"Lost an empire and not yet found a role"

LOST AN EMPIRE AND FOUND WE COULD CARRY ON REGARDLESS - ROLE OR NO ROLE, EMPIRE OR NO EMPIRE!

Our military and non-violent involvements in the world, particularly our wars during and after empire all point to us behaving in an imperialistic way regardless of our ownership of other countries.

Other European countries in giving up their colonies and, therefore, diminishing in the eyes of the world, have not acquired WMD or continued fighting distant wars like the UK has.  They have accepted their non-colonial, new role and behaved like the other countries, numbering very nearly 190, who have not got WMD or expenditure on armaments at such a high proportion of their income as we have.

Why does the UK have so much trouble in accepting that it is far better to live without an empire and, without warfare and, without threatening other countries with WMD?

Losing an empire, after fighting the one world war in two parts, has made very little difference, it seems to me.  Nor has our membership of the EU made any difference.  We just carried on regardless, anyway!

WMD should never be contemplated

 My reasons for opposing WMD:

1. They are far too destructive to be of any practical use in a time of war.
2. It is illegal to kill non-combatants.
3. Their use does not meet just war criteria.
4. They have failed to stop wars since their invention and, could so easily have been used.
5. They are climate-wrecking in their construction and ecocidal in use.
6. Diplomacy and sanctions must be used
7. Conflict resolution must be used.
8. WMD are pointless, immoral and use finite fossil fuels and precious raw materials that we desperately need in the future.

Justin Welby said, "anti-Semitism is a very unique thing."

Archbishop Justin Welby said, "anti-Semitism is a very unique thing" because (my unique interpretation) it shows you are not fit for high office because you are a friend of "tax collectors and sinners" (Luke 7 v 34) and the hated Samaritans = friend of Irish republicans, of Palestinians and Gazans, to put it in modern dress.  Which very unpopular politician could I be thinking of?

The man was too much pro the poor, the oppressed and the underdog for the British electorate on the 12 December 2019.  Far too sceptical of British military interventions and too enthusiastic for UN settlements, peace keeping missions and for the upholding of international law.

He always maintained that he was anti anti-Semitism but the mud stuck.  He was never believed.
He was anti killing of Gazans and Palestinians but that certainly did not help him when it was Israelis doing the killing.  A very unwise move, indeed.
He was anti killing of people to stop them killing because he was once Chair of Stop the War Coalition.
He was anti militarisation of diplomacy - Afghanistan and Iraq where the West couldn't wait for the UN weapons inspectors to finish their work.  Too desperate for war to let the inspectors to finally and irrevocably declare that Saddam Hussein did not have a single WMD.  The most successful Labour leader in our history, along with an American President, knew better than the gullible weapons inspectors.  But it was the inspectors and Corbyn who turned out to be right, after all.

It reflects badly on my nation that the only Labour leader who won three successive General Elections in a row left parts of the Middle East in turmoil.  Still to this day.  And, Muslims taking revenge on our streets - to this day.
It reflects badly on my nation that this latest Labour leader, who never really wanted the job but found it was thrust upon him, lost two successive General Elections because he was not sufficiently militaristic and war like and, tough like Blair.  Yet, he was shown to have been in the right over our foreign wars.  But, he was branded a Stalinist, a terrorist sympathiser and an anti-Semite because, as an MP, he voted against every foreign war our nation engaged in.
This man stood up for the UN, the rule of law and the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
He wanted war as a last resort, would not retaliate if our nation was attacked with WMD.  Therefore, he was dismissed as unpatriotic, weak, an evil appeaser, a pathetic pacifist and, a friend of the worst kind of people - our enemies.

Being pro Israel and anti antisemitic is very important for the West.  After all, Israel is our flagship state in the Arab/Muslim Middle East.  Robustly on the side of Team America, perhaps even more than ourselves.  Jews are amongst the very top people in our society.  Therefore, to be critical of Israel, in anyway, is to be disloyal to one's own Western culture and nation.  A security risk.  Disloyal.  Certainly, antisemitic.

They say you can be critical of Israel without being anti-Semitic but I have tried.  Ian Austin the former Labour and then Independent MP said I am anti-Semitic for expressing dismay that our UK Jewish community is more up in arms about antisemitism than their compatriots killing and injuring Gazans in rather large numbers.  It is a clever way to intimidate into silence people's legitimate horrors of, too often, Israel's behaviour towards their neighbours.  Neighbours to whom they should be Good Samaritans - and vice versa, of course.

