Information Clearing House has this article by Mike Whitney complaining about the new repressive measures dictated in Britain by Prime Minister Blair. In case you can’t tell, Whitney likes George Galloway’s courage and bluntness. (Galloway is a Member of the British Parliament. This is the same guy who really blistered the US administration and its allies on Capital Hill a few weeks ago when he was summoned for testimony there.)
“‘I am utterly against the punishing of innocent people for the crimes of the guilty, whether it is done on the underground of London or the streets of Falluja by George Bush’s air force’. – George Galloway MP.
“…. Imagine, for a moment, that the US was invaded by an army from Saudi Arabia for the transparent purpose of securing America’s great natural wealth. And, imagine that tens of thousands of American people were killed in that invasion, entire cities were leveled as reprisal for resisting, and scores of Americans were tortured and humiliated in the most despicable manner.
“What type of man would risk his own life to travel to the United States to fight for the liberation of the American people from Saudi oppression?
That is an unpleasant and very important little exercise of the imagination. One great virtue of the Christian faith’s “Golden Rule” (“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”) is that it requires just such exercises of the imagination. You have to ask yourself, “What IF we WERE in their situation?” And we have to ask and answer it honestly, in the light of what is really going down.
As it says in Proverbs, “If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?” [Pro 24:12]
“Can’t Americans see their civil liberties being methodically savaged by Bush’s rubber-stamp Congress? Will it take a decree of martial law to wake them up to this ‘gathering threat’ emerging from the Bush White House? ….
“Those who doubt what I say should consider Blair’s news conference yesterday, where he rattled-off a whole new list of repressive measures to be directed at Muslims. Mimicking his Crawford mentor, Blair has decided that he has the right to unilaterally make law from his perch at 10 Downing St. without the consent of Parliament. The … PM now claims the power to close down mosques, deport clerics and shut down web sites where the views don’t meet the dubious standards of the state. Additionally, Israeli trained police-units have been deployed on London’s streets with orders to ‘shoot to kill’ terror suspects (or fleeing Brazilians) if there is a perceived risk to public safety. … [whence this] license to issue Nazi-type edicts that eviscerate basic civil liberties?
“The British people would be foolish to let the wildly-unpopular Blair get away with this monumental power-grab.
“85% of the British people already agree that the London bombings were the direct result of Blair’s involvement in Iraq. Similarly, every terrorist-expert on the planet; including analysts at M15, the CIA, and the Israeli Mossad, have supported that very same conclusion. So, why should the victims of Blair’s bungled aggression be the same one’s who are collectively punished?
“It’s the big-money elites behind Blair that have their sights on personal liberty, just as they do in America and Australia. (Australia’s Howard is trying to enact similar legislation right now) ….
“They’ve concluded that they can pretty well dispose of personal liberty in a few years by taking advantage of terrorist attacks, exploiting public hysteria, and crafting a media narrative that supports the crushing of individual freedom. That’s why we should take these new anti-Islam laws for what they really are; a forerunner to the repressive measures that will be applied to everyone without discrimination in the very near future.
“Can anyone seriously doubt this after seeing the pattern of the last 5 years?
“That’s why we need guys like Galloway who’ll stand up and take a few hardy swings at the scoundrels in power. His words put a little steel in everyone’s spine; and we’re going to need it, too. There’s plenty of bad road ahead.
“Straight shooting,” eh? Well, the gun is smoking.
let me stand corrected about the book, it does have a few points against say repubs also.
IMHO, we messed up during gulf war 1.
The book goes into details.
Look, someone hates your Ideals(American way of life) no matter what party is in control in USA,
they will , they will not care.
They dislike Israel,the dislike USA, and on and on it goes.
Iran hated us in 1979; should we blame Jimmy Carter?
Clinton fired missles into Iraq a few times; should we blame these actions on terrorists hating us?
FDR was in charge when Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
We have had terrorists in USA
Anyhow, I do not know if I can post book names, et al…. but , this war on terroir is not just going over there and being a bully, 100%.
Read this 2004 book(can get it at your public library, it’s a paperback), called
“An End To Evil(How To Win The War on Terror)”.
was NY Times Bestseller.
it is published by ballenetine books(ballentinebooks.com).
Like i said, you can more than likely find a copy at your library, if you want(like I did).
Still reading it.
Fascinating Read.
Does Not knock Bush, either.
Gives valid, real points on what we have done right, and wrong( wrong was giving N Korea 2 nuke reacotrs in the mid-90’s, and millions in cash for “aid”…which now they say they have Nuke bombs, and threaten us).
There are always mistakes made in war, but should we sit back, and pretend all is well, or do somethng about it?
Do we need another 9/11? Or should we try to prevent it, with/without “proof’ of WMD’s( hey, Saddam had something: he killed 5000 Kurds, didn’t he?)
Hey, think if FDR would have told the American people” we’re going in” say about 1939, when hitler started taking over Poland, etc…
maybe WWII asa we know it would never have happened. How many millions of lives would have been spared/saved?
Yet, indifference by American public led to Pearl Harbor(hey, if your enemies think you’re weak, they’ll bully you around. Been the case for centuries).
FDR gave some aid to Britsih fleet, escorting them, etc, but he wanted to enter the war, public did not. We paid the full price, unfortunately, versus maybe “1/4th the price”, in a manner of speaking.
we were attacked here in 1993, and 2001. in 93, no one took it too seriously. What happened? 3000+ died, 9/11/01.
Both sides seemed to be ready to pretend it wasn’t really there(threats/terrorists), it seems to me.
Peace be With you.