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.
Mary,
McGonigall!
rofl
Well the DofE survived this time but he doesn’t look like he’s got long left now.
At least there are some Norfolk wildlife still flapping their wings which wouldn’t be otherwise for his much publicised hospital break at the tax payer’s expense. Sky and BBC competing as to who can be the most loyal and boot-lickingly servile commentators of this Christmas non-event.
/
It seems innocent members of the public and tax payers had to explain themselves to police before they were allowed entrance to the hospital to visit relatives, while the royal party are flown in by helicopter also at the tax payers expense. Seems something quite wrong about all this.
/
DM reports BBC are already filming tributes for Blair’s demise from the planet although he’s still relatively young. Maybe they know more than they can say?
So who’ll go first Tony or Phil ? Wonder if Ladbrokes will take the wager?
The guest editor on Radio 4 TODAY this morning was Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese who made a $2bn fortune from his telecoms business and who is now a philanthropist.
.
Listen to his very refreshing views on the Western perception of Africa, fraud and corruption within our financial systems and corporate business and the absence of any legal punishment for the wrongdoers (instead they get knighted). I liked the anecdote about the way in which his companies stopped bribery taking place -all Board members had to sign cheques over the value of $30,000. End of. I also liked his views on the Occupy movement.
.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9668000/9668398.stm
.
He looks a nice cheery man too. Hope Bliar never gets to him.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Ibrahim)
.
This Today programme was a refreshing change from yesterday’s Coe fest.
Craig,
being uncertain what “Christian values” actually are nowdays, I suspect that taking the Old testament as a recipe for killing the infidel, under the asumption that the god of jews is also ours, then Cameron is being quite consistent with the book in planning to bomb the enemies wherever they might be found.
The guest editor on Radio 4 TODAY this morning was Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese who made a $2bn fortune from his telecoms business and who is now a philanthropist.
.
Listen to his very refreshing views on the Western perception of Africa, fraud and corruption within our financial systems and corporate business and the absence of any legal punishment for the wrongdoers (instead they get knighted). I liked the anecdote about the way in which his companies stopped bribery taking place -all Board members had to sign cheques over the value of $30,000. End of. I also liked his views on the Occupy movement.
.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9668000/9668398.stm
.
He looks a nice cheery man too. Hope Bliar never gets to him.
{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Ibrahim}
.
This Today programme was a refreshing change from yesterday’s Coe fest.
Slipped in by Lansley whilst minds are elsewhere.
.
‘Planned 49% limit’ for NHS private patients in England
By Helen Briggs Health editor, BBC News website
There are concerns about a two-tier NHS
.
NHS hospitals in England will be free to use almost half their hospital beds and theatre time for private patients under government plans.
.
A recent revision to the ongoing health bill will allow foundation hospitals to raise 49% of funds through non-NHS work if the bill gets through Parliament.
.
Most foundation trusts are now limited to a private income of about 2%.
.
[…]
.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16337904
.
The proposals were discussed twice on Radio 4 Today this morning
.
0725
Would private health put NHS patients second?
It is being reported that changes to the health service will pave the way for NHS hospitals to earn up to half of their income from private work. Roy Lilley, independent health policy analyst and former chair of an NHS trust, reflects on the implications.
~~~~~~
0835
A professor of fertility studies at Imperial College London has told the Independent newspaper of the “scandalous exploitation” of people trying for an IVF baby. Professor Robert Winston explains why he thinks the market is driven by greed on the part of the clinics and desperation on the part of the would-be parents. And Professor Alison Murdoch, head of Newcastle Fertility Centre, gives her reaction.
.
Links on {http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9668000/9668332.stm}
.
I’m with Professor Murdoch that there should be provision of services and universal funding of them in the NHS. Leave OUR NHS alone Lansley and co.
The Dook has a heart??
.
Well i never..
