David Cameron relies on the complicity of mainstream media and the gullibility and disinterest of the British public to get away with an extraordinary switch. Two years ago he was strongly urging military action in Syria against the forces of President Assad. Now he urges military action against the enemies of President Assad. That includes against groups and individuals who were initially armed and financed by western intelligence agencies, and are still being financed by our Saudi “allies”.
Indeed one of the many extraordinary features of this fervid political period is that the neo-cons (be they Tory or Blairite) who are so actively beating the drum for war, are the ones who absolutely refuse to acknowledge that the source of the poison is Saudi Arabia. Cameron today told Westminster that the head of the snake is in Raqqa. That is plainly untrue. The head of the snake is in Riyadh. But if your God is Mammon, that is blasphemy.
It is also fascinating that the same people who triumphantly warned Putin he would get blowback from bombing the Islamists in Syria, deny that our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and bombing of Libya have any blowback effect or in any way cause terrorism in the West. The hypocrisy would be hilarious were it not so serious.
The French are pounding the city of Raqqa as I write and the truth is, whatever the propaganda, that they have already killed more entirely innocent civilians in their bombing than were killed in the horrible atrocity in Paris. The killing on both sides is mindless. The majority of those the French are bombing into oblivion in Raqqa are people horrified at being occupied by ISIL, just as the people killed by ISIL in Paris were ordinary people as powerless as the rest of us to affect the way the elite run our foreign policy. Those who believe that the random killing of bombing is the solution to random killing are crazy.
I was terribly, terribly sad for the victims of Paris and their loved ones. But I could not help but note that we did not fly flags at half mast or illuminate buildings in the rather lighter tones of red white and blue that could have marked Russia losing nearly twice as many dead in a related terrorist atrocity just a few weeks before.
For the terrorists themselves, I have no sympathy. To kill entirely innocent people is indefensible in any circumstances. To believe that religious kudos can be gained from killing the innocent is incredibly sick.
I have often argued that it is actually not difficult to commit a terrorist attack. If I wanted to kill people next week, did not care who I killed, and was prepared to die myself, I could most certainly do so successfully. The key point is of course that in reality there are very, very few people deranged enough to carry out such atrocious acts. Any rational analysis shows this is not an existential threat. Terrible as these attacks were, they killed 0.01% – that’s one in ten thousand – of the population of Paris. They increased the tiny chance of being murdered in France by only 20%. There are over 600 murders a year in France. Many more people die every year in traffic accidents in Paris than were killed in this atrocity.
I am not trying to mitigate the evil or atrocity, I am trying to put it in context. The drama of the incident is used vastly to exaggerate its impact and to justify those moves which the Establishment had up their sleeve anyway as the vast and growing disparity between rich and poor calls for more weapons of social control. These include massive surveillance of the population, larger and more intrusive security services, aggressive policing, an institutional system of informers in education, a new crime of “non-violent extremism”, and of course yet more wars in the Middle East –
The sad thing is of course that the terrorists are so stupid as to increase the powers of the very forces in society whose policies they purport to be fighting, while the only people they kill are also those getting the short straw of society’s gross inequality. I suspect the leadership knows this. Of course, if you are a Saudi prince, then right wing, highly authoritarian western governments hostile to economic equality are exactly what you want too. It makes your lifestyle in London, Paris and Monte Carlo so much easier.
Meanwhile David Cameron thrashes about. The only way he can see to look credible is to go and bomb someone, even if it is the opposite side he wanted to bomb last time. It won’t stop terrorism, but it will be good for the arms manufacturers and security industry. It will help stoke the jingoism that is so useful in enabling the wealthy to maintain their firm grip on political power.
Actually stopping terrorism would of course do none of those useful things for the Establishment. I do not claim that the Establishment deliberately employs a Middle Eastern policy that promotes and exacerbates terrorism. But their policy has that effect, and they use its consequence in their own interest in retaining a firm grip on political power. It helps further ensure that political power will not be employed to reorder society upon more egalitarian lines.
