The greatest boost ever received by Islamic fundamentalism was the invasion of Iraq. Closely followed by extraordinary rendition, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and drones, and Israeli bombings of Gaza. All of those things lead some Muslims to believe a violent response by terrorism is required to defend themselves. So for Tony Blair, who has promoted huge hatred and caused unnumbered deaths through a career of deceit and self-enrichment, to warn about the dangers of Islamic terrorism is something nobody but a few Guardian and Murdoch acolytes wish to hear.
Blair of course has many tens of millions stuffed into his capacious back-pocket by oligarchs from the ex-Soviet space, so it is unsurprising to hear him call for understanding between Russia and the West. It is even more to form that this understanding should be based on joint hatred of Muslims.
There is an alarming failure by many in the UK to understand that Russia is an Empire. Russia’s Asian possessions were taken by invasion from their indigenous and Muslim populations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, at precisely the same time Britain was taking its own colonies. The Russian conquests were no less colonial from the accident of geography that they were contiguous. Dagestan and Chechnya were only conquered in the 1830’s. Most of Tartarstan later. The “Islamic fundamentalist threat” Russia faces jointly with the UK, is actually the struggle of colonized peoples for their freedom.
Blair includes China, which likewise is the colonial occupier of the Uighurs and other suppressed Muslim populations. To conflate the struggle for freedom from colonial occupation of these people with an over-reaching monster of “Islamic terrorism” is part of Blair’s trick. His examples in Africa are again born of despair from the consequences of centuries of colonial and now neo-liberal exploitation. I find his pronouncements on Boko Haram ironic, given that Blair’s single biggest legacy is to move the United Kingdom close to Nigerian standards of equality of wealth distribution.
The extraordinary thing is that Blair is somebody so hate-filled he wants to see yet more hatred, killing and violence. It is worrying that the establishment media are so happy to promote his view without providing any balancing opinion. I comfort myself that the real motive of this silly speech was that, other than his media acolytes, absolutely nobody cares what he is saying. It wasn’t so much a speech as a public display of ADD.
Blair of course has many tens of millions stuffed into his capacious back-pocket by oligarchs from the ex-Soviet space, so it is unsurprising to hear him call for understanding between Russia and the West. It is even more to form that this understanding should be based on joint hatred of Muslims.
Cogent. Add, perhaps, that it is good to see him personally destroying any possibility of his ever again being seen – by anyone other than Mad Mel – as an even-handed ME broker. Add a question: is there a connection between Blair’s latest episode of gungho and the April 14th resignation of his old Saudi chum Prince Bandar bin Sultan from the security ministry? Has whatever advantage Blair enjoyed from his acquaintanceship with a regime closely associated with jihadis now evaporated? And add helpless, braying laughter at this visibly crazed megalomaniac presuming to run anything called a Faith Foundation.
Thanks for the opportunity. Great post.
But how far back do you go? Very, very few current countries have maintained exactly their current composition for more than a couple of hundred years. Should the Viking bits of Britain be looking to split from the Jutes, and the Angles and the Saxons?
At some point you have to stop looking backwards and start looking forwards!
And as much interbreeding as possible will get us to this point expeditiously.
Is Blair holding up Chilcot to protect himself and Straw from complicity in torture? It would be in the Labour Party’s best interests to get this dealt with before the next election.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2604801/Tony-Blair-blame-publication-Sir-John-Chilcots-report-Iraq-war-delayed-says-Nick-Clegg.html
Blair is one sick evil greedy bastard.
Him,his New Labour criminal cabal and his NeoCon buddies in blood should be in court facing war crime charges.
Not to mention their part in extrordinary rendition,torture,gang-stalking/Mk-Ultra tactics on perfectly innocent people here and abroad.
The Truth is coming out and these bastards will deserve everything they get.
All this deluded evil charlatan has left is vague sloganeering and empty self-serving faux God squad rhetoric that nobody with a shred of intelligence or humanity takes seriously.
And add this:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.586925
(Paywall, sorry, but the first par says it all)
Also, from his speech: ““the Muslim Brotherhood government was not simply a bad government. It was systematically taking over the traditions and institutions of the country.”
You mean like New Libor did, Tony?
