alanjjohnstone
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The latest from the Telegraph is that Boris Johnson rejects Cameron's policy of arming "maniacs" and is calling for a ceasefire…When Barmy Boris and the Torygraph become anti-war i may have to switch clubs and suggest Right Unity… it may be more effective than the Left Unity!http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10124089/Boris-Johnson-Dont-arm-the-Syria-maniacs.htmlLord Dannatt, former head of the Army, warned that supplying arms to the Syrian opposition could turn into a “much larger intervention”.
"neither should we countenance the remotest scintilla of blue or grey in the new Head Office fascia sign when it finally sees the light of day."Is there any plans to include a hanging sign from the existing bracket for higher visability to pedestrians Or afix a flag pole for raising the red flag? After all we do call upon workers to muster under our banner in our Declaration of Principles …we really should have one for them to muster under!!
Colour-coded politics has been around for a while. In Thailand the two rival elites fighting out as red-shirts and yellow-shirts. The Orange Ukraine revolution…(i see that one going down well in parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland but not in others.) However your examples are, of course, a bit Euro-centric…Green is the colour if Islamists, as is black, i believe, so it will always be a question of location to what colour socialists should choose.Why should our symbols be restricted to certain patterns? If anarcho-syndicalists/anarcho-communists can go for the diagonals, can we not go for the red polka-dots? Dotty socialists…where have i heard that said before…hmmm….Your droog*Alan* Nah , that doesn't sit well either and its also Russian…Never liked citizen due to the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Americanism , senior citizen, they never call kids junior citizens …just junior……kameraden …too militaristic…compadre…thats a bit softer sounding…
The Middle-East Peace Envoy wants to escalate the war.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/15/tony-blair-west-intervene-syriaAssad should not disrupt the balance by using outside forces, presumedly Hezbullah. No mention of the Saudis or Qatar foreign intervention tipping the scales. And all the usual old canards are produced…Iran…nuclear weapons…Saddam Hussein gassing his own people being raised once more …something that UK and US at the time tried to shift the blame on to Iran for. When is this so call International Criminal Court going to charge him instead of going after some obscure African warlord? When is the press going to treat him as the pariah he has proven to be …a failed and discredited …rather than quoting his words as wisdom. Even if we do accept that he was "misled" by "inaccurate" intelligence on Iraq, but now that he is excluded from spy reports and not privy to those sources, why should his claims of knowing things now on Syrian intelligence matters be treated as any more credible than his inept previous analysis of intelligence when he was actually receiving them. Or do MI5 still deliver secret documents to ex-prime ministers!No wonder George Galloway finds these hypocrits such easy meat .
Thats the one i meant…many thanks for clarifying for others any confusion that might arise ….not technically his auto-biography although he does go on about his dad a bit which makes me associate it with his biography,
I will do a short blog post quote and link to it on SOYMB. Fisk is up there with Pilger when it comes to reporting, perhaps even a lot higher, considering he has probably risked his life in war zones much more often than Pilger.I am always surprised that he is not given the broader media coverage he so richly deserves. Jimmy Moir of Edinburgh branch highly recommends Fisk's auto-biography as a good read.
I think it is always better to have one thing that brings together all the arguments and one place to go to read it where explanations are in a clear easy to read format rather than having them dispersed throughout our web-site as we do with the numerous articles on the history of money and banking. These days we do not require to go to extremes of expense to publish a pamphlet or book with budget -priced print-on-demand companies . I am sure it would not be beyond the capabilities of some members to produce an anthology of relevant articles from the Standard and add introduction and perhaps an updated intro to each of them if needed such as improved recommended recent reading list and url links instead of basic book references. The draft could then be circulated online for comments and corrections and if no disputes arise, accepted for the party to publish. Perhaps yourself, Mike, could start the ball rolling by compiling from our web-sites archives all the appropriate articles and mentions and book reviews.
Javier Solana former foreign minister of Spain, and ex-secretary general of NATO, and E.U. High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is a former secretary general of NATO and ex-foreign minister of the Netherlands, in a joint article in the New York Times."Rather than secure humanitarian space and empower a political transition, Western military engagement in Syria is likely to provoke further escalation on all sides, deepening the civil war and strengthening the forces of extremism, sectarianism and criminality gaining strength across the country. The idea that the West can empower and remotely control moderate forces is optimistic at best. Escalation begets escalation…" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/opinion/global/geneva-talks-hold-the-only-key-to-syria.html?_r=0 War always brutalises people and atrocities are committed by all participants.