Robert Crawford
18 Nov, 2015 – 3:31 pm
“I miss the balance and class that John Spencer-Davis brings to this forum.”
I have fond memories of bantering with John S-D.
“I hope you are getting better John, all the very best.”
Seconded.
Kind Regards
Pan
Thinking of concerted bombing campaigns (with Syria in mind) the Vietnam war looms large, in a not to distant history, of wars.
US president Richard Nixon ordered a massive bombing of Cambodia in 1969. Henry Kissinger said of the bombing, “Anything that flies, on anything that moves, Kissinger went on to win a Nobel Peace prize, as blood washes off, and memories fade with time.
Fast forward too, today, and nothing has changed, as US president Barack Obama wages his 7th war against the Muslim world, Obama was also awarded a Nobel Peace prize in 2009. Nowadays, there’s very little blood to wash off, vapourisation from drone blasts makes certain of that.
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news/syria-is-the-7th-muslim-country-bombed-by-nobel-peace-prize-winner-barack-obama
The similarities are their for all too see, as history once more repeats itself.
Sadly for those innocent women and children, and families that have decided to remain in Syria, some due to illness, others old age. They are about to try and weather a firestorm, of Western wrath, that no one should have to endure.
Here is the nub:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-32db-Isis-is-not-the-PMs-target#.Vkzq39LhBV8
Steve Bell
Today
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/nov/18/steve-bell-on-david-camerons-reaction-to-paris-attacks-cartoon
Martin Rowson
Not just one snake but many.
Paris attacks
Martin Rowson on the world after the Paris attacks – cartoon
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/nov/15/martin-rowson-on-the-world-after-the-paris-attacks-cartoon
For Yemen, read Iraq and Syria…..
“SHARDS OF BLUE, RED, AND GREEN stained glass, remnants of an intricate crescent window that is a 4,000-year-old Yemeni art form, glitter in the sunlight before crunching underfoot. Atop a mound of dust and mud stands the shell of an ancient tower-house, sliced in half like a cake by an airstrike.
In addition to the growing number of civilian casualties in the country’s seven-month-long war, U.S.-made bombs dropped by fighter jets from a Saudi Arabian-led coalition are pulverizing Yemen’s architectural history, often referred to as a living museum. These airstrikes are tearing villages apart, forcibly displacing thousands and erasing the country’s inimitable heritage, possibly in violation of international humanitarian law, according to the world heritage body, UNESCO.
Entire villages in the Yemeni highlands appear to defy gravity. Remote high-rises cling precariously to cliff edges. Inside, the character of the fortress-like homes changes with the sun as it moves through the sky. Light filters through the stained glass of patterned windowpanes, called qamarias, illuminating the white gypsum plaster. At night, candles or rare supplies of electricity send dapples of color into the twilight.
Yemen’s time-honored homes are part of the country’s rich social fabric, embodying the culture of the families who have lived in them for centuries. The Middle East’s poorest nation is famous for constructing the world’s first skyscrapers, often up to 100 feet high, with as many as 11 stories designed to keep extended families and their livestock safely under one roof.
The violent assault on the country’s history over the past seven months began in March after a political power struggle between incumbent president Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels backed by soldiers loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, descended into civil war.
But Yemen’s internal conflict has also landed the country’s 26 million people in the middle of the regional struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, already at loggerheads over the war in Syria. After the predominantly Shiite Houthi rebels seized control of the capital, Sanaa, last year, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of nations supported by the United States launched an unrelenting aerial bombing campaign. There have been near-daily air raids ever since.”
https://theintercept.com/2015/11/16/u-s-and-saudi-bombs-target-yemens-ancient-heritage/
Iona Craig
In other words, the UK Govt only fears a Russian veto at the UN Security Council because the agenda of the UK with regards to Syria (and of course that means the agenda of the USA) is fundamentally opposed to that of Russia.
The USA-UK-Turkey-NATO-Saudi-GCC wants to used the atrocity in Paris take out Russia’s ally, the Baathist regime, under the pretence of attacking the Jihadists. The Jihadists, of course, are keen to draw NATO into a ground conflict for a number of different reasons.
