrorising normal people? If a Muslim in the armed forces decides to do a bit of fragging, reporters breathlessly cover it wall-to-wall for weeks. When it’s a white guy, particularly a Christian, nobody gives it a second thought.
Not to mention bringing a gun to public meetings is apparently just fine, and all the rage these days with this bunch of tea-bagging whack jobs: http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_political/3983339.html#cutid1
Go on, look at the link – see how well home-schooling is working out for them.
The ADF (Asian Dub Foundation) did a great song – the opener on their debut album – entitled, ‘Naxalite!’ Check it out on YouTube.
“But again, how much is generally reported on the far-right christianists of America, who like going around bombing, shooting and terrorising normal people?”
Eric Robert Rudolph was in the news all the time when he was on the run.
The recent abortion doctor murderer was in the news all the time.
Glenn, to whom are you referring?
Answer my question, larries.
My name is not larries. Are you under the impression (like many commenters at this blog) that me and Angrysoba are one and the same and a component of a disinformation office in Israel?
If you watch the Michael Caine film Get Carter made in 1971, you will see some appalling examples of pollution where coal slag waste is simply dumped into the North Sea en-masse by auto crane dumpers on a gantry
Also if you lived in the North of England throughout the 50’s and 60’s as a Child, both the air, rivers, streams and sea was very heavily polluted. The clean up since then is phenomenal.
India is something else entirely
In some parts of India, the extent of the pollution from mining, not just of the air, streams and rivers, but also the actually land is far worse than anything that ever happenned in the North of England.
It affects many Millions of People. The tap water, where it exists which was perfectly O.K. 25 years ago, literally tastes of heavy metal and is undrinkable, unless that is your only source which will be true for Millions of Indians. The extent of this pollution will almost certainly dramatically reduce life expectancy and cause cancers and deformities in what was previously a healthy well fed population in an agriculturally rich area.
99% of the pollution is completely unnecessary. The mining could still continue with far less pollution if different methods were employed.
But the Indian Government seems not to care. They live many hundreds of miles away.
I don’t know how true it is, but I was told that it is not British or even American companies that are primarily responsible for the atrocious pollution, but Japanese companies and their Indian subcontractors where the only interest is to maximise Profit.
They couldn’t give a shit about the People.
I know nothing about Craig Murray’s Gold Mining interests, but part of the problem in India is due to Gold Mining, though most of the problem comes from other metals such as Copper.
It is such an obscenity, that I am not surprised that someone is complaining, though I too had never heard of The Naxalite Rebellion
Tony
I’d never heard of them before and at first i thought they must be a historical movement rather than existing today. I’m quite shocked none of the major media seem to have reported this at all.
Wikipedia has a page on them and has links to some BBC reports but these call them ‘Maoists’ – i’ve no idea if that’s accurate or not?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7151552.stm
If they are Maoists i’ve not much sympathy for their leaders, though i’m sure many of their supporters deserve sympathy given how brutal the caste system still is in India and how many people die of starvation and poverty every year there.
I thought you might be commenting on this situation Craig.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8607324.stm
Kyrgyzstan in crisis as clashes escalate
KYRGYZSTAN FACTS
One of the poorest of the former Soviet states
Hosts both US and Russian military air bases
Population mostly Kyrgyz but *15% are Uzbek* and a significant number of Russians live in the north and around the capital
Kurmanbek Bakiyev has been president since the Tulip Revolution of 2005, which overthrew the government of Askar Akayev
Mr Bakiyev vowed to restore stability but has been accused of failing to tackle corruption
Opponents also complain he has installed relatives in key government posts
Domestic media have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent months
The Indian magazine Tehelka has a long-running series of articles on the topic. This one
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne211109coverstory.asp
including much context and an interview with a senior government minister, is especially informative.
I used to think that news was the reporting of what happens. Now I know that news is only that part of what happens which is reported.
Changes your perspective on what filters through the media, does it not?
And in Goa, one of India’s most prosperous and well educated States….
