Sunday, July 10, 2005

My sentiments exactly

Robert Fisk at CounterPunch is almost always the very voice of reason to me. Here's what he had to say on the London bombings...

"If you bomb our cities," Osama bin Laden said in a recent videotape, "we will bomb yours."' It was clear Britain would be a target ever since British Prime Minister Tony Blair decided to join President Bush's "war on terror" and his invasion of Iraq. We had, as they say, been warned. The G-8 summit was obviously chosen, well in advance, as Attack Day.

It's no use Blair telling us, "They will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear." They are not trying to destroy "what we hold dear." They are trying to get public opinion to force Blair to withdraw from Iraq, out of his alliance with the United States, out of his adherence to Bush's policies in the Middle East. The Spanish paid the price for their support for Bush -- and Spain's subsequent retreat from Iraq proved that the Madrid bombings achieved their objectives -- while the Australians were made to suffer in Bali.

It is easy for Blair to call yesterday's bombings "barbaric"' -- they were -- but what were the civilian deaths of the Anglo American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the children torn apart by cluster bombs, the innocent Iraqis gunned down at American military checkpoints. When they die, it is "collateral damage"; when "we" die it is "barbaric terrorism."

If we are fighting insurgency in Iraq what makes us believe insurgency won't come to us? One thing is certain: If Blair really believes that by "fighting terrorism"' in Iraq we could more efficiently protect Britain, this argument is no longer valid.

Read the rest here.

Read, also:

Talking in London: Collateral Damage By STEPHEN WINSPEAR

Blowback Hits Britain: Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Blaming Galloway: Rhetoric vs. Reality in London By SHELDON RAMPTON

1 comment:

Rognar said...

It used to be, history began on Sept.11, 2001. Now it seems, we can't even remember anything before the war in Iraq.