Can’t help wondering what the Pope will say to Tony when they next meet; here’s what respected Catholic theologian Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith reckons, anyway:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2014/04/23/tony-blairs-alliance-with-china-and-russia-is-as-immoral-as-it-is-naive/
My own view is that in taking sides against Islamic extremism, Britain and her friends should do everything in their power to shun Saudi Arabia, the number one source of extremism in the world, and do everything in their power to stop the exportation of Wahhabi ideology from the desert kingdom to Europe. But as a realist, I see absolutely no hope of anything like this happening soon. Britain and her friends will keep on licking the boots of the Saudis and selling them weapons, weapons which the Saudis and their friends use to kill people we should be supporting, such as democracy activists in Bahrain and Christians in Syria.
Saudi Arabia again. Hmmm…
“Russia’s Asian possessions were taken by invasion from their indigenous and Muslim populations”
Hardly. Russia’s Asian possessions were inhabited mainly by animist tribes until Russia invaded them. The areas inhabited by muslims- who had obtained them by invasion and become indigenous by occupation, the technique used by the Russians themselves- were on the borders of Europe and Asia, in the Caucasus.
It’s hard. I mean what do you do with the criminally insane?
Hector
you are broadly right – I didn’t mean indigenous and muslim to indicate they were aways the same people. But the Muslim areas were the most densely populated, and thus where the most active anti-colonial struggles are now underway.
Correction Jbond. He is not insane. Psychopathic.
Felicity Arbuthnot takes us back to Easter in Fallujah in 2003 and 2004.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/04/us-militarism-and-easter-day-disinformation-on-iraq/
Great post Craig…
RE the pope… there’s rather a lot he should be speaking out about, Syria being just one area…
regarding evil hate monger bliar…there was an Excellent piece the other day…by Felicity Arbuthnot…here is some parts from it –
Tony Blair, George W. Bush and David Cameron: Hijacking God?
There must be something in the water at No 10 Downing Street, currently inhabited by Prime Minister David Cameron.
When Tony Blair was in residence, according to the diaries of his former communications director, Alastair Campbell, before the illegal invasion of Iraq, for which Blair’s Downing Street offices produced fantasy, fictional, false justifications, the then Prime Minister was guided by his faith and regularly spoke to “his Maker.” Blair may have “spoken” – but, as ever, he clearly didn’t listen.
An early statement from David Cameron seeking votes from, clearly, only the delusional, since Blair left office not so much under a cloud but under a black thundercloud of duplicity and deception, was that he was “heir to Blair.”
Later he decided he was more in the mould of Margaret Thatcher.
Judgement is clearly not his strong point. For a swathe of the British electorate he might as well have cited Vlad the Impaler and Ivan the Terrible as role models.
However, last year it emerged that David Cameron has been seeking advice from Tony Blair of whom: “he is very admiring … he regards as a nice person and has conviction.”
There have been formal meetings, seemingly telephone calls on policy issues and cosy dinners in the elegant Downing Street living quarters:
“Mr Cameron has been keen to get inside the mind of Labour’s triple-election-winning Prime Minister from the start of his leadership.”(1)
All a bit worrying, since according to a book written by Blair’s political agent of twenty four years, John Burton, his decision to enjoin the attacks in both the Balkans and Iraq were part of a “Christian battle.”
“It’s very simple to explain the idea of Blair the Warrior”, Burton has said: “It was part of Tony living out his faith.” Blair’s: “Christian faith is part of him, down to his cotton socks. He believed strongly … that intervention in Kosovo, Sierra Leone – Iraq too – was all part of the Christian battle; good should triumph over evil …” Also according to Burton, he viewed George W. Bush’s unhinged “War on Terror” as a “moral cause” in fighting evil.(2)
Now, as the rhetoric from No 10 becomes increasingly hawkish and beligerant towards Syria, Russia and where ever the US has set it sights, it has to be wondered if Cameron has been stricken with this deviant, extremist, fundamentalist Blair-pox version of religion.
Last Wednesday (9th April 2014) at his Easter reception at Downing Street for Christian leaders, Cameron reportedly again claimed divine inspiration when he drafted his key concept for the Conservative Party – he was doing God’s work.
