My last post did not signal a return to blogging but rather explained why I need a few days’ break. But I have to share with you my joy at the release of the Brazilian edition of Murder in Samarkand, translated from the US edition and entitled Diplomacia Suja.
This is the first foreign language edition and I am childishly excited to hold it in my hands. I was actually jumping up and down a few minutes ago. There seems something magical about seeing your work in a tongue which is mysterious to you. Many thanks to Companhia Das Letras and especially to the translator, Berilo Vargas, whom I am yet to meet.
http://www.companhiadasletras.com.br/detalhe.php?codigo=12648
Good progress is being made on a Turkish translation.
No, but I’ll most certainly check it out, thanks, Clark.
Vronsky,
A valid argument. But the Iraq war was premeditated. That is why I use the term ‘murder’ in my accusations. Premeditated murder of a population weakened by sanctions. The deployments of UK forces to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, along with forces of the United States, were a clear preliminary to war.
We all possess wisdom and insight to access the moral argument for attacking a nation that has not initiated aggression against us, and could not if it wanted and politicians are trained to debate and question unselfishly for the benefit of our country and the British people they represent. War requires no Parliamentary approval and a debate was held because the legal legitimacy of the Iraq war had been under discussion since 1999. British politicians were given a chance to vote for an amendment that stated ‘the case for war on Iraq had not been established.’ They knew two million British public had marched against the Iraq war.
The motion voted through by a majority of MPs agreed that the Government “should use all means necessary to ensure the disarmament of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction”
Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said at the time, “we could find those biological chemical weapons on our doorstep.”
Lies.
Violence and force against others is not abstract and unreal, in terms of the Iraq war and the clear absence of WMD we have witnessed the continuing ‘blood relations’ between science(weapons) and imperialism. The case between experience and abstraction must fall on the side of experience as abstraction assumes zero experience.
It is from that experience we have learned and know the meaning of death and loss.
All too often we use euphemisms to describe death and destruction. For example, politicians and the military use the term ‘collateral damage’ because it sounds less offensive or upsetting. Collateral is a high level ‘association’ type abstraction such that when Baghdad was levelled by US cruise missiles “associated with” the physical destruction, an old man who was walking near the targeted building has his head blown off. A woman with a pram carrying her household groceries home from the market suffers internal bleeding and the baby dies from the force of the explosion. A teenage girl disappears altogether. Clearly by describing “collateral damage” this way, we have reduced the abstraction level of the term considerably but not entirely.
The words ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ ‘baby’ and ‘girl’ are also abstractions. They leave out details and it is those details that are important. They are the human focus that any politician of any standing should see in his mind before making the decision to annihilate by invasion and war.
Mark Golding,
thank you for your 7:21 comment, which I find one of the most moving posts of yours that I have seen.
Diplomacia Suja is the translation for “Dirty Diplomacy”, and not for Murder in Samarkand.
I’ve just read it in Portuguese. Great book!
“The deployments of UK forces to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, along with forces of the United States, were a clear preliminary to war.”
When were the forces of the UK and US deployed to Saudi Arabia?
CRAIG, “COMPOUND” ALERT:
You asked us to report use of the word “compound” in media reports of military actions in Afghanistan. Front page of today’s Guardian, leading article, 6th paragraph:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/27/afghanistan-war-logs-tensions-strained
Hi everyone, got semi-accidentally semi-deliberately re-involved on the 9/11 thread and popped in here to say hello. Hope all are keeping well!
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Wait for the 4.45 pm link tomorrow. It is going to be momentous! Need sleep now.
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001127.html
Dreoilin,
it’s really good to hear from you; I’ve missed you, I hope you’ll be commenting again.
So Al-Zawahiri speaks again. Why didn’t he mention that he and his buddies didn’t do 911?
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-message-ayman-zawahiri-threatens-us-attacks/story?id=11262121
Craig Murray, your buddies – Russia Today and Alex Jones – are now pushing HIV denial. That and 911 denial.
You’re just a disgusting human being.
The Tom Gross Link
Yes Gaza has a small supermarket approved for construction some time back.
Israel is not stupid and allows its goods to be bought and sold.
And of course a biased correspondent and so called terrorist expert does not show pictures of Gazans living in poverty in the remains of bombed buildings – Yes Tom Gross, I have some pictures that might balance the lop sided place you call a Middle-East journalistic web-site.
You are not clever Tom Gross and I despise this one-sided approach.
You know as I do that a huge backlog of construction and raw materials is needed after a siege and a devastating war ON Gaza.