Mary, thanks for posting the link (MO Ibrabim), it brought to my mind another big businessman in North Africa. He owns the biggest textile business and he is one of the richest in Egypt. His policy was exactly the same, No bribery to anyone,”if we lose business we lose it!” and you know, he never lost any business. he left Cairo when he was a young lad with about £ 5 in his pocket worked hard in the west, saved a bit, went back to Egypt, started his business, he is now a multimillionaire and if you ask him about his biggest, proudest achievement, what he will tell you is not paying any bribes!
Courtenay Barnett
.
Fedup gave us the answers to the UK ban of PressTV by OFCOM.
.
Our eyes and ears are being covered by a shroud of deceit. The PressTV Internet live feed will also be disrupted by packet diversion.
.
We need a plan folks, I mean we need to focus on a plan. A channel of truth is being denied, forbidden, thou-shalt-not; prohibition folks, a no-no.
.
The rational have asked, ‘what rule or point of law has PressTV fallen foul to or what rules have been disregarded?’ –
.
The official answer is PressTV committed a serious breach of the broadcasting code when it aired an interview with Maziar Bahari, an imprisoned Newsweek journalist. Bahari, who was held for four months, says he was interviewed under duress and forced to read
from a prepared script. (Guardian) PressTV have denied the allegation.
.
UK Broadcasting laws are enacted to protect the paying public and breaches involve a range of penalties, normally fines. I present to you a number of breaches by the BBC when the general public have been deceived, a serious breach, together with the BBC Trust’s response.
.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/complaints_appeals/editorial/2008/appeal_findings.shtml
.
{http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/2008/december/ofcom_breaches.shtml}
.
PressTV did/does not deceive it’s viewers or, as in the number of cases presented here, fraudulently obtain financial gain from innocent participants.
.
From this evidence and more I believe a serious bias, a prejudice exists in the system. Such bigotry in British democracy must be challenged in law. I am prepared to challenge.
.
I ask for your support by contacting the BBC Trust here:
.
BBC Trust Unit
180 Great Portland Street
London
W1W 5QZ
Email
[email protected]
Telephone
Call the information line on 03700 103 100 or textphone on 03700 100 212.
Lines are open from Monday to Friday, between 9.30am and 5.30pm.
.
PressTV does not spew disinformation, does not brain-wash; PressTV employs native authors and broadcasts homegrown reports on misuse, torture, injustice, exploitation, the abuse of protesters and the killing and maiming of children innocently ensnared by wars and attacks.
.
Please help this truth leader into our minds survive. Without them (RT will be next) we are deaf and blind to the controlling web of barbs from those in power, we are ‘kettled’ in our own homes.
Courtenay Barnett
.
Fedup gave us the answers to the UK ban of PressTV by OFCOM.
.
Our eyes and ears are being covered by a shroud of deceit. The PressTV Internet live feed will also be disrupted by packet diversion.
.
We need a plan folks, I mean we need to focus on a plan. A channel of truth is being denied, forbidden, thou-shalt-not; prohibition folks, a no-no.
.
The rational have asked, ‘what rule or point of law has PressTV fallen foul to or what rules have been disregarded?’ –
.
The official answer is PressTV committed a serious breach of the broadcasting code when it aired an interview with Maziar Bahari, an imprisoned Newsweek journalist. Bahari, who was held for four months, says he was interviewed under duress and forced to read
from a prepared script. (Guardian) PressTV have denied the allegation.
.
UK Broadcasting laws are enacted to protect the paying public and breaches involve a range of penalties, normally fines. I present to you a number of breaches by the BBC when the general public have been deceived, a serious breach, together with the BBC Trust’s response.
.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/complaints_appeals/editorial/2008/appeal_findings.shtml
.
{http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/2008/december/ofcom_breaches.shtml}
.
PressTV did/does not deceive it’s viewers or, as in the number of cases presented here, fraudulently obtain financial gain from innocent participants.
.
From this evidence and more I believe a serious bias, a prejudice exists in the system. Such bigotry in British democracy must be challenged in law. I am prepared to challenge.