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/goas-mining-problems
“Goa’s mining problems
We were standing between a massive mine and a stunning water reservoir. Local activists were explaining to me that this iron ore mine was located in the catchment of the Salaulim water reservoir, the only water source for south Goa. Suddenly, as I started clicking with my camera, we were surrounded by a jeepload of men. They said they were from the mine management and wanted us off the property. We explained that we had come on a public path and that there were no signs to indicate that we were trespassing. But they were not in a mood to listen. They snatched the keys of our jeep, picked up stones to hit us and got abusive. Before things got totally out of hand, we decided to leave. They followed us till they saw that we left the area and most importantly, could not stop and take more photographs.
I was completely baffled at these developments. After all, this was Goa, known for its sandy beaches, lush green mountains and, most of all, its peace and calm. This was also the place where industrialists – the Dempos, the Salgaocars, the Timblos with mineral interests – play key roles in education, in culture and in promoting the ethics of good corporate governance. Why would they allow mining to take place next to what is clearly the most important water source for the state? Why were there no signboards with names of owners, near or around the mine? Why would state regulators allow this to happen? What was happening in this paradise to unleash this violence and simmering tension? I got my answers soon.
In the next village, Colomba, I was surrounded once again: not by goons of mining company, but by women of the village. We were standing on top of the hill, overlooking the village nestled between coconut and cashewnut trees. But where we were, bulldozers, mechanised shovels and trucks were hard at work. They were breaking the hill, shovelling its mud, dumping the rejects and then taking away the ore. The mine had just started operations, said the agitated women, but their streams were already drying up. The sight of the red waste on the green lands presented a stark contrast.
They dragged me down into the village, where they showed me their wasted fields. They then showed me how the mining waste – and there are tonnes of this red mud – was being dumped into their streams. They walked me to a home where the walls had been badly damaged, they said, because of the blasting in the mines. The house owner, Devki Katu Velip, told me that when she complained to the miners, the supervisor told her they would destroy her house completely if she dared protest again.
Understandably, the villagers had just one demand: close down the mines. I asked how permission had been given without their consent. Who were these companies and whose land were they mining? I learnt that in this literate state these mining operations were shrouded in secrecy. It was assumed that conditional environmental clearance had been taken to operate the mine located mostly on comunidade land – originally under local community control and only to be leased out for agriculture. But as the concessions had been granted by the Portuguese government and later converted into leases by the Indian government, these restrictions did not seem to apply. Or, at least, did not matter.
The ownership status was also unclear, explained the villagers. One Hiralal Khodidas had the lease, but the mine was operated by Sociedade Formento (one of Goa’s biggest mining companies) through an agent, Raisu Naik, who had in turn sub-contracted it to Gurudas Naik, the ex- sarpanch of the village. This is why, I guess, the mines did not have company signboards. It did not suit them to reveal their identity.
In the next village, Quinamol, the scene was more or less the same. The miners were rowdy; the villagers angry. The only difference was that the mine was older – first mined for manganese and now being excavated for iron ore. It generated more mining waste, covering open fields and filling water bodies. The tension was palpable. In this case, the mine was leased to politician Chandrakant Naik but was being operated by one Bhandari. Nobody could give me more details about him.
The women told me that they had complained but nobody was listening. I learnt later – the day after my visit – that villagers had stopped a truck loading the material and beaten the driver. A case has now been registered against them. But is it only their fault?
This was the scene in all the villages we passed. What made the situation poignant, and ironical, was the fact that these villages are not destitute, desperate for livelihoods and money. These are prosperous areas, where agricultural productivity is the basis of economic wealth. It is this well-being that is being destroyed, bit by bit. I understood then what the demand of ore from China, which had raised prices of the mineral to a new high, was doing to patterns of local economies.
It was in Vichundrem village, however, that I saw the future. Here our vehicle could not proceed up to the hill. It was blocked by a massive boulder. This was the simple but effective blockade put up by the village. It was their way to keep the miners out of the government forest land that surrounded their fields and provided it spring water for irrigation. The fields were gleaming green in the sun.
The images had been burned into my mind. When I returned to town that evening I saw on tv the violence in Nandigram, West Bengal, over the government’s plan to acquire land. I had just seen a million Nandigram mutinies in the making. Where are we headed I wonder.”
– Sunita Narain
Author(s):
Sunita Narain
Date:
14/04/2007
“My name is not larries. Are you under the impression (like many commenters at this blog) that me and Angrysoba are one and the same and a component of a disinformation office in Israel?”
Larry from St Louis
Ah! A response! Thank you. It is much appreciated. I am sorry if I have been a knave.
