Growth, Poppies, Corpses and Serendipity 168


Opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 4,000% since the start of the US/UK/Others occupation. 4,000%. Really. For the first time, this year production of processed opium exceeded 7,500 tons. This industrial manufacture would be impossible without the active participation both of the puppet government we installed, and the command structures of our intelligence services. The Karzai and Dostum families, alongside other of our clients, have become terribly wealthy. Secret funds of intelligence services have swelled.

Opium production amounts to a staggering 60% of Afghanistan’s GDP. Yet we have that pompous fool Jon Simpson on the BBC opining what a great success our occupation was, how Afghanistan is transformed.

The UK spent 37 billion pounds of money we do not have on the occupation of Afghanistan, when our health service is creaking and hungry children are reliant on foodbanks. That 37 billion is a drastic underestimate – it is based on “marginal costing”, the extra cost of operating the troops and equipment in Afghanistan compared to the cost of keeping them on Salisbury Plain. The fact you would not need this massive offensive army and all that equipment, were you not conducting worldwide simultaneous invasions, is not taken into account at all. The true cost of the Afghan occupation is many times higher than 37 billion.

Bear that in mind when you see Cameron posturing about a routine EU subscription cost of 1.7 billion. There are unlimited funds for attacking and occupying Johnny Foreigner, but money spent on co-operation with other nations is an absurd waste. A view to be reinforced by increasing racist rhetoric about being “swamped” by the Eastern Europeans who are now adding so much to our economy and our culture.

There is an irony here because one of the major reasons for the EU contribution recalculation was the UK government’s decision to include, for the first time, an estimate for illegal trade – in drugs and prostitution – in UK GDP figures, thus producing a spurious blip in economic growth. Prostitution alone was estimated at 6.5 billion pounds, which makes it one of our major industries, while the drugs figure was still higher and represented a direct contribution to UK GDP from the result of our Afghan occupation.

So it was all worthwhile after all! Those soldiers did not die in vain! When you add to that, the fact that the prostitution figure itself is boosted by the many unfortunates, mostly women, who enter the trade to fund a heroin habit, you have a perfect circle of serendipity.

Who can possibly claim that UK policy is unplanned and immoral?


Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

168 thoughts on “Growth, Poppies, Corpses and Serendipity

1 4 5 6
  • Kempe

    Sorry to keep you all waiting.

    “Not like the British military then, they are pussycats.”

    Oh. I thought they were all “cold-blooded murderers and baby killers”.

    Can somebody please show me where I said the Taliban were the main beneficiaries of the drugs trade in Afghanistan? I said they made a lot of money out of it, $200 million according to recent estimates, which is true.

    Lee Rigby attended Middleton Secondary, the Headmistress made some comments to the media on the murder, there are also plenty of clear pictures of his parents online if you bother to go look. I hope this fills in a couple fo the gaps in his biography.

  • glenn_uk

    Kempe: “Sorry to keep you all waiting.

    Not a problem. We could quite happily have kept waiting for you for the rest of our lives.

  • Mary

    Re Joss Stone’s version of The Green Fields of France which was recorded for the British Legion poppy appeal. (poppy fatigue setting in)

    Note the lines omitted.

    [Disgusting travesty by British Legio
    Posted by AlanG on November 5, 2014, 10:45 am

    Compare and contrast!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxkhBvO8_kM Eric Bogle

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5gTOcoD0c0 Joss Stone

    ~~
    Truly sickening
    Posted by MikeD on November 5, 2014, 11:22 am, in reply to “Disgusting travesty by British Legion”

    And these words either lost/inaudible (or not included?) in the soap screeching official song

    �Do those who lie here know why did they die
    Did they believe when they answered the call
    Did they really believe that this war would end wars
    Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
    The killing and the dying were all done in vain.�

    Re: Disgusting travesty by British Legion
    Posted by zemblan on November 5, 2014, 11:38 am, in reply to “Disgusting travesty by British Legion”

    Note the lines, the decisive lines, that the latter despicable version omits:

    “But here in this graveyard it’s still no mans land
    The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
    To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man
    To a whole generation that were butchered and dammed

    Well Will McBride I cant help wonder why
    Do those that lie here know why did they died?
    And did they believe when they answered the call
    Did they really believe that this war would end war?

    Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
    the killing, the dying, WAS ALL DONE IN VAIN
    For young Willy McBride it all happened again
    And again, and again, and again, and again.”