.
I ask for your support by contacting the BBC Trust here:
.
BBC Trust Unit
180 Great Portland Street
London
W1W 5QZ
Email
{[email protected]}
Telephone
Call the information line on 03700 103 100 or textphone on 03700 100 212.
Lines are open from Monday to Friday, between 9.30am and 5.30pm.
.
PressTV does not spew disinformation, does not brain-wash; PressTV employs native authors and broadcasts homegrown reports on misuse, torture, injustice, exploitation, the abuse of protesters and the killing and maiming of children innocently ensnared by wars and attacks.
.
Please help this truth leader into our minds survive. Without them (RT will be next) we are deaf and blind to the controlling web of barbs from those in power, we are ‘kettled’ in our own homes.
“Could I just stick with “stupidity” – and make my response short?” Courtenay.
.
Courtenay, would you care to clarify with respect to whom you are calling stupid? The author of the offending article, or me, or both?
.
Just to be clear. Thank you.
@ Ruth,
Taking your points in turn:-
1. “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.”
If your point is that Gadaffi stuffed most of Libyan money in his personal bank account then I make the following simple points:-
A. He stuffed a lot less than King Idris did when he took power in 1969 – and with then some 80% of the Libyans illiterate, he seems at least to have spend quite some money to bring the level of literacy past 80% when in 2011 he was overthrown.
B. The UN social indices and even CIA Factbook confirm the levels of social advancement of the Libyan people under Gadaffi.
C. If you still want to refute observations A and B above, then add in your riposte the full list ( doing the internet) of the 16 things the Libyans will not see under the rebel NTC government:-
“ 16 Things Libyans Will Never See Again
Future Libyans may look back and thank America, Britain and France for freeing them from that evil socialist Moammar Gadhafi. Now like us they will know all the benefits and wonders of the “free market”. In Gadhafi’s Libya:
1. There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free for all its citizens.
2. There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.
3. Home considered a human right in Libya
4. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family. Is this what you call a dictator Traditional wedding in Tripoli, Libya
5. Education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans are literate. Today the figure is 83%.
6. Should Libyans want to take up farming career, they would receive farming land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and livestock to kick-start their farms are all for free.
7. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need in Libya, the government funds them to go abroad for it is not only free but they get US$2,300/mth accommodation and car allowance.
8. In Libyan, if a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidized 50% of the price.
9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per liter.
10. Libya has no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion are now frozen globally.
11. If a Libyan is unable to get employment after graduation the state would pay the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until employment is found.
12. A portion of Libyan oil sale is, credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
13. A mother who gave birth to a child receive US$5,000 14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $ 0.15
15. 25% of Libyans have a university degree
16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.”
Even looks better than the UK at present for the average citizen. Sorry – Libya “looked” better – until NATO bombs started dropping.
Ruth – your argument runs the same course like – “they will greet us with flowers” ( or words to that effect by Bush about the Iraq invasion – then 9 years after attack and illegal occupation there is depleted uranium giving high levels of child cancer, birth of monster deformed babies, destroyed infrastructure etc. etc.etc…
2. Your question about whether a million did rally in support of Gadaffi. I observe:-
A. Look at the video – http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2011/06/million-libyans-rally-in-support-of.html
B. Contrast the great numbers in the central square rallying against Mubarak versus the numbers who rallied pro-Gadaffi ( then ask the question – was there really a majority in Libya that wanted Gadaffi ousted – or – was this another NATO led attack, violation of international law and of sovereignty).
3. “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?”
I agree that the Egyptian people are seeking civilian rule and the removal of Mubarak did not itself remove military rule.
The contrast is made at point 2B above. I certainly did not see any great numbers marching against Gadaffi, as I have seen in Egypt, Yemen etc.
4. “And surely it would be ludicrous to think that after such a brutal regime of forty plus years…”
My response is that you should compare like with like in the Middle East region vis-a –vis this North African country – and offer me one country that is not a “brutal regime” – inclusive of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians. When you make the comparison, I believe that you will conclude that relative to the entire African continent and the Middle Eastern countries, Gadaffi’s Libya did accomplish something for the Libyan people.
