I am going to examine key factors:
First - the nature of the politicians and other leaders we deserve
Second – 'God'
Third - the people on whom these leaders depend for power
Fourth - the media.
Fifth - the strategies that drive the burning and the maiming.
And sixth - and in humility, the possible remedies as I conceive them.
147 killed in Farah province by bombs or missiles fired from A10 bombers called in by brave US special forces. Over 60 were children. A few seconds on BBC 'News'. For months families have been blown apart by missiles fired from UAVs and triggered by their operators in an Arizonan base. No blood, no smell of viscera, just a burst of infra-red on the 'terrorist's screen.
The British leave Basra for the third time in 80 years with the execrable Hutton present for the striking of the union flag. No one knows the British bombed its general and its paediatric hospitals in 1991. They left a broken public water system and blocked canals as the USA took over this gateway to the southern oil fields.
In Gaza the Zionist entity puts all its weight of its heel on the blood line and ventilation tube to the desperate Palestinian body. The draconian siege, which started in March 2006 when I was there has been progressively tightened in order to stimulate a civil war. With this tactic failing, they planned the greater shoah promised by Matan Vilnai in February 2008 just as they were agreeing a truce with Hamas in mid-summer in order to stop the home made rockets. The conditions of the truce were not met by Israel. On the 4 November, Israeli special forces invaded the Gaza strip and killed 6 Palestinians. A further 'incursion' two weeks later was followed by Palestinian retaliation. Massive quantities of HE, thermobaric missiles, artillery shells, conventional and penetrating bombs, cannon and small arms fire were rained down upon these long suffering and resilient people. Army rabbis relished this shoah, this holocaust, which killed over 200 in the first 15 minutes – mostly new police graduates and children leaving the first shift of school. 90% of the Israeli jewish population, when polled, were reported to be in favour of these added nails in the crucifixion of the Palestinian. Relatives of holocaust victims could have been amongst those waving the blue star of David. I will tell a story as a witness to the murderous nature of this force at the end - briefly.
The useless Ban Ki Moon, appointee of the rogue republic and no doubt of Israel too, moves from scene to burnt and bloody scene, hands wringing. More tents for more misery. 2 million refugees in the first winter of the war on the mythical Osama Bin Laden. 4 million refugees out of the supreme war crime of the Judaeo-Christian assault on a defenceless Iraq. 2 million now in the Swat valley. 70 thousand in Sri Lanka in media silence except for UAV pictures of burning tents.
Death and desolation dealt out across Africa and Eurasia with no sobbing of the phosphorus blinded child, but still and fleeting images of very ordinary death. The vortex sucks ever louder. How can its spiralling be stilled? No worry - the Chelsea Flower Show went well and Wimbledon awaits.
1. The 'leaders'
Political
Not all those who seek political position are necessarily malevolent but many are at least self seeking. Anyone listening to the apologies being squeezed out of our MPs now can see that limited insight, brass neck and absent principles are features of that club. Put them within the Pugin bubble, with access to twelve bars and subsidised drink for dulling of the brain, and one can see how men and women who might not be riveted with principle are instead kneaded further into plasticine.
They are probably picked out before they come before the selection committees. Craig Murray, Her Majesty's former ambasador to Uzbekistan says this about the process. He is one of the most shrewd, knowledgeable and courageous analysts writing in the UK http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/ recommended
UK politics operates on getting tapped, and selected, before any selection. The notional candidate is assessed on his/her probable and future course of conduct. Furthermore, through the running of many simulations, of differing scenarios, with many differing groups of 'stakeholders'. These agree a nomination on one principle; is the potential candidate a moron ie no original opinions, and fearful of thinking for himself, and someone who is devoid of any; honour, principle, sense of justice, bravery, and above all honesty.
There is a more specific mechanism above Etonian tie or law lecturer eg Hoon. We know many MPs are 'Friends of Israel'. Indeed it is said that 80% of the Tory party in Westminster are of this stripe, or rather star. A large majority of Labour ministers are Labour 'Friends of Israel'; it appears to be a qualification for high office. This dual allegiance, this treason, does not happen at a fresher's table when a new parliament opens. It is quietly determined pre-selection. If, like me, you speak for the underdog of Palestine, it would be 'don't phone us, we'll phone you'.