After a soprano sang Ave Maria the Prime Minister’s address included that:
“It is the case that Christians are now the most persecuted religion around the world. We should stand up against persecution of Christians and other faith groups wherever and whenever we can.”(4)
No mention of the years of Western-led attacks on majority Muslim countries, where both and all faiths have lived together, shared feasts and grief together for millennia. No mention of divide and rule. But maybe a whiff of a subliminal message, Syria is still on the radar.
Blair produced the blueprint for the excuse for the destruction of Iraq, the country, for believers, where the father of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, Abraham was born at Ur. Cameron surely still has his eyes on the road to Damascus. And Blair, hell bent on a Syria attack is apparently a trusted mentor. One can only speculate, but the increasingly messianic Cameron-speak certainly has a chillingly Blair-like ring.
The full Piece By Felicity is a good read….to be found @
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/tony-blair-george-w-bush-and-david-cameron-hijacking-god/
Thanks Mary for the Felicity Arbuthnot article. Special consideration should be given to how Baghdad was turned from one of the most advanced cities to one of the worst. What an indictment on us and the Yanks who spearheaded this killing for oil. It is not for me to judge Blair and Bush. Hopefully whoever does will reach a judgment that tells the world that democracy is not elected dictatorship.
Could Blair’s latest outpouring be timed to distract a little from this?
text
Link text
Blair the peace Envoy for the Middle East ?
Still making the odd headline with his shouts of Jihad.
He’s the war crazed fundamentalist.
He will come to an abrupt end one day.
Just a question of time.
Apologies.
Third time lucky?
Guardian story headed: PLO and Hamas agree landmark unity pact
John Richards, just paste the link text into the comment, like this:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/23/plo-hamas-agree-unity-pact-form-government
Is that the page you mean?
It is, Clark.
Thanks.
Isn’t Tony Blair simply an Israeli govt mouthpiece?
(http://stopwar.org.uk/news/the-gospel-according-to-millionaire-war-criminal-saint-tony-blair#.U1f7j1VdW8A)
There is an alarming failure by many in the UK to understand that Russia is an Empire. Russia’s Asian possessions were taken by invasion from their indigenous and Muslim populations …
With a few changes in names, exactly the same can be said of the US:
America’s lands were taken by invasion from their indigenous Amerindian populations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries …
In fact, is there any land that is not now occupied by people who invaded and took their land from the indigenous inhabitants?
So what are you saying? It seems that you are engaging gratuitous Russophobia, intended to convey, perhaps, the fear that Russia is ready to roll West and occupy all Europe. That is certainly the message promoted by the US of Aggression.
But Europe is already occupied, and has been since WWII, by the US. Europe acquiesced in that occupation out of fear of invasion and occupation by the Soviet Union. Today, Europe does not fear post-Communist Russia. In fact many Europeans respect Russia’s determination to survive as a nation state by reversing a population implosion while preventing mass immigration from the Third World.
The United States occupation of Europe can only be maintained by creating a new division between East and West, which it is attempting to do by stoking hatred of Russia. Germany seems not to be quite on board. Neither, as the up-coming European elections will prove, are huge numbers of other Europeans who want governments committed to national survival not the New-Wold-Order-mandated self-genocide through the promotion of non-reproductive sex, mass immigration and multiculturalism.
Given a choice, Europe will opt for more trade with Russia not more war. But first they have to get the US Empire off their backs. To accomplish that, they will need to get the Quisling European leaders, the Camerons, Minibandits and Cloggs, the Goldman Sachs agents, the Hollandes, the Van Rompuys and Barrosos off their backs.
John Dross
“Special consideration should be given to how Baghdad was turned from one of the most advanced cities to one of the worst.”
You mean from about 1250 CE?
“The extraordinary thing is that Blair is somebody so hate-filled he wants to see yet more hatred, killing and violence.”
I doubt he’s hate-filled. If he were, he’d at least have an emotional justification for his despicable acts. I suspect he doesn’t even have that shred of an excuse.