5. “ “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.”
Ruth – you have hit the nail on the head – for we live in a corrupt, brutal and hypocritical world
– and – indeed the UK government has blood on its hands and a lot to answer for. But, I go
further and observe that the motives proferred by the West are not the real motivational
factors.
In reply to this – I also take on board Fedup’s point – actually we are corroborating one another – so – can I but agree with myself – Fedup is right:-
“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”
The NATO actions taken in Libya indicate a US thrust at global hegemony. It is not mere coincidence that this US General forewarned of the attack on Libya ( unless – of course – he was clairvoyant):-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXS3vW47mOE
From 2007 the statement was made – and Libya was in the list of countries that Clarke named in the 7 countries. It was by plan – not for purposes of democratic desire and design. The Libyan people under this NTC government, stand about as much chance for any timely improvements, as have the Iraqis after 9 years of occupation. The precedent speaks for itself – and – it would be a truly naïve person who would seek to validate, justify, rationalize the destruction of yet another country ( i.e.. one on Wesley Clark’s list of 7) and call it – the pursuit of “freedom” and “democracy”. Call it instead, “imperialism” and resource grabbing.
Finally, I single out from this point:-
“…and yet the rebels are in the main just ordinary people.”
My observation is that some might have been, but the majority appear to have been paid militants ( inclusive of Al Qaeda paid groups) and payments did go to militants, which when not paid for months dissent and defections emerged in the NTC. If this had really been a “people’s revolution” the patterns of resistance would have been significantly different. Contrast the North Vietnamese struggle against the Americans, or the Algerians against the French and in both situations you will find that a true people’s army stood up to oppose and defeat colonialism and foreign occupation. This was not the situation in Libya.
RUTH – I TRUST THAT I HAVE ANSWERED YOUR POINTS.
@ Suhayl,
The exchange related in part to US foreign policy in the Middle East – and – I responded in terms: ““Could I just stick with “stupidity”
I would be the bigger fool if I called you ‘stupid’Suhayl.
Suhayl and fellow friends in Scotland, batten down the hatches, as they say, a wee bit of wind coming up.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16339371
Thanks, Courtenay, and sorry, man – just had a rather un-cosmic ego-centric moment!
Ingo, thanks for the weather warning!
.
Ach, the whirlin’, skirlin’ wind! Time fur Tam o’Shanter an’ Maggie the Witch! An a guid cuaich ae ye ken whit!
@ Ruth,
Further to my earlier and longer post in reply to you – here is a pretty clear statement about Al Qaeda’s invlovement in the Libyan uprising…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI1g2fNLLEc
US demotes Mullah Omar
,
Not so long after a US court in Manhattan decided to strike off from their list of the “villains of 9/11” the Saudis, and only leaving Iran and Hezbollah to be found materially and directly guilty of financing and supporting the al-Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks, thereby holding them legally responsible for to-be-determined monetary damages to family members. This clearly showing the principles of separation of powers in US system of justice system, as in line with other US systems; totally unhinged, and patently gone mad by divorcing from reality powers (they should be smoking/snorting some heavy shit).
,
Now Mullah Omar has been taken off the “most wanted terrorists” list. The war on terror takes on the dimensions of a game of tag as days go by, although the when the tag is moved on there is no song and dance and the Media does not go on a frenzy as opposed to when the tag is placed.
Courtenay, – A forboding sign and a scary reminder.
.
Sorry. my last comment should contain: I am only a viewer of PressTV – I have no business connection.
Cameron is, of course, one of these people who says what he thinks sounds right.
He probably thinks it statesmanlike to make pronouncements like this.
But what was he elected for? What is the Tory ethos?
I thought these people liked the government to butt out of their personal lives.