Amongst this rag bag, one sixth lawyers, and mostly career politicians, are a good few I would categorize as psychopaths. My simple definition is 'one who has an abnormal response to loss or suffering in others'. A US psychologist, Robert Hare PhD, has studied the psychopath. These are some of the features which he lists and which resonate with me:-
- glibness/superficial charm
- pathological lying
- cunning/manipulative
- lack of remorse or guilt
- callous/lack of empathy
- impulsivity/irresponsibilty
- failure to accept responsibility for their own actions
Let us look at those who climb the greasy pole right up to the top.
Brown was raised by a zealous Zionist Presbyterian father. He was taken twice a year as a boy to see the glories of the Jewish state, or entity as best described. He sat in the sofa cabinet with his predecessor as the genocidal wars on Afghanistan and then Iraq were unleashed. Like Blair and the others in that Downing Street lounge, he is a psychopath too. Not one of the successive pretexts for 'laying upon Iraq like wolves' could justify the killing and maiming of even one family. Even if they believe the propaganda driven Iraq Body Count of 100,000 and not the realistic measure of over one million murdered, they will not have suffered any pangs of regret. A greater purpose was being served.
His ability to lie matches his Granita pal. Here are some extracts from a speech he gave at Camp Bastion:-
Its thanks to you that Afghanistan has a democracy now, where it never had it before.Its thanks to you that hospitals and health centres are now being built.This area and the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan is the crucible for global terrorism. Its a breeding ground for global terrorists. There is a line of terror, a chain of terror that goes from Pakistan and the border areas of Afghanistan right back to the streets of all our countries, and I think its important to recognise that if we do not take action here and we do not fight back against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, then people in Britain and in other countries represented here are less safe and more insecure and more at risk as a result.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, British Army spoke to Chatham House audience recently. The 17 pages are chilling. He spoke as an imperialist. War against 'non-state' forces would continue for decades. There was NO mention of international law. He quoted academic warriors and Clausewitz of course, but not the Nuremberg Principles. The 1000 plus dead and injured British troops were remembered but not the uncounted Iraqi and Afghan dead and injured – millions. These quotes are typical:-
And it must fall to us at the top of ''Defence'' (commas added by DSH) to educate, and to explain the utility of force as an instrument of national power.
But succeed we must: our national security, our credibility and reputation, our strategic partnership with the US and the future of NATO are all bound up in Afghanistan.
McChrystal's rise to leadership is marked by his central role in directing special operations teams engaged in extrajudicial assassinations, systematic torture, bombing of civilian communities and search and destroy missions. He is the very embodiment of the brutality and gore that accompanies military-driven empire building. Between September 2003 and August 2008, McChrystal directed the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations (JSO) Command which operates special teams in overseas assassinations.
The living and the dead return Expectant army mums and old soldiers with their medals wave the union flags in happiness or grief. As they lionise the lads who only 'do their job', no word is heard about darker races mouldering in the east. As patriotic feeling is massaged, visceral, silent racism is fed and murder made banal.
2. God
The human has instinctively worshiped a God/s for millennia, the Sun God being the most logical perhaps. The power of religion has been massive but now it wanes. Christianity:
- 2.1 billion
- Islam: 1.5 billion
- Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
- Hinduism: 900 million
3. The people
The cannon and the voting fodder without which no wars would be fought or elections won by landslide.
'It can only get better' and in Westminster Hall next day, the paramount-war-criminal-to-be spoke with faux sincerity of wanting his party and government to be whiter than white. During this current catharsis there has been discussion of the need to have proportional representation to limit big party dominance in government. Both conservative parties, led by Cameron and Brown, dismiss this and speak of the need for 'strong government'. Rational and even handed government is not to be embraced.