    The British Legion should be ashamed of itself. This song smacks of war porn. It is an irreverent, irresponsible, and a deeply reckless attempt at cultural revisionism.
    ~~
    Joss stone comments:
    Posted by zemblan on November 5, 2014, 11:52 am, in reply to “Disgusting travesty by British Legion”

    Idiocy on tap, complete with Glastonbury-esque arm waving and an unctuous, giggling pop star bestride a field of red poppies. What more do you need? T’is the essence of war porn, all packaged for your entertainment!

    STONE: “The last thing you want to do is disrespect the lyric.”
    How about singing the whole damned song, then, or at least the lines that convey the entire anti-war sentiment at its core?

    And as for Jeff Beck’s jazzy, even sensual, solo, can anyone think of a more inappropriate musical accompaniment to the original track?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez1WBJaZZ7U

    http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1415184359.html

  • Kempe

    ” Not a problem. We could quite happily have kept waiting for you for the rest of our lives. ”

    Flatterer.

  • Mary

    Vincent Burke sings On Remembrance Day. All our wars are listed.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPLtSkILwvs

    on remembrance day

    on remembrance day

    when the army pray

    and the flags go up

    to remind us that they do it for us.

    on remembrance day

    by the flower display

    where the church explains

    how the heroes chase the villains away.

    I will tell it to the careless wind

    I will tell you when the good guys win.

    on remembrance day

    I should stay away

    from the bbc

    where they tell you how a real man should be.

    and the children watch

    as the vicar walks around with a cross

    ‘cos to love is fine

    if you do it at a sensible time.

    I will tell it to the careless wind

    I will save it for the next of kin

    I will tell you when the good guys win.

  • Mary

    A quotation which should be read by all on the 11th November, especially the pocket pols.

    Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervour, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.

    And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry.

    Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

    (Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar – 66 BCE War Journals)

  • Mary

    John Hilley and Morrissey (from NZ) on medialens.

    Good for the killing business: How the world’s biggest arms dealers exploit poppy day
    Posted by John Hilley on November 8, 2014, 9:11 am

    http://noglory.org/index.php/articles/369-good-for-the-killing-business-how-the-world-s-biggest-arms-dealers-exploit-poppy-day

    John

    A load of poppycock.
    Posted by Morrissey on November 8, 2014, 9:24 am, in reply to “Good for the killing business: How the world’s biggest arms dealers exploit poppy day ”

    These pro-war festivals, organized by the government and starring politicians, with the military in a supporting role, are happening frequently in Australia and New Zealand too. There was a big ceremony last Saturday in Albany, W.A., to mark the 100th anniversary of troops being sent to fight for King and Empire.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    From the Preamble to the Hamas Charter:

    “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it”

  • Mary

    Stop the War @STWuk 5 hours ago

    What would Harry Patch have said about war criminal Tony Blair parading with #poppy on #RemembranceSunday? http://bit.ly/1zEXjqR

    Stop the War @STWuk 7 hours ago

    Where were the #RemembranceSunday black poppies for the 16,000 First World War concientious objectors? http://bit.ly/1uR72JN

     Stop the War retweeted
    #GovernThis @Anon_Online 15 hours ago

    How world’s biggest arms dealers exploit #poppy day @ http://stopwar.org.uk/news/good-for-the-killing-business-how-the-world-s-biggest-arms-dealers-exploit-remembrance-day
    … #RemembranceSunday #WeWillRememberThem #RemembranceDay #Peace
    Stop the War @STWuk · 14 hrs 14 hours ago

    Lurking among #RemembranceSunday warmongers this war criminal responsible for 1m dead http://bit.ly/1ubPMfO

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1_72GYCcAA6Z5U.jpg:large

  • Mary

    Ben Griffin e-mailed:

    Please follow the link for video and pictures of Veterans For Peace UK remembering all victims of war at The Cenotaph yesterday.

    http://veteransforpeace.org.uk/2014/veterans-for-peace-uk-at-the-cenotaph-2014/

    Thank you to all supporters who followed us to The Cenotaph and helped us with the singing. We couldn’t have done it without you.

    Thanks to Shaun Dey and Guy Smallman of Reelnews for the excellent film and pictures.

    Thanks to Mick Haggerty for another flawless recital of The Last Post.
    .
    Veterans For Peace UK
    ~~~

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Griffin_(British_Army_soldier)

1 4 5 6

Comments are closed.