Make the laws, collect the taxes, pay the bills, and keep out of people’s business as much as possible…and then this idiot comes along with tax bribes to get people to marry, regardless of the procreation thing, and now he wants us to lead Christian lives. next he’ll be telling men they must wear ties and women twin sets and pearls.
Et bien, de toute façon… Bonnes Fêtes et Bonne Année à tous et à toutes.
I hope, amidst the festivities, the Scots Nats amongst you have had a chance to squirm at Oliver Kamm’s merciless ribbing on Twitter of the SNP’s support for Milosevic and refusal to support plucky little Kosovo’s bid for independence. Hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.
Our ‘friend’ Moussa Koussa languishes in luxury after his multi-million pound US assets were unfrozen recently. Agent Cameron and William Hague are now working to unfreeze his European assets in an agreement by which he keeps his mouth tightly shut.
.
Koussa’s ‘flee’ to Britain was carefully choreographed to combine maximum propaganda effect for the West, as well as maximum security and a new, worry-free life for Koussa himself.
.
Meanwhile Abdel Hakim Belhadj (aka Belhaj), a Libyan military commander and rebel leader, who is the head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, initiated legal proceedings against the British government and the security forces for their key role in his illegal abduction, rendition and barbaric treatment — and that of his pregnant wife Fatima Bouchar in March 2004.
.
“Returning to Libya via Diego Garcia, Belhadj was imprisoned for six years in some of the country’s most brutal jails, including Abu Salim in Tripoli, where 1200 prisoners were killed in a massacre by Gaddafi’s forces in 1996. Alarmingly, Fatima Bouchar was also imprisoned on her return to Libya, and was subjected to aggressive interrogations,. In total, she was held for four months, and was released just three weeks before her baby was born. As Reprieve noted, by this time “her health, and that of her baby, was in a precarious state.” Documents found by HRW reveal the British government told the Libyan government that the couple were in Malaysia in early March 2004, and Sir Mark Allen, who was then the director of counter-terrorism at MI6, wrote to the notorious torturer Moussa Koussa.”
.
“Disgracefully, evidence of the UK’s role in the rendition of Abdel Hakim Belhadj and Fatima Bouchar was revealed in a number of fawning, and previously classified documents that came to light in Tripoli, in September, as the Gaddafi regime fell, and which were discovered by Human Rights Watch. These documents reveal that the British government told the Libyan government that the couple were in Malaysia in early March 2004, and Sir Mark Allen, who was then the director of counter-terrorism at MI6, wrote to the notorious torturer Moussa Koussa, the head of Libyan intelligence, who, earlier this year, fled Libya as the regime began tumbling and was briefly welcomed in the UK.”
.
“In a letter dated March 18, 2004, just a week before British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Gaddafi in Libya to welcome him on board as an ally in the “war on terror,” Allen wrote an embarrassing and self-incriminating letter, in which he stated, “Most importantly, I congratulate you on the safe arrival of Abu Abd Allah Sadiq [Abdel Hakim Belhadj]. This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over the years. I am so glad. I was grateful to you for helping the officer we sent out last week.””
.
“He added, “Amusingly, we got a request from the Americans to channel requests for information from Abu Abd Allah through the Americans. I have no intention of doing any such thing. The intelligence on Abu Abd Allah was British. I know I did not pay for the air cargo. But I feel I have the right to deal with you direct on this and am very grateful for the help you are giving us.””
.
http://www.eurasiareview.com/25122011-libyan-rebel-leader-rendered-by-uk-to-torture-by-us-in-thailand-and-gaddafi-in-libya-sues-british-government-oped/
.
Moussa Koussa is confirmed from a number of reliable sources as being a British double agent for the last ten years
.
{http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/238354/Libya-defector-Moussa-Koussa-was-an-MI6-double-agent}
Dont worry – i have nothing to say. No razor slash perteninent articles you must process. No urgent passionate convinctions you must realise too!! No major point, only just that i have caught up on the thread sacually – and it does seem mostly worthwhile. Thankyou. xxxxxx
Courtenay,
I don’t quite see your point regarding the Al Qaeda flag. Is it to point out American involvement in the uprising in view of the fact that Al Qaeda is an American invention to promote fear or do you think Al Qaeda is really something to be feared?