No, Larry, I’m not under that impression at all. I know Angrysoba is Angrysoba. I have recommended that people browse Angrysoba’s blog as I think it’s really quite interesting and also humorous even if one doesn’t always agree with all the points of view foregrounded. It also has good links to a broad range of sites. Angrysoba is in Osaka, Japan.
I do not know who you are. It would be really enlightening and possibly also somewhat re-humanising in the context of this blog, if you were to tell people something about yourself. Otherwise there is always the risk that people will imagine that ‘you’ are actually ‘they’ (as in plural rather than singular) and since in blog paranoia ‘they’ tend to be up to no good, to assume that you are up to no good.
So, Larry, please consider telling us something about yourself. Forget politics for a moment, and just imagine you are sitting next to me on the DC2NY bus. There is no featured entertainment and it is raining outside.
I was very moved when you related the story of your friend who had been killed during the Twin Towers destruction. You also alluded to aspects of US foreign policy with which you disagreed. I was keen to ascertain details of these. It may add nuance to the discussions.
Thank you for your time.
And in Phulbari in Bangladesh where the Canadian/Australian owned and UK Listed and Traded Mining Company Asia Energy proposed actions had resulted in mass protest riots and deaths… because they wanted to forcibly relocate over 100,000 people from a very rich agricultural land to totally destroy it by open cast mining… I posted this where all The Directors and Shareholders and Telegraph Journalists Could and Did read it…
As a Start ( I carried on over many months )
opmoc – 1 Sep’06 – 13:18 – 7771 of 8327 edit
There’s enough coal in the UK to provide all our energy requirements for around the next 450 years – however we have virtually stopped digging it up – although most of the mines were deep cast – and caused relatively little environmental damage.
The idea of open cast mining in high population density, rich arable land in Bangladesh is totally obscene.
If this project went ahead it would significantly reduce the population of Bangladesh. First of all the food production from the immediate area would stop, but the pollution from the mining would contaminate the water supply over a much larger area as far as and including the sea and kill most of the fish and other wildlife dependent in it. Once the water supply is contaminated, the local population is certain to see an enormous increase in cancers and other diseases.
Parts of India have the most appalling levels of pollution in major rivers, that extend all the way to the sea. This effects the entire water to supply to millions of people. You can clearly taste the pollution in the tap water, when 30 years ago it would have been perfectly safe to drink. Most local people cannot afford the luxury of drinking bottled water – in fact well over half the population no longer have access to safe clean water.
The idea that coal is more valuable than rice is total nonsense to the vast majority of the population of Bangladesh. You can’t eat coal.
Some of the comments on here stink as much as the proposed mining scheme.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Tony
opmoc – 1 Sep’06 – 14:15 – 7774 of 8327 edit
EdmondJ,
I thought the Daily Star only did Tits, Bums and related trivia. Have you started writing for them as well – or is this a none-UK Daily Star or is my perception wrong? I haven’t had a hair cut for quite a while, so haven’t read it recently.
Tony
Wiganer – 1 Sep’06 – 14:19 – 7775 of 8327
Re post 7771- I’ve never heard such drivel. Events have nothing to do with the environment or the interests of the people, and everything to do with political power plays by the Bangladeshi elite. Attempts to justify it are “green colonialism”.
PapalPower – 1 Sep’06 – 14:20 – 7776 of 8327
opmoc, if you knew anything about Bangladesh or had been there, you would know its one of the local Bengali rags.
Giltspur – 1 Sep’06 – 14:28 – 7777 of 8327
opmoc
lol
opmoc – 1 Sep’06 – 14:28 – 7778 of 8327 edit
PapalPower,
I haven’t read the local Bengali rags, but was quite impressed by the local Indian ones – especially their use of flowery English and style which appeared to be based on the UK circa 1920.
Wiganer,
I think you should pull your head out of your backside, and campaign for the coal mines in Orrel and Winstanley to be re-opened instead of accusing me of writing drivel.
Have you visited Upholland RC Priests Training College? I got sent there but thought they were a bunch of wankers.
Tony
jarvisd4e – 1 Sep’06 – 14:29 – 7779 of 8327
they should call you oddknob!