Things, though, are messy – one just has to study the recent history of Afghanistan wrt the USSR/USA/UK/Saudi/Pakistan, etc. to understand this. Sometimes, governments will do things for one reason and then do something else simply to save face. The best-laid plans…
“Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are rife throughout the Islamic world. The Jews are blamed for everything. Sadly, this culture seems to have spread to the apologists for Islamofascism in Europe.” Anon1
This is true, actually. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been having what I’ve thought was a rational discussion with someone from/of, say, Pakistan, only for them to dovetail whatever-it-was into, “It’s the Jews” (or some mythical variation of that). Then I think, “This has all been a waste of words, a waste of thought, a waste of effort”. As one might say on social media, “Oh, ffs.” Or, more graphically, “I need to give myself a Glasgow kiss”.
It’s ludicrous that the media/political establishment has been having yet another default position ‘go’ at Jeremy Corbyn when he raised questions about having “a shoot to kill” policy in the UK. The last time round, an innocent Brazilian electrician was assassinated as a result of this type of ‘trigger-happy’ approach – I’m surprised no-one has mentioned that.
What Corbyn was suggesting – a proportionate, clever approach, seems to be a ‘slam dunk’. Why didn’t Hiliary Benn assert this, instead of intoning, yet again, “I can’t speak for Jeremy”. Well, buddy, you are there TO speak for, and to support, Jeremy.
To be fair, from what we know (which may not be very much), it does seem that on this occasion, the French police have had a proportionate approach in relation to the St Germain incident. Most of the people concerned there seem to have been arrested rather than shot, though one appears to have been shot dead and another stupid fanatical fascist bastard, to have blown herself up (perhaps, in her imagined fanatical fascist heaven, she now will get lots of fanatical fascist Chippendales).
Actually, she’s just dust and air.
The IRA killed hundreds if not thousands of people and advanced the cause of Catholics in Northern Ireland not one jot. They then bombed the City of London and business forced Westminster to the negotiating table.
The fact is that terrorist killings of ordinary people are good for business. Lot’s of tax pounds get spent, weapons systems and ammuniton are sold, governments render their populations ever more docile and corporate friendly. ISIS could bomb and shoot for a hundred years and it would have no long term advantage for them at all..
Fake hasbara skinhead anon1 ties himself in knots to find antisemitism far up his rhetorical asshole. Third-rate argumentation. What does Judaism have to do with the criminal enterprise that runs Israel?
Recent state attacks on domestic civilian populations have been carried out with a Safari-club structure in which coordinated clandestine action allows each nation’s intelligence service to use agents of the others as cutouts. As an added benefit, the culpable service gets to spread a lot of chaff: Take 9/11. Did the Saudis do it? Yes. Did the Israelis do it? Yes. (ask the FBI pawns stationed in Fort Lee) Did the Egyptians do it? Yes. Saudi and Israeli complicity had the added benefit of deterring response with unpalatable consequences: potential disruption of oil supplies if Saudi intelligence is held accountable; and intra-agency rebellion of Mossad-infiltrated bureaus if Israeli intelligence is held accountable.
The attack always involves suppression of domestic surveillance as the attack approaches. CIA calls off FBI surveillance with sources-and-methods pretexts. This happened not only before 9/11 (Richard Blee), but before the WTC bombing (reassignment of Emad Salem), and before OKC (cutting Andreas Strassmeir loose.) Paris featured sophisticated cyber C3 countermeasures.
The attack also involves coincident exercises that obscure preparations and hinder response. Paris shares this feature with 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing.
So if France had a vestige of sovereignty, Who would swing for this? תמיר פרדו. Hakan Fidan. John Brennan. A few British factotums. But since France is a NATO Pact satellite state, it falls to civil society to find the arms and legs and flip them. William Pepper’s nearby in London. He could write you a bill of indictment in a jiffy.