@ Ruth,
Both:-
1. As I said, the Mujahadin morphed into Al Qaeda and is funded by the CIA.
2. Al Qaeda was used in Libya as a militant participant ( how else does it get its flag in that position).
3. I will share with you in a follow up post an informative quotation from George Kennan – which welds everything together.
@ Mary,
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30084.htm
And someone commented:-
“We in Latin America/The Caribbean long ago discovered the link between pretextual invasions/interventions by the U.S. and its hidden designs buried deep within the powers that be in the Empire (Dominican Republic 1965, Grenada 1983, Panama 1989, etc., etc., etc.. We call it the mystique of the “historic memory”. Without this, we would be totally lost and clueless, just like the amorphous masses of people in the U.S., which were never taught the truth in school, about the unsavory aspects of American foreign policy in Latin America/The Caribbean. Since the 1840s with the invasions of Mexico, until the other day with the failed coup in Ecuador, cooked up in the imperial embassy since 2008, the U.S. has tried to dominate our nations with the hidden but known to us agenda, of swallowing up our natural resources. The latest imperial obsession with Venezuela is but one example. The functional illiteracy of the historic memory which afflicts our Yankee counterparts (Does 1953, Mossadegh, the CIA and Iran ring a bell?), is another convenient truth in the Empire’s favor, in order to brainwash its amorphous masses into another war mongering frenzy.”
So Mary, bearing that bloggers observations in mind – now you have a far better grasp of why I did not share your viewpoint on Libya.
And another blogger quite accurately observed:-
“While the author is right to spread concern about US threats against Iran, why does he characterize the destruction of Iraq as, “the misguided Iraq invasion?” Since when is 10 years of terror, torture, maiming, slaughtering, and displacing millions of defenseless people, looting their artifacts, destroying their infrastructure, and stealing their resources, merely “misguided” rather than being war crimes? Oh yeah. When the USI is involved it is only misguided. For any other country it’s war crimes.”
And when you reflect on the debacle that Libya has become and shall remain, then Mary, there is no apology for the fabricated, provoked, “bombed in war” in Libya, and be now far more concerned about fast unfolding events with Iran:-
“What can we do? we can not even organize the people to oppose the economic policies that impacts their daily life directly! much less to ask them to come to the streets for some dark looking people the other side of the world!?!
I would like to see people like Global Research and Counter punch and anti war Veteran organizations and all other progressive organizations and personalities like Ralph Nader etc, to come together and agree on Just one issue and one issue only;
with a slogans like this: “No more war” or “Stop a war with Iran” or “Iran is the future Vietnam”
Iran will have much more dead and Falujas than Iraq. It has been estimated by some Iranian insiders that the human toll will be around 2,000,000! Organize!”
@ Ruth,
As promised.
This is what we are facing:-
“”We have about 50% of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its population. … In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. … To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. … We should cease to talk about vague and … unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”
—George F. Kennan, Policy Planning Study 23 (PPS23), Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1948 ”
Kennan was the chief archtect of the “Cold War” and he laid an intellectual pathway for post World war 11 Foreign Policy.
The extension of his observation – again – I can give you a qoute on – which dovetails with the collaspe of the Soviet Union and the need to invent new enemies – even when the CIA funds Al Qaeda.
@Ruth,
This is the quotation that really lets you put your thumb, and afford a chance to wrap your analytical foreign policy brain around what’s actually unfolding – here as promised:-
“Interview on Online NewsHour : “George Kennan” (PBS) (18 April 1996)
• Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy. “
N.B. The operative words are:-
“.. until some other adversary could be invented”
Now flashback:-
Mujahadin – 9/11 – Al Qaeda – and whatever next have to be fabricated – so long as the majority believe that there is an enemy out there that has to be fought – to justify the Pentagon’s and Ministry of Defence’s astounding and astronomical expenditures on armaments.