PapalPower – 1 Sep’06 – 14:33 – 7780 of 8327
opmoc, I like the reference to “vagabonds” and “rascals”……..its great, you cannot beat the Pak/Indian/Bengali English rags for some nice quaint olde English
EdmondJ – 1 Sep’06 – 14:42 – 7781 of 8327
A glance at http://www.thedailystar.net suggests that breakdown of law in Bangladesh ahead of the election is quite as PapalPower remarks. Thanks. Not sure whether that implies the project has any better chances after the election though.
PapalPower – 1 Sep’06 – 14:48 – 7782 of 8327
EdmondJ, the breakdown in law and order has been going on for some months now, some would say nearly a year.
Its now a very dangerous place to live, and more and more Bangladeshi’s are trying to get out to the UK or USA or Canada or even India now……such is the state of affairs in Bangladesh.
EdmondJ – 1 Sep’06 – 14:50 – 7783 of 8327
Apologies, I may have read the link between law & order breakdown and the election elsewhere. Not looking good as a place to do business.
At least it sets the context for the unrest over Phulbari; easy to over-react until one reads more about Bangladesh currently.
Wiganer – 1 Sep’06 – 15:05 – 7784 of 8327
Compo
Why the hell would I campaign for UK coal mines to be re-opened given that apparently extractive industries are evil and we should all be subsisting on a bowl of rice a day.**
Re the RC training college- nope, nearest I got to that was attending John Rigy 6th Form nearby.
** why does the old Dead Kennedys song California Uber Alles suddenly run through my head?
opmoc – 1 Sep’06 – 15:09 – 7785 of 8327 edit
Bangladesh gets enough crap from flooding and various other natural disasters, to put up with corrupt practices from politicians and those literally wanting to rape their land. All this bollocks about it being good for the local population simply will not wash. Sure similar crap is happenning in poor third world countries all over the world – but that doesn’t mean there is any excuse for it.
Quality of life is far more important to the vast majority of the World, than the pile of money stashed in a relatively tiny number of bank accounts of idiots trying to control the World.
These idiots have already destroyed the quality of life for everyone but the top 20% in the United States of America.
Whilst they preach that the US is the richest most powerful nation in the World 80% of the population in the US is far worse off now than they were 40 years ago. Basic services like power and water are breaking down – because there has been no recent investment in infrastructure. Most people are doing nothing jobs or are unemployed or unemployable. Standards of education are at their lowest level for over 50 years. The US has enormous debt.
Still the idiots in control, try and spread their mayhem to places like Bangladesh.
Good to see the local population stand up and tell them to Fuck Off (in Bengali of course)
Tony
Red Sun (Travels in Naxalite Country) by Sudeep Chakravarti published 2008, might help fill in some gaps.
Hi Tony – if you meant my comment i’m not saying i’m in favour of what’s being done to Indian and Bangladeshi farmers and villagers – i just don’t believe, given Mao’s record when he was alive and governing China of repression and causing millions of deaths by starvation, that Maoism is the solution.
I don’t blame many of the rebels for refusing to stand for their farmland being destroyed and their drinking water polluted – i just suspect Maoism would be just as bad in different ways.
Duncan
Think about it. The mainstream media tries to tell stories very simplistically – and that’s when it’s trying to tell the truth. So of course it will characterise a group as Maoist or whatever, rather than try to explain their position. It saves words and brain power. Maybe some within the grouping also call themselves Maoist. What it doesn’t mean is that they are Maoists. It certainly doesn’t mean you should judge them as if they were some other group of Maoists. Judge them by the evidence of their own actions. this is one of the problems of Marx getting bundled along with Lenin. Sure Lenin probably liked a lot of what Marx said. That doesn’t necessarily mean Marx would have appreciated what Lenin did. You follow?
Duncan, I was in no way referring to anything you said, except that now you mention it, I did do a google search and I found some news reports in Yesterday’s mainstream Indian Press.
And I actually have a lot of affection for some of the mainstream Indian press, because they still allow Free debate from both the right and the left and even up and down. Some states in India have been Communist since inception by democratic vote – e.g. Kerala
Now you may think free debate still happens in the UK mainstream press, but I can assure you the Indian press is much more liberated and honest and Free than ours is.
But all I read today amongst the detail was the obvious use of the repeated word Maoist which is designed to re-inforce a prejudiced negative view, such that the real issues are not discussed.