There are weaknesses in the people which render them as lambs, as sheeple, to psychological slaughter. They have been educated not to think and seldom are they inspired to higher things. That necessary scepticism is within a few. Their analytical powers are limited so shallowness is likely. They discern they have no power when the government renegues on its manifesto, stamping its boot on the face of the electorate. Cynicism grows and only the congenital Tory and Labour person turn up to vote. The turn out was highest in 1950 at 84% and at the last in 2005 it was 60%. 'Labour' got a majority of 67 seats with 35% of the votes cast – including no doubt many of those 'banana republic' postal votes.
But a flood tide has swept in and taken a few of those dirty nappies out to a forgiving sea. The Brits have come as close to rebellion as they ever will. Anger has hit the top of the Richter scale. A poll showed 80%, yes 80% want independent MPs. They can see the party system only serves the apparatchiks and that principle in politicians is a rarity. Something has happened that I have spoken for these past ten years. One hundred independent MPs, of proven worth in their working lives, might save our democracy for the demos, the people. The greasy pole climbing MP might become a rarity. A parliament might vote against British involvement in a pre-emptive war on Iran, screamed for by Israel and backed by its surrogate, the US of A.
4. The media
No one here would deny that the broadcast and print media in all states worldwide is central to the incarceration of the minds of almost all citizens.
The BBC, or ZBC as I call it, excels above all other corporations in propaganda. It works seemlessly with government in this. I read that there are 200 ciphers in the Downing Street Media Unit but I cannot find a reference to it. We can be sure, however, that there are the closest connections between the media and a government which prosecutes illegal wars and privatises valued public services. The BBC has linguists in its ranks and it knows that one well chosen word alone will be the black diamond of a propaganda piece. One fragment:- When the Israeli Air Force was 'liquidating' dozens of graduating police officers in milliseconds, it took place in 'security compounds', not a Dixon of Dock Green police station.
I quote from Harold Pinter via Pilger:-
''Across the world, he pointed out, the extinction and suffering of countless human beings could be attributed to rampant American power, “but you wouldn't know it”, he said. “it never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening, it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest.” 'For the BBC, Pinter's speech never happened. Not a word of it was broadcast. It never happened.'
And John Pilger:-
'The words 'mistake' and 'blunder' are common BBC news currency, along with 'failure' - which at least suggests that if the deliberate, calculated, unprovoked, illegal assault on defenceless Iraq had succeeded, that would have been just fine. Whenever I hear these words I remember Edward Herman's marvelous essay about normalizing the unthinkable. For that's what media cliched language does and is designed to do - it normalizes the unthinkable; of the degradation of war, of severed limbs, of maimed children, all of which I've seen. '
Again - Consider how the power of this invisible government has grown. In 1983 the principle global media was owned by 50 corporations, most of them American. In 2002 this had fallen to just 9 corporations. Today it is probably about 5. Rupert Murdoch has predicted that there will be just three global media giants, and his company will be one of them.
Tom Paine, my hero, warned that if the majority of the people were being denied the truth and ideas of truth, it was time to storm what he called the "Bastille of words". That time is now. The broadcast word and image sucks the truth from all.
5. The strategies that drive the burning and the maiming
It is often said the main driver is the military-industrial complex. This does not wash with me. Although big money is made – especially with the usual overruns on complex weapons, more money can be made running supermarket chains. Aggressive wars, wars of choice, happen because power is concentrated in the hands of psychopathic males. A grossly abnormal upbringing is grafted onto the Y chromosome. Beneath them are those who want blood and chaos, as long as their own families do not share in it.
The present wars in the ME and Asia are down to the Project of the New American Century and its aims that the USA should be dominant on land, at sea, in the air, space and cyberspace. But to what benefit? What drove the British Empire? The need to dominate (hence dominion), greed for resources and free manpower, religious zeal, 'improvement' of the native peoples etc. The USA through PNAC would appear to be planning world domination. I am unhappy in saying this because it is both irrational and evil. However, it has broken a country with the second biggest oil reserves and its present focus on Afghanistan is all to do with the hydrocarbon reserves in the Caspian basin and that country to the west, Iran. The pretence is defence, but domination is the aim. It could continue trading economically for oil but the aim is to hold and thus be able to deny energy to other nations.