Clearly, because our top ranking Jewish friends look just like us good white Brits, their sufferings, their Holocaust and that genocide must be put on a pedestal far above any other suffering, or persecution, or racism or genocide.  Israel and all the Jewish community are very special, after all.  They deserve special treatment, as the people of the Bible and with their sufferings in the Shoah (that we Western 'Christians' was responsible for).  Antisemitism deserves tougher treatment than with Islamophobia against the Muslims.  Only prejudice/hatred against the Jewish community must be placed in a unique and top category of racism.

Hence, for the Archbishop, antisemitism "is a unique category of racism ... not the same as other types of racism."  "It's the taproot of all other forms of racism."  "Anti-Semitism is the longest existing and (has given the) worst results of any kind of racism that we have experienced in Europe in the last thousand years. ... So it has a category all of its own."   'The Big Issue - Christmas Special', December 2019.

To 36 Dudley Labour councillors

Dear friends

Do NOT be in a hurry to be shot of hero Corbyn

I think the red wall of Midlands and North Labour strongholds voted Tory because of their strong Brexit, pro military/patriot, anti immigrant, anti foreigner, pro Brits first, sentiments.  And, concerns over Britain being 'Full'.

We Brits have always won every war, from the Boer War onwards.  'The Guardian' in February 2014 proved, in a four page spread, how in every single year since at least 1914, the Brits have been engaged in warfare on other people's land.  1968 was the only year that a member of our armed forces has not been killed somewhere around the globe since 1914.  The number of Brits slaughtered in warfare since 1945 has now reached over 16,000, I believe.  Corbyn must have known that and, I hope, was disturbed.

For me, Corbyn fearlessly, over decades, took the moral high ground with his UN first, pro justice with peace in the Falklands, N Ireland and in Palestine/Israel.  He took the moral high ground with his 'war as a last resort, diplomacy first, upholding international law at the International Court of Justice at the Hague', principles.  A man of conscience and compassion, too.

It seems, Corbyn has been the traditional, stereotypical Englishman standing up for the underdog in his pro Palestinian stance.  Hence, he incurs the ire of the State of Israel, a member of Team America, as BBC's Jeremy Bowen put in last week.  Israel is our great friend and ally in protecting the West's strategic interests in the Middle East.  Perhaps, Corbyn is seen as disloyal to the West's supremacy in the Middle East.  Israel's displeasure with Corbyn has been shown with their relentless campaign of labeling him as antisemitic soon after he became Labour leader and ever since.  The media, too has locked onto it with glee, too.  Any irony, humour over traditional views of Jewish businessmen and women has been slapped down as examples of antisemitism.

Both Corbyn and SNP First Minister Sturgeon fearlessly stated that if the UK was attacked with nuclear weapons, neither would retaliate with firing off Trident missiles.  Both are rightly, nuclear/WMD pacifists.  NOT conventional weapons pacifists, however.  But their renunciation of the use of WMD is unacceptable to America, Israel and the UK establishment.  Certainly, unacceptable to most English and Welsh voters and the unionist voters in N Ireland.

Labour must inspire and lead towards humanity and all life on earth FIRST urgent policies.  That means postponing extinction for all life on earth.

Labour must stop the conversion of the 120 Kms (74 miles) Black Country principal mainline railway being turned into:

• VLR tram line with the proposed extension of the Stourbridge Shuttle onto a mainline railway!!
• LR Metro tram line to destroy the integrity/unity of the 120 Kms.
• VLR and innovation centre on the only feasible site of Dudley Castle Gate railway station
• new extended 16 Kms cycle-walkway from Walsall to Lichfield on this forgotten, still unfinished mainline railway

Use the £2 BILLION to 2026 to bring in fareless buses for ALL at all times; and, electric buses.  Fareless buses are found in about 100 towns and cities around the world - 30 in the USA and about 20 in France, according to national FoE.

Happy Christmas

Tim Weller

Andy Street inspires this meeting!

I'm really copying the mostly well attended 'Ask Andy' meetings that Mayor Andy Street holds around the West Midlands.  I'm trying to whip up more interest in politics and what our politicians and their professional officers and experts are doing in the region.  In particular, I would like church goers, atheists and agnostics to think about the morality of what is being done in our name - whether it is £1.38 billion to 2026 of WM Metro trams to replace buses and trains, the over £2 billion for the 87 Kms Western Orbital Motorway, the £