Since June 2007, Gaza crossings have been closed to all exports and all imports, bar essential humanitarian goods. While the ban on imports has been partially eased, that on exports, which accounted for a high proportion of Gaza’s manufacturing output, is still in force – Ha! I wonder why.
“Without a substantial increase in the capacity of the crossings, well beyond what Israel is promising, and without export, there will be no economic recovery,” said Israeli human rights agency, Gisha’s director, Sari Bashi.
Two companies in Gaza that used to rely 100 per cent on exports are a case in point. The Gaza Juice Factory is now on a two-day week because its embargo-caused reliance on the domestic market has been undermined by the arrival of Israeli juice among other consumer goods now flowing into Gaza.
But the Aziz factory ?” one of hundreds of clothing manufacturers that have closed down in Gaza ?” which until June 2007 was employing 100 workers making jeans for an Israeli importer has now imported enough fabric for modest production of jeans and T-shirts for the Gaza market with seven rehired employees.
Good luck to the poor Gazans who are prepared to toil, use ingenuity and bring some happiness into their lives despite being in a “prison” at the mercy of Israel.
Well said Mark. Gross by name and gross by nature!
Yes the Hasbara generated ‘Gaza shopping mall with escalator’ turned out to be just a shop with two floors and a staircase. There is a video of it much like the phony Regev videos that came out after the flotilla attack.
Have you seen this dear little chap making his pottery?
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/20107237530642173.html
PS What can Craig’s momentous news be? I hate being kept in suspense.
In a long exhausted trick of diplomacy, agent David Cameron condemned the Israelis for prolonging Gaza as a prison. I am not fooled by this statement because my sources suggest that Cameron, a slippery eel, had already informed Israel that his diplomatic leap into Turkey was intended to pressure them into aborting the fissile material swap agreed in the Brazil/Turkey sequester; that ingenious, expedient strategy that anticipated the UN sanctions on Iran much to the embarrassment of the United States and Britain.
I say to Cameron, inform Israel they must declare their nuclear arsenal, allow IAEA inspections and join the Non-Proliferation Treaty in the same manner as Iran, who ALLOWS multiply HD cameras at all their fissile material production sites and nuclear neutron/gamma monitors that profile characteristic energies to boot.
I had not seen that ‘somebody’ – thank-you – what a gem – thanks again – that has brightened my day.
“In a long exhausted trick of diplomacy, agent David Cameron condemned the Israelis for prolonging Gaza as a prison. I am not fooled by this statement because my sources suggest that Cameron, a slippery eel, had already informed Israel that his diplomatic leap into Turkey was intended to pressure them into aborting the fissile material swap agreed in the Brazil/Turkey sequester; that ingenious, expedient strategy that anticipated the UN sanctions on Iran much to the embarrassment of the United States and Britain.”
Why don’t you just tell us the future Mark since you’re all knowing. Are you actually just saying this because Cameron referring to Gaza as a prison camp goes against your belief that Cameron runs a Zionist-Occupied-Government?
“I say to Cameron, inform Israel they must declare their nuclear arsenal, allow IAEA inspections and join the Non-Proliferation Treaty”
Presumably not in that order, though, right? Cameron’s not going to tell Israel to declare their nuclear weapons because Israel’s nuclear weapons aren’t a threat to the UK so what’s the point? And Israel aren’t going to join the NPT because they already have civilian use nuclear energy and there is no benefit to them in joining.
Iran are part of the NPT because it benefits them to have assistance from other members in producing nuclear fuel. If they didn’t benefit they wouldn’t be a member. This is surely obvious. This also doesn’t mean that they aren’t trying to develop nuclear weapons. This is also obvious.
With respect Rob I have never said, ‘Cameron runs a Zionist-Occupied-Government’ they are your words not mine.
NPT has three pillars of which the main is non-proliferation. Israel wants a ‘nuclear free zone’ in the Middle-East but only after the following conditions have been met:
All countries in the region to first recognize Israel’s right to exist, sign peace agreements, enter into security arrangements, limit conventional arsenals and also non-conventional weapons – including chemical and biological agents in their arsenals, and their missile delivery systems.
Israel’s nuclear program, and the international assessment that it possesses an arsenal with dozens, if not hundreds of nuclear weapons, has become a hostage to the NPT conference.
In an ‘all knowing’ approach you say Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. This is not obvious to me – I believe and have said on this board that Iran does have the knowledge to make an Nbomb – a virtual bomb, if you like, is as good as a physical one – that is why nuclear scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was murdered and ‘dark actors’ now wait stealthily in the wings in an attempt to crush that knowledge altogether.