Now unless anyone spends some time with these people – maybe a month with a few small cameras – taking into account that they may speak a very rare Indian dialect that most Indians wouldn’t understand, and may know little if any English, then you will have absolutely no idea of what their political beliefs are.
They might not actually have any, except to want to save their home from destruction.
I think it highly possible that they have never heard of Mao
In fact I know nothing about Mao, except from other peoples reports of him. I haven’t read his little red book. Have you? If not, don’t assume anything.
What I was going to say, is that much of India is still incredibly beautiful and unspoilt and we reached such a place on 31stDecember2008 after driving through some areas of immense devastation a couple of years after Sunita Narain wrote what she did.
The local people were incredibly kind to us in a way that I would never expect and have never found in any Developed Nation (except Lancashire of course)
I don’t know the current situation in Phulbari in Bangladesh, but maybe what I wrote in 2006 had an effect on the people who read it. Maybe the directors decided to give up and leave the people in peace. Maybe I had an effect.
I Don’t know, but I tried.
They slagged me off remorselessly. I got called “Swampy”, “Tree Huuger” everything under the Sun. They had real money invested – some maybe big money.
I just said what I thought.
Tony
All i know about Mao is that he was very intolerant of dissent, more an extreme nationalist than a communist and he kept setting higher and higher quotas for grain, which peasant villages could only manage to meet by starving (they were terrified of telling party officials that they hadn’t reached the ever increasing quota).
You might be right that the ‘Maoist’ label is often applied to all left wingers in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal in order to try to discredit them though.
New Labour often call anyone to the left of them ‘Trotskyite’ or ‘Trotskyist’, which is a lot better than what most of them are (and many of them – like John Reid – are former Stalinists)
Duncan,
“All i know about Mao is that he was very intolerant of dissent, more an extreme nationalist than a communist and he kept setting higher and higher quotas for grain, which peasant villages could only manage to meet by starving (they were terrified of telling party officials that they hadn’t reached the ever increasing quota).”
That sounds extremely like the original Indian Text translated into English which I read recently…
About Us Lot in India over the last few hundred years.
What I still don’t understand is how the hell we pulled it all off.
England ain’t that big, and I know we took the Scots and Welsh and even some of the Irish with us…
But even so, how the hell did we do it.
Even when I was born One Third of The World was Pink
I asked my Dad – what the Pink Bits Were…
And My Dad who was a Sea Going Engineer in His Youth…said Lad…
“They are Still Our Bits”
I said
“Yer What”?
You Mean Oldham owns One Third Of The Planet?
He Said – Yes – Great Britain
I said… “Dad…..”
“How The Fuck Did We Do That?”
He said
“Don’t swear or You Will Go To Hell”
Tony
Thanks – never heard of them, so googled.
This is what Wikipedia had to say, in part:-
“On 6th April, 2010 Naxalites launched the biggest assault in the history of Naxalite movement by killing over 75 security personnel. The attacked was launched by over 1000 naxalites in a well planned manner butchering 76 CRPF jawans in two separate ambushes and wounding 50 others, in the jungles of Chatt- isgarh’s Dantewada district. They planted pressure mines in almost all trees in a radius of 3km from the CRPF camp so that wherever the security personnels hide that tree exploded.”
Tony, I missed you. You’re great fun. But what I really love about you is that I think you’re as straight as a die.
Forgive me Craig (and others) but given your background and perspective I don’t believe it’s surprising that you had not heard of the Naxalite Rebellion. Notions of class struggle or even simply of class in the Marxist sense are notably absent from a good liberal education in Britain and most other imperialist countries.
Again no surprise that this struggle is largely ignored by the Western media, and *NOT* because those in conflict with the Indian government are not Muslim. Again this faulty perception is down to a lack of understanding of the class nature of economic, social and political struggle worldwide. As far as the establishment in the West are concerned the Naxalites represent a domestic issue that does not pose any threat to international capital whereas poor relations with India would be a big threat. They could be Maoists, Muslims, Morris Dancers or even Martians and there would be little interest in this story.
Anyone acquainted with the more internationally-oriented parts of the British left (the Communist Party, the Indian Workers Association, one or two of the Trotskyist groupings) is likely to have come across the Naxalites, at least in passing. And indeed the Naxalites have their roots in the Maoist wing of the Indian Communist Party.