And he had preceded with this:-
“ Lecture at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (March 1954); published in “The Unifying Factor” in Realities of American Foreign Policy (1954), p. 116
• A foreign policy aimed at the achievement of total security is the one thing I can think of that is entirely capable of bringing this country to a point where it will have no security at all. And a ruthless, reckless insistence on attempting to stamp out everything that could conceivably constitute a reflection of improper foreign influence in our national life, regardless of the actual damage it is doing to the cost of eliminating it, in terms of other American values, is the one thing I can think of that should reduce us all to a point where the very independence we are seeking to defend would be meaningless, for we would be doing things to ourselves as vicious and tyrannical as any that might be brought to us from outside.
This sort of extremism seems to me to hold particular danger for a democracy, because it creates a curious area between what is held to be possible and what is really possible — an area within which government can always be plausibly shown to have been most dangerously delinquent in the performance of its tasks. And this area, where government is always deficient, provides the ideal field of opportunity for every sort of demagoguery and mischief-making. It constitutes a terrible breach in the dike of our national morale, through which forces of doubt and suspicion never cease to find entry. The heart of our problem, here, lies in our assessment of the relative importance of the various dangers among which we move; and until many of our people can be brought to understand the what we have to do is not to secure a total absence of danger but to balance peril against peril and to find the tolerable degree of each, we shall not wholly emerge from these confusions.”
And with total resolve and insight he said:-
“The best an American can look forward to is the lonely pleasure of one who stands at long last on a chilly and inhospitable mountaintop where few have been before, where few can follow and where few will consent to believe he has been.”
@ Ruth,
When you are ready to reply:-
I say – keep believing in the “freedom” the “democracy” the “wishful thinking” about the sources and true nature of this global aggression unleashed on humanity.
The only good signs on the horizon is that the “global south” now finds that the “global north” is starting to feel comparable pressures and the ordinary people are responding.
Then there is this gentleman who says:-
“Regarding Libya, many commentators have celebrated the “success” of the so-called humanitarian mission there. Most of the media moved on from Libya alongside the American fighter jets, although NPR recently covered the danger inherent in a country now rife with guns and short on rule-of-law. In a major hospital in Tripoli, for instance, men with guns regularly roam the halls threatening doctors and patients alike, including in the middle of surgery. The International Crisis Group estimates there are now 125,000 armed militia members in Libya. Only time will tell how well this success story holds together. Similarly, regarding the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently said, “As difficult as [the Iraq war] was … I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world.”
Setting aside the sheer arrogance and insensitivity of this statement, it is worth asking if we are even capable of determining what price is worth hundreds of thousands of human lives (in Iraq) or the deaths of dozens of innocent civilians (in Libya)? Are we gods with the moral authority to determine who will live and who will die? If not, then what business do we have proclaiming what is “worth” the deaths of people halfway around the world? More importantly, what business do we have killing (or causing the deaths of) those people in the first place? New Year’s is a traditionally a time for reflection; I hope that each of us will consider these questions and ask ourselves what kind of people we want to be.
Nicholas Kramer is a former associate investigator for an oversight & investigations (O&I) committee in the United States Senate. He no longer lives or works in Washington, D.C. Visit Nicholas’s website.”
OVER TO YOU – SISTER RUTH.
Either Courtenay Barnett @ 12.03am is an imposter or if it is the real Courtenay Barnett, then has his wires crossed and is taking my name in vain. I have not said anything about the war on Libya.
.
Mr Barnett’s website used to appear on the live link against his name. Now you get this error page.
.
The webpage cannot be found
HTTP 404
Most likely causes:
There might be a typing error in the address.
If you clicked on a link, it may be out of date.
What you can try:
Retype the address.
Go back to the previous page.
Go to and look for the information you want.
More information
.
?????