He’s made a decision early in his political life to put his own advancement before any other consideration. If that means guiding our country into a war that will kill a million Iraqis, well, hey, they had to make him a Prime Minister to achieve it. He takes his orders from above, and at the moment, his job is inciting hatred against Muslims. Nothing personal, Muslims. He’d do the same to Christians if it pleased his masters.
And there’s the rub. He’s sold his soul to the devil, he can feel the flames of hell licking at his heels, his credibility is disintegrating leaving him less and less to offer, and he knows that a time will come, maybe soon, when he’s worth more to them as a victim than a victor. And then he’ll find out what his devil’s contract is worth – they’ll throw him to the wolves to wring one more bit of use out of him.
Until then, he’ll make their hate speeches …. and we’ll wait.
DonnyDarko
“Blair the peace Envoy for the Middle East ?
Still making the odd headline with his shouts of Jihad.
He’s the war crazed fundamentalist.
He will come to an abrupt end one day.
Just a question of time.”
More deluded fantasies. Much as I can’t stand the ‘guy’, he’ll die an old man in his bed.
Blair isn’t hate-filled and he isn’t in it for the money either, though that comes as a nice bonus. He is a psychopath, plain and simple.
On a point of information: Tatarstan has been held by Russia ever since it was conquered by Ivan the Terrible in the 1550s, except for a period of 3-4 years after 1917.
Can you name some of the oligarchs of the former Soviet space who have put tens of millions into Blair’s back pocket?
Gordon Thomas once suggested they included Semion Mogilevich, one of the mafia bosses who has not gone legitimate and who remains on the FBI’s most wanted list. Comment?
That they include Sultan Nazarbayev, dictator of Kazakhstan and, er, business partner of Alexander Mashkevitch, is well known.
Roman Abramovich has also been mentioned.
Tony Blair’s brother is William Blair, a High Court judge and a barrister who specialises in international financial lawlessness – oops, I mean law, and who is, er, active in the Virgin Islands and Qatar. Euan Blair is likely to go far…until his father is exposed, after which maybe he’ll end up like Mark Thatcher?
Jack Straw and Peter Mandelson are also well-known crooks, as are, at a somewhat lower level, David Blunkett and John Prescott. Tessa Jowell is also an easy target. Of course subsequent ministers in other administrations, Labour and Con-LibDem, have been and are equally corrupt – as are many political figures who haven’t ever made it into any administrations, such as Paddy Ashdown.
The role of ‘oligarch’ money in British politics is not the easiest subject for anyone to touch…
But it’s pathetic that media figures are too lily-livered even to say anything about the late and unlamented Boris Berezovsky. Too fucking afraid to tug on that string!
I find it interesting that no matter how Russia has been governed; monarchy, communist dictatorship or “democratically” elected president, their imperial tendencies are exactly the same.
And worth noting that 60% of Americans polled in 2002 said that they would oppose war on Iraq if the US’s allies were against it, while 60 to 80% said they’d support it if America’s allies did. That means the Blairites’ excuse that the US would have invaded anyway and Blair had to be involved to try to have influence is false – without Blair’s support there would probably never have been a US invasion of Iraq
http://www.americans-world.org/digest/regional_issues/Conflict_Iraq/multilat_support.cfm
Yoave wrote “I find it interesting that no matter how Russia has been governed; monarchy, communist dictatorship or “democratically” elected president, their imperial tendencies are exactly the same.”
Completely agree. Russian governments have always been basically hardline Russian nationalists and imperialists irrespective of changes in rhetoric or ideology.
The Dalai Lama in his autobiography said something similar after meeting Chinese communist leaders for the firs time – that they were Marxist in rhetoric but hardline nationalist in their actions.
That’s assuming that those Americans asked knew where Iraq was!
Young Americans Geographically Illiterate, Survey Suggests
John Roach
for National Geographic News
May 2, 2006
Young adults in the United States fail to understand the world and their place in it, according to a survey-based report on geographic literacy released today.
Take Iraq, for example. Despite nearly constant news coverage since the war there began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country on a map of the Middle East. Seventy percent could not find Iran or Israel.
Nine in ten couldn’t find Afghanistan on a map of Asia.
And 54 percent were unaware that Sudan is a country in Africa.
/..
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/0502_060502_geography.html
Same applies in this country?