Tony and others: whatever prejudices you may hold against Mao, Maoism or organised Marxist political movements in general please refrain from this patronising, imperialist and, in my opinion, racist view that these people of Chhattisgarh and other parts of India know not what they think. These are not the rag-tag bunch of student paper sellers and semi-professional demonstration attenders that we see representing a section of the left in Britain. These are ordinary working people whose consciousness has been forged by their active participation in a collective struggle for their very survival. They are likely be far more familiar with written works of their political forbears than most if not all of us reading this blog, be it Marx, Lenin, Mao or whoever.
“I maintain that if the Naxalites were Muslim, they would be on the front page of every paper as a threat to India, and the Americans would be bombing them.”
That visionary statement by Craig can help us understand the reason why Iran is demonised and threatened by Britain and America and why statements that a nuclear Iran is too horrifying to allow to exist and which are designed to form an excuse to sanction and weaken Iran as prelude to a pre-emptive strike and occupation by Western forces.
America and Britain have determined that Iran is developing a nuclear bomb by embracing the lies of a terrorist organisation called the Peoples Mojahedin Organisation of Iran or PMOI also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK. The MEK is a member organisation of the parliament in exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. In 2002 the group ‘exposed’ Iran’s nuclear enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water plant in Arak. Both are used in nuclear reactors and there is no evidence that civilian heavy water nuclear reactors have been used for military production of fissile materials. In Iran the nuclear material at these facilities is under IAEA safeguards to discourage and prevent any diversion to a nuclear weapons programme.
To understand why Britain bought into this terrorist group expose we have to understand a fear that developed after the fall of the brutal regime of the Western puppet Shah Reza Pahlavi and his much despised Savak gestapo police, by a revolution that installed a theocracy or religious government.
Firstly, we must ask ourselves, why focus on a perceived nuclear threat when other countries like North Korea, Pakistan and Israel have developed a nuclear arsenal? Even the shrewd Russian prime-minister Putin said that he is convinced that “Iran does not intend to produce nuclear arms.”
The clear answer is we lost our chance to dominate the middle-east and it’s resources and now we intend to regain that dominance and control by instilling a fear that radical Islamic rule will permeate and spread inhuman, repressive and economically destructive policies by arrogant ‘Mullahs’ who have no moral ambiguities about using nuclear weapons to annihilate ‘global arrogance’ and clear a path for radical Islamic rule.
One might have been lead to believe this bollocks before the 9/11 catalyst event, or the ‘war on terror’ or the non-invasion of Afghanistan post 911, or the smashing and mutilation of Iraq on a bunch of lies – or even after the unnecessary nuclear hit on Nagasaki Japan where people still die from tumours and birth defects.
No my friends, I spoke with Iranian officers on radio courses at HMS Collingwood in the 70’s and I was made fully aware of the brutality that existed in Iran during that period.
The Iranian clerics of today are not in any way a threat to us – in fact, we are the ogre, we are the threat, we are the instigators of terror and our allegiance to the ‘Great Satan’ our ambivalence towards Israel, must now be reviewed to prevent our own demise in the next twenty years.
Mark: it is one thing to understand the use of Islamaphobic propaganda by the British, US and other governments and media as a means of justifying their military adventures abroad. It is quite another to develop that analysis into a “theory of everything” that is going on in the world – and it also quite mistaken.
Never heard of the Naxalites, which only emphasises for me that what we get on The News is entirely at the discretion of others, and has nothing whatsoever to do with our own preferences or interests.
A Sky presenter announced (sometime today when I flicked on for headlines) that Tiger Woods would hit his first ball in competitive golf at exactly 6.42pm UK time on Thursday.
Was I hallucinating? Did I *really* hear such a loopy announcement?
dreoilin,
What a nice thing to say.
I love you too.
My Dad would have loved to read the straight as a die bit, but I am trying to keep to the Class rules and stay on topic.
I am not the slightest bit interested in Dead Nazis or The General Election.
I may vote for my local councillor because he asked me to nominate him, but I will not vote Tory or Labour or Liberal in The General Election
I don’t like any of these people now especially after deep research of the person who will probably get elected.
They are ALL HORRIBLE
And I will not vote for any of them
I also write stuff on Alternet and elsewhere, but I can’t believe you actually want to read more.
Love & Peace,
Tony