Israel is not a threat to the UK for now – she will however, if America gives the green light, attack Iran and once again we will witness the murders of innocent civilians and children as witnessed in the proxy Iraq war Israel ‘bribed’ Bush into.
Pre-emption is a modern curse that blew the head off an innocent man in a train, in front of passengers to boot, by police trained to head-shoot in Israel.
The consequences of which *is* obvious by default.
You are correct about the Met receiving training in Israel in that travesty of a case, the killing in cold blood of John Charles Menezes. Also the involvement of a defective and incompetent pathologist, as found also in Ian Tomlinson’s case and the Barrymore pool death. There is a catalogue of incompetent Home Office pathologists.
See ‘secret service’ for the Israel connection. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=21850
Also in the SW today are three items about the demolition of our beloved NHS.
Firstly, the funding of the Tories by the private healthcare vultures and then the cost of a Scottish PFI hospital which won’t even end up in state ownership. Then about Lansley’s White Paper.
How shocking that NuLabour allowed this drip drip privatisation to start and that the Goves and Kluggs are letting in the private slimeballs in such large measure.
*The £1 billion hospital we won’t own*
The NHS will pay £1 billion for the privately-built Edinburgh Royal Infirmary?”but not own it
*Government white paper is a black day for public health service*
The fight has started against the Tory government’s plans to dismantle the NHS
*Tories make healthy profits*
The Conservatives have plenty of pals in the private healthcare industry – that’s plain to see from the list of people who funded the Tory election campaign
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/section.php?id=2
I don’t see a problem at all in Iran having nuclear power or even nuclear weapons. Iran as far as I know hasn’t shown aggression to any other country.
However, I believe that countries such as US, UK and Israel, which regular display highly belligerent behaviour, should be stripped of their nuclear arms as soon as possible as they endanger the world.
Ruth, I agree that Iran is less belligerent than Western powers in terms of the respective track records of aggression. But I think this is more that it is not in a good position to commit overt violence against anyone, rather than because it is genuinely benign. Iran is an easy target for the West to bully, and an attack on it would be in keeping with the infection of aggressive capitalism, but the president is still not to be trusted: he is I think, erratic, homophobic and racist.
In keeping with the spirit of the NPT, Iran should not be building any nuclear weapons, even though I understand they have been given more than enough reasons to do so. Likewise, other countries should be reducing their arsenals – aggressive countries especially.
Meanwhile I am also not in favour of nuclear power, so I would rather Iran didn’t build radioactive powerstations either. But the national pride that would be achieved from such a technical achievement is important to many countries, especially ones that are the target of international and financial bullying. I wonder therefore if there would be an advantage in their building a small token one.
One would hope that the Iranian govt are mindful of the need to develop alternatives to nuclear power for environmental reasons. Doing so could send out the message that countries that stand firm against rampant capitalism are able to do the right thing, as per Venezuala’s approach to mass democratisation and literacy campaigns for the poor, or Cuba’s universal health system.
Well yes Ruth, the irony is just before Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980, America decided to resume relations with Iraq. In 1982 it removed Iraq from the list of ‘state sponsors of terrorism. After a couple of years to cloak the explicit linkage, diplomatic relations between America and Iraq were formally restored in 1984 by US emissionary Donald Rumsfeld. Ha!
The US knew, and a UN team confirmed, that Iraq was using chemical weapons against the Iranian troops. The US blocked condemnation of Iraq’s chemical attacks in the UN Security Council. The US was the sole country to vote against a 1986 Security Council statement condemning Iraq’s use of mustard gas against Iranian troops ?” an atrocity in which it now emerges the US was directly implicated.
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Posted by: porno filmy at July 28, 2010 2:59 PM
Ha, you filthy cunt! R U barking mad? Are you a Zionist troll? Do you have a back gate? Do you ever get rattled?
There is no need to repeat the spam nor to use such bad language. Soon Craig will have to get commenters to register to stop this spam nonsense.
What happened to Craig’s ‘momentous news’ or was that a fake message?
Mark,
I remember reading somewhere the UK sold mustard gas among other things to Iraq during that period.
somebody,
Craig is obviously very busy. He has mentioned before he gets a lot of spam that he deletes promptly so perhaps we are seeing more spam than usual until Craig is settled. Like you I hope so.
I didn’t know that Ruth, can you remember where?
She pulled it out of her butt.
The message posted at 1150 on July 27 2010 was not written or posted by me. The Bill and Ben, Flowerpot Men are at it again, I suspect.
Yes, welcome back, dreoilin! Good on you. We missed your posts.