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Long ago, there was a widespread consensus that Britain and its allies emerged from World War 2 with an enhanced moral stature. Tales of gutsy pilots pitting their Spitfires against the Luftwaffe served to nourish some of us through the wintry years of boarding school. A line of Western leaders from Winston Churchill to JFK exuded an aura of valour, integrity and pizzazz; despite their flaws, despite the sanitised memoirs. Then came Vietnam. And with it the realisation that all men are equal in the capacity to commit war crimes, no matter what their flag.
This is why noble leaders are vital. It is why the Geneva Conventions matter. It is why a free press is exalted, though almost extinct. It is why a 100 countries have joined the International Criminal Court, despite bullying and blackmail from the US (cutting off aid to around 40 friendly countries who refuse to immunise its troops from prosecution). Thuggery knows no boundaries, as the terror wars are teaching us, but we can sometimes see its face. It was John Bolton who pulled the US out of the Criminal Court in 2002, and it was John Bolton who stymied the UN's recent attempt to condemn Israel's assault on the civilians of Lebanon. There are many such faces at the pyramid's apex.
The tone of an era is shaped by its senior decision makers. The West is sinking into the cesspit under the weight of leaders who stink. It is why we are tongue-lashed by liars financed by oil billionaires. It is why elections are stolen. It is why our presidents and Prime Ministers promote democracy abroad and befoul it at home. It is why the West is bereft of moral authority and keeps backing wars that backfire. It is why Tony Blair has called for a "fundamental reappraisal of British and US foreign Policy". Too late Tony, by too many years and too many bodies. Nothing you say rings true; fly off to MurdochWorld®, where dancing to the madman's tune will fill the coffers.
As the horrors of Qana flashed across screens, a ceremony took place at the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes, where a "role model" officer was bidden farewell "with accolades" by 200 attendees. The army's vice chief of staff, General Richard Cody praised the retiring officer for "serving wherever and whenever" he was needed, most recently at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Yes, cuddly Major General Geoffrey Miller was moving on. "The last five years have offered me the opportunity to help this nation win the Global War on Terror," Miller said, although "losing" the war is more likely. General Cody described Miller as a "leader and an innovator", which is hard to deny. Among his innovations were the famed porno pyramids of a modern major general ...
It is worth remembering that during the early stages of the Iraqi invasion, President Bush was asked for his reaction to TV footage of captured American POW's, and he said he expected them to be "treated humanely, just like we're treating the prisoners that we have captured, humanely". Bush warned that those who mistreat prisoners "will be treated as war criminals", but ring leader Miller ended up in the Hall of Heroes. And Bush rewarded his high profile torture enthusiast with the job of Attorney General.
Citizens of America, Britain and Australia now seem to accept that their democracies are acting like fascist states, though on tiptoe, not in goosestep. All three countries are united in their refusal to join the rest of the world in demanding an immediate end to Israel's onslaught on Lebanon, which is enough to condemn Bush, Blair and Howard in the eyes of the fair minded. What really goes on in the collective mind of this imperial trio, each one brilliantly equipped to claw his way to the top of the power-heap, while forgetting the lesson most people learnt at their mother's knee, that killing babies is wrong, that bombing civilians is a war crime? These three have bombed children in Kabul, bombed them in Baghdad, and now they're endorsing the bombing in Beirut. All three profess to be Christians. All three have shared prayer meetings. What is binding Blair to Bush so idiotically, in this matter of perpetual war? How does the insane belligerence of Rupert Murdoch's media tie in with their delusions?
Since 9/11, the actions of all these leaders have ensured the opposite of what they pretend to want. A US friend remarks, "the fiddler on the roof that was Israel has turned into a madman with a missile launcher in his pocket". Whereas Ehud Olmert stated on 11/June/ 06, that "The IDF is the most moral army in the world - it does not and never has made a policy of targeting civilians." This was prior to the bombing of Qana and brings to mind the April 15/04 comment of Richard Armitage, then US Assistant Secretary of State prior to the Abu Ghraib torture revelations:
"We are the most humane military in the world."