I have read that Rockefeller and Kissinger have spoken of the need to reduce world population by two-thirds. The Schiller Institute for Peace - Farmers and Eaters Unite!” Henry Kissinger's 1974 Plan for Food Control Genocide. This is the stuff the media make certain stays in the dark. This Dr Strangelove approach, the green orb in the capable hands of the kindly USA, might be a strong thread in PNAC. By the way, do you notice how few citizens know of PNAC? The media never utter it.
And there is fatalism plus irrational belief. The 'Christian' fundamentalists look forward to the second coming and its attendant Armageddon but when the Jordan flows with blood, you can bet it will not be theirs. Their rapture will be unalloyed with pain. And Islam has a day of judgement. So many have a fatalistic belief system and thus a self fulfilling prophesy is made more likely.
6. In humility, the possible remedies as I conceive them
I have been trained as a doctor to get to the root in diagnosis, as well as to weigh the nuances. I find that even the better 'educated' shun vision of the depths. They are pond skaters moving randomly on surface tension; they are perplexed, fearful, lost. They are as susceptible now as the well educated people of Germany was to these powerful hoses of the mind:-
FEAR Reichstag fire – now imitated by 9/11, 7/7 – no inquests, no inquiry, and all the anti-Islamic propaganda to drive the war on Islam
GOD But without reference to Christ. Hitler wrote 'God' over 500 times in Mein Kampf.
PATRIOTISM The British are good at that – see Blair at the Cenotaph in my piece http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11002.htm
RACISM The idea of the other, the untermenschen – those of lesser or even no worth. This is conveyed every time the British media reports the identity of a dead soldier and the grieving words of the dear ones. Whereas Afghan civilians - no name, no interview, no funeral. no worth.
WHAT DO WE DO?
The hour is late, very late.
First, silence or nihilism is complicity.
Information – find the truth. 'Liberty can not be preserved without general knowledge among people' – Adams 1775
Then we stand up and speak out as we are doing here.
Direct non-violent action. Those people (like Linda Percis) who disabled a B52 at Fairford were right to do that. The crimes being committed by Bush, Brown, Olmert and others are so great that this is fully justified in morality and law ie 'the prevention of a greater crime'.
Our democracy is an illusion. It has failed and it has caused great suffering. We must not excuse it but renew it. There must be peaceful revolution.
Blair spoke in 2006 of 'an arc of extremism' as the bombs were falling on Lebanon and the people were dying in Gaza and the 'West Bank', and by the score in Iraq – the latter of his making. Extremism!!
There is no 'arc of extremism', which of course took in Syria and Iran. There is not an arc, but an axis of extreme evil. At one pole there is Tel Aviv, at the other is Washington, and in the middle is London with pomp masquerading as propriety and law. Power oscillates back and forth along this axis as busily as all those jets. This axis has no interest in justice or in true democracy. It cannot warm to the smile of a child or comfort a tear.
Can you hear the sobbing of the child - that child who is your child?
(Al Jazeera film (U-tube) of boy with grossly swollen lids ?white phosphorus and of the girl who has lost her leg. The whole of the Israeli high command should be arraigned for this alone.)
And finally the paramount war criminal, Blair. It was announced after the holocaust that was rained on Gaza that he had been awarded the Dan David Prize in for leadership – small change at 1 million dollars. The citation included 'he showed exceptional intelligence and foresight, and demonstrated moral courage and leadership'.
OUTRAGE must be Richter 10. And all those who have committed the supreme international crime be brought to trial:-
This is the key. Marxists do not favour trials and lawyers shrug their shoulders, but if we do not bring these devils to the dock, nothing changes and we are guilty as the tears and the blood flood earthwards. All other action is secondary to the application - not the lip service, of international law.
'Where the law ends, tyrrany begins' John Locke – leader of the enlightenment in England
Join us in this Google - Blair War Crimes Foundation or go to http://blairfoundation.wordpress.com/
This was the motif for the voyage of the Dove and the Dolphin which started from Torquay on 1 February 2003 for Palestine, and it is the only answer now.