We are all being ‘wahabilised’ and proselytized:
Interesting long view from Gearoid O’colemain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D-9_LFPN7g&feature=youtu.be&a
From last Saturday, political author Gearoid O Colmain discusses the Paris attacks with RT International…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxKIeAhi7ws
Make of it what you will, but bear in mind that it’s an alternate narrative to the barrage of propaganda being pumped out by the corporate media, and surely, because we live in so-called ‘democracies’, an alternate narrative is acceptable.
For the record, I agree with much of what Gearoid O Colmain says.
‘Factotem’….nice
“Fake hasbara skinhead anon1 ties himself in knots to find antisemitism far up his rhetorical asshole. Third-rate argumentation. What does Judaism have to do with the criminal enterprise that runs Israel?”
It’s not argumentation. It’s propaganda and what better way to refux the bile than by repetition. However, it’s a boring trope so interest levels are left to linger with anon’s paramour.
Mark, how’s that for karma, we posted the same vid at the same time!
We’ll now doubt discuss this after we’ve all been rounded-up, and are in a prison cell waiting to be ‘questioned’ by the likes of Habba.
Cameron needs to read what this UK government outlet says:
http://forces.tv/87585081
…Cameron may be right in what he said but he’d do best to remember the following things: the UK’s bombing capability will make little difference to the campaign, and a military role that has status value only is not today needed.
Best stick to reconnaissance; re-read about Dean Rusk and, most importantly, mission creep.
See also:
http://forces.tv/01545423
Patrick Henningsen’s predictions correct.
Response to the Paris Terror Attacks: Police State Measures, “No Fly Zone” and “Boots on the Ground” in Syria
Orwell’s Razor: All of 21WIRE’s predictions come true days after ‘Paris Attacks’
By 21st Century Wire
November 18, 2015
http://www.globalresearch.ca/response-to-the-paris-terror-attacks-police-state-measures-no-fly-zone-and-boots-on-the-ground-in-syria/5489862
Ah yes. Dean Rusk, the Human Husk.
“On its face—and perhaps on his stolid face—Rusk is an unlikely vehicle for such a venture. In contrast to some of Johnson’s advisers who were privately torn regarding Vietnam, Rusk was the unyielding, unquestioning rock of containment certitude, both during his tenure and until his death in 1994. He refused to tip his hand in meetings with the president’s other advisers. Zeiler (knowingly) repeats the apocryphal anecdote about a one-on-one discussion between Rusk and John Kennedy. When the president asked Rusk what he really thought, Rusk replied that there were still too many people in the room. Not in public, neither then nor later, did Rusk indicate the slightest doubt that the United States was right in trying to prevent the takeover of South Vietnam by the Communist North.”
Viet Nam is actually the best metaphor for Islamicism. The rigidity of military and political strategy and the historic failure of States against insurgency should tell the story on it’s own.
Rusk is the foundation of Neocon superiority
Craig, can we please have some kind of referencing system? I’ve read through the whole post and comments, and forgotten what I wanted to respond to. Either the possibility to respond directly to comments, or a numbering system, which identifies which comment you are responding to, would do. Either is not that difficult on most blogging platforms.
A kick up the arses of the Mary’s, Rosy’s, Tony-come-latelely’s, Neverminds, and other Fedup’s of this blog and a compliment to Giyane for a change.
You are a dreamer and a liar one Alcy, that you are, I have been pointing to Saudi Arabia since dot, it is the most shady hypocritical Government since Thatcher stroked the back of Saville.
What would we do without Habby’s first licking and alcy’s Krishnamurty sect inspired religious classifications.
Great article, still, Cameron wants to boom boom boom boom and the economy is about to foldOsborne’s lying as well. Housebuilding, surprise, has stalled for the third month, all the screams of more housing, photo opportunities holding trowels of cement, are eyewash, false premises designed to keep the existing market buoyant.