So humane is this army that it rushed its missiles to Tel Aviv, while simultaneously claiming to care about civilians. There was "no doubt about the missile which killed all those children yesterday," writes Robert Fisk. "It came from the United States, and upon a fragment of it was written: "For use on MK-84 Guided Bomb BSU-37-B".
While emotion is often considered a turn-off in serious debate, it can crack the walls of a fortress. A clip currently circulating online, shows a CNN anchor interrogating Colonel Miri Eisen, 40, reputedly "one of Israel's most effective weapons in the media war ... plucked from the ranks of the IDF Intelligence Corps after demonstrating a unique talent at explaining and persuading". On this occasion, CNN departed from its traditional brief that viewers be "the first to know" ... and the last to understand. The anchorwoman pushed and the spin Colonel spun, "a Hezbollah rocket launcher was right next door to the building in Qana". http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2006/07/cnn-anchor-takes-israeli-spokeswoman.html
However, the Israel Defense Forces has changed its mind. "It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time". http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745185.html
Richard Neville has been a practicing futurist since 1963, when he launched the countercultural magazine, Oz, which widened the boundaries of free speech on two continents. He has written several books, including Playpower (71), the bio of a global (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
By the nature a young person is a collective creature. the worst possible thing for a young person is to be alone and feel abandoned. That is exactly what we have now- abandonement. About 2/3 of the Earth population is abandoned and most of them are young people. Do you know that China will have soon a 30-million standing army of young men? That's an invasive force Chegnhis- Khan only dreamed about.
We have no work for young men. Our activity kills their ' habitat' and disenfranchise them. They go nuts and reach for weapons. And we offer them rubber computers instead?
I always will remember an MTV story they broadcatsed on Iraqi boy in Bagdad before the war of 2003. That boy was full of music. Where is he now? Most likely he joined the isurgency and our GIs are hunitng him. We had screwed up with normalcy and created an anomaly. We, the parents of those chldren are evil. Acknowledge that.
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Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Aug 3, 2006 at 7:11:39 AM
The principles of Geneva, Hague or Nuremberg cannot bestow upon us moral virtue. Rather, by reasoned choice, we bestow upon those principles the force of law. Like our own Constitution, those principles are meaningful only to the extent that power will subscribe to them and uphold them for themselves as for other nations. Little can be done, when the most "powerful" nation on earth decides to be utterly lawless. It was hoped at the end of the first round of Nuremberg Trials (Goering, Speer, et al) that what had been done at Nuremberg would ensure that such atrocities, to include aggressive war itself, would never happen again. Would that it were so! The tragic fact of the matter is that we now have -inside the Oval Office -a man who neither respects nor understands what had been done at Nuremberg. Doubly tragic, he respects even less the "rule of law" inside US borders. His ideal is more akin to Hobbes' "Leviathan" or Hegel's absolute state. At the heart of Geneva, Nuremberg and the earlier Hague Convention is a self-evident premise: the value of the individual human being. Nazis, neocons, and fascists have no patience with that kind of talk.
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Len Hart (134 articles, 175 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 555 comments) on Thursday, Aug 3, 2006 at 9:10:14 AM
Reply: today's armies see no diff between civilian & soldier
Guernica created widespread shock and an immortal artwork of protest; the flattening of Dresden was greeted with glee, though by the 1960's the Brits were expressing public remorse. Hiroshima gave the Pentagon a blank cheque, and it's been merrily bombing civilians ever since and bedecking pilots with medals. Panama, Vietnam, Kabul, Baghdad.... Human Rights Watch reports Israel is "deliberately bombing civilians", attacking numerous vehicles flying white flags ...
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Richard Neville (40 articles, 3 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 12 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Aug 3, 2006 at 9:01:30 PM
GOP: A coalition of crooks, morons and religious fanatics
The GOP, a coalition of crooks, morons and religious fanatics apparently represents the will of a majority of Americans who vote. If you don't vote and don't fit into any of those three categories, you might want to consider voting from now on. Don't fool yourself, things could get a lot worse if you don't
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.
VOTE! . . IMPEACH! . . VOTE! . . IMPEACH!
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rabblerowzer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments) on Friday, Aug 4, 2006 at 8:10:17 AM
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