It is never wise to make comparisons in history but the development in a previously secular Syria towards what is increasingly a sectarian civil war reflects what happened in ex-Yugoslavia where quite suddenly in a fairly tolerant and non-sectarian country religious differences became political weapons for various powers to manipulate. Once again the Telegraph's Peter Osbourne is exposing the Guardian's establishment credentials which is happy to publish Nick Cohen's pro-Cameron war-mongering. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/09/william-hague-syria-policy?CMP=twt_guIn 2003 in advance of the Common's Iraq War debate a mass demonstration was held. Can we expect another in 2013 in advance of the Commons debate on arming the rebels? I somehow doubt it. Has anyone heard anything from Labour Party on Syria?…their silence is deafening.Where does the Palestinian Solidarity Committee stand, now that Hamas and Hezbullah are on opposite sides?I know the FSA did not specifically mention ethnically cleansing christians…call it literary license on my part. I note that the UN declined Russia's offer to man the Syrian/Israel Golan Height ceasefire line, now that the Austrian contingent has been withdrawn.Which now explains Austria's EU very anti-arm the rebel position…their national troops would have been in the weapon sights of French and British supplied arms.
The media was not slow nor reluctant to publicise Iran's leader's supposed declaration to "wipe Israel off the map". As been pointed out, several countries have been wiped off the map with the blessing of NATO and the UN, and neither did he ever say Israelis or Jews would be wiped off the map. However, strangely (but perhaps not that strange) when the Syrian Free Army announces a threat that Shi-ite and Alawite and Christian minority communities would be “wiped off the map” it is something that the BBC appear not to consider of sufficient importance to be news to headline. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-21/syria-rebels-threaten-to-wipe-out-shiite-alawite-towns.htmlWhether rebel forces will openly begin an ethnic cleansing program to eradicate minority communities remains to be seen but if rebel forces do eventually seize power, the future of Christians, Jews, Shias, and Alawites in Syria is uncertain at best. Will Cameron and Hollande wash their hands of the blood? I rather think so.
Janet posted on SOYMB about the Gezi Park events http://www.socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-green-public-park-or-concrete.htmland also herehttp://www.socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2013/06/occupy-gezi.htmlA few weeks ago SOYMB posted about a 1969 Occupy event in Berkeley that was also sparked by the planned development of a park.http://www.socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-1969-occupy-movement.htmlSeems that parks as public spaces have always been the centre of resistance and protest. I recall the fights for free speech in various cities and various countries during the teens and 20s were centred also on access to the parks.
How sad is it that i find this type of penetrating article in the Daily Telegraph and not in the Guardian or the Independent but it is a sign of the times (not the Times…i'm denied access to it due to its paywall)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10086837/The-whiff-of-suspicion-over-the-Chilcot-Inquiry-grows-stronger.htmlJust who is on the left or right these days?
From the Guardian reportA senior British official said: "Are we confident in our means of collection, and are we confident that it points to the regime's use of sarin? Yes. Can we prove it with 100% certainty? Probably not."Half-pregnant?While the Americans care more about the stock-piles than the usage."It's not that big a deal so far. But if it's an indication of a loss of control of chemical weapons that becomes a huge problem," said Charles Duelfer, the former US chief weapons inspector.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/04/syria-nerve-agent-sarin-uk-france
An example of war-mongering propaganda can be demonstrated by this BBC website headline http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22773268“France's Fabius 'confirms sarin use' by Syria regime” Headlines are more important than the details in the body of the article. In the article text The French foreign minister is quoted "…There is no doubt that it's the regime and its accomplices" that were responsible…he did not specify where or when the agent had been deployed”Of course the defenders of proper grammar and protectors of truth, educated by institutions that encourage bending the truth…public schools and Oxbridge… will remind us of the quotation marks and the BBC is simply reporting what was said. Also on BBC article was an extract from the United Nations investigation “…the UN said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe chemical weapons had been used…” However the article failed to mention the UN also found insufficient evidence to determine what actual type of chemical agents were used or which side of the warring forces had deployed them. Those important caveats to the UN report apparently do not deserve repeating. We can only conclude that for reasons better known to themselves, the BBC desires to present what limited information is available as hawkishly as possible to present the Syrian dictatorship in the most unfavourable light and provide support for the UK government line. AlQaida In Iraq have been in the past few days caught manufacturing more chemical weapons but joining the dots is something the BBC journalist are not renowned for. I also note that Milliband has remained rather quiet on the issue. Silence is compliance. I am astonished how there is more indignation of the possibility of the rich pensioner being deprived of his or her free tv licence than the imposition of an annual tax upon us all to maintain an establishment mouth-piece is readily seen as acceptable. At times i wish the SPGB was a campaigning reformist party because i know what supposedly independent corporation would be in my sights for abolition to save us all a few quid.