Corbyn ought to get real with the Tories. British citizens and residents ought to be able to make their mind up as to what country they support. You want to fight for money in Syria, become a mercenary who’s utterly brainwashed by criminal minds, then you best kiss your wife and children good bye, because you will not return to this country! Same goes for freeloading mercenaries, trained by the Taxpayer, who, after having done their 12 years, sell their trained knowledge for money, to tyrants, whoever pays most gets their service.why should they be seen as different?
Teaching in face schools should be multicultural, or be shut down until it does so, whatever religion.
And the head of the snake does lie in Riyadh, and in the country of its greatest ally Israel, by association.
“And the head of the snake does lie in Riyadh, and in the country of its greatest ally Israel, by association.”
Imagine the incredulity in the House of Sods.
Stop dreaming, David Cameron, your best chance for historical acknowledgement in history is now to initiate a cease fire in Syria and seek a political solution that does not favour the Zionist that occupy the Golan and steal land by the hectare, its the best way you could keep the British public safe.
Cameron’s best chance for historical acknowledgement in history is probably to take his dick out of the mouth of a dead pig (read that anyway you want).
The Paris postmortem:
http://cultureandpolitics.org/2015/11/17/paris-the-lost-city/
re Daniel 11.54. Thought that was a load of rubbish, as an inhabitant of Paris
RE: Laguerre: I live in a very rural part of France, far, far away from Paris (I know, I often say it). I was quite surprised by the reaction to the Paris attacks: barely any reaction at all, as compared to the Hebdo stuff at the start of the year (when there was a mega reaction).
I’m just talking about people I meet and talk to in my little part of France.
Hollande is dead. No one wants war. No one wants the austerity shit. The majority want the French equivalent of Jeremy Corbyn; ie, a real socialist and pacifist.
The left is massive in France. People shouldn’t believe the bullshit fed to them by the mainstream media.
You might have a different view, up there in Paris.
Mission creep – David Chamelion
I wonder when Cameron will change his colours to the business in hand, carving a Greater |Israel out of Syria, using Al Qaida and Daish to ethnically cleanse the land and then delivering their reward a Caliphate in Eastern Syria.
The terrorist attacks in Paris were very obviously shoe-horned by Hollande as a pretext for accelerating the master plan. The trolls are right, false-flag describes an incident which manipulates public opinion. The Paris attacks have a different function, namely to frustrate Russian plans to restore order to Syria.
The one thing the trolls don’t want us to think about is the role of Israel. but all of the wars against Islam in the last 30 years have been for Israel’s benefit, to weaken Islam. All the conflicts have been Saudi ideology funded and therefore triggered USUKIS attacks. Now Saudi has proved that this is a charade by working with Israel to create Daish.
Your child has temper tantrums so you provoke them deliberately until they understand that it’s not a good idea always to react to provocation.
Israel has been slowly grooming Islam to accept a Greater Israel in the Middle East. Protest will be ruthlessly crushed so you have to learn to submit to our demands.
A little girl in my own family was being groomed by a stranger living in a caravan, to insert a stuffed condom in her mouth. fortunately she had the presence o mind to tell the family what was going on.
Well, I have the presence of mind to tell what is going on in the War on Islam.
RobG:
“Hollande is dead. No one wants war”
I remember hearing this kind of blaze attitude in the Dordogne about Charles de Gaulle 50 years ago. France has an elite – the word is French – with autonomous executive power. Our ragamuffin parliament have to join the Zionist freemasonry to get anywhere at all. Only the consummate slickness of an old Etonian liar can juggle the balls. It drove Blair mad.
Hollande isn’t a patch on De Gaulle, but in France winner takes all.
Truth in Media with Ben Swann: Origin of ISIS
In this episode of Truth in Media, Ben Swann explores the origin of ISIS that has already been long forgotten by American media. Swann takes on the central issue of whether or not ISIS was created by “inaction” by the United States government or by “direct” action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY
Just ignore Jemand,Anon1,Alcyone,Habbabkuk,Kempe et all..
So clearly are they trolls,sockpuppets,Govt provocateurs,dissemblers and paid-for forum sliders.
Other than these paid-for distractors this is a decent blog.
Excellent post Craig,btw…