Monday, July 21, 2003

NEW LABOUR, NEW (SUR)REALITY

The Prime Minister said:

"...I think people want and expect ourselves as politicians, I think yourselves as the media reporting this, to show that respect and restraint because of what has happened and to recognise that there is now a proper process that can take place in a proper way, where someone wholly independent will look at the facts, will investigate them and will then make the judgement. And then after those judgements are published, then of course we can all discuss what the results of those judgments are, and I think that is the right way to proceed."

Excuse me , Tone. Shouldn't you have been saying this kind of thing to Frat Boy around about the turn of the year? Rather than trashing Iraq on the basis of dodgy evidence ("History will forgive us", but not the 6 or 7 thousand civilians killed, not to mention the 1/2 million killed by sanctions), you should have listened to the "independent" voice (step forward, Hans Blix).

S Hussain Esq: bad man. Yep. Glad he's gone (well, he ain't quite gone, has he?) But, young Beatnik has a very sensible quote from former Tory Foreign and Defence (and Transport) Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind.

Ryan links to an excellent piece on Our Lil' Tone by Billmon: couldn't put it better. Blair=Kurtz.

I can't claim to be original or to be as erudite as Billmon, but I have a few thoughts on the subject of Our Glorious Leader.

Everything the PM does now smacks of a leader totally out of touch with the electorate. I'll go further. He is out of touch with reality. During his speech to the US Congress last week it struck me that this power has gone to his head. It was also evident that he was not speaking to the those that elected him.

He talks of "...shadow and darkness..." - Kurtz.

He talks of a "fanatical strain of religious extremism" - er, been to the Bible Belt, recently?

He talks of "...the only true path to victory..." - delusional.

This paragraph, I love:

"We know that companies and individuals with expertise sell it to the highest bidder and we know at least one state, North Korea, that lets its people starve whilst spending billions of dollars on developing nuclear weapons and exporting the technology abroad. This isn't fantasy. It is 21st Century reality and it confronts us now."

Companies like BAE Systems? The UK has an appalling record of selling arms to hidious, police state regimes which continues to this day.

Or this: "We're not fighting for an American world, though we want a world in which America is at ease." And, what of those countires that are increasinly worried by US and British intervention that destabilses their own country? Don't they count?

This last piece was frightening: "Why America? [... ]the only answer is: because destiny put you in this place in history, in this moment in time and the task is yours to do." Invoking that word - destiny - sends shivers down my spine.

I have to say that I woke up on Saturday morning as angry as hell. I was ashamed to have anything to do with the Labour Party, for which I have voted at just about every election (one Green Party blip). I feel ashamed and disenfranchised.

It's been some time since I posted on Iraq, WMDs and all that. The simple reason is that I am so angry that I can't type quick enough to get all that anger on the page.

:: Posted by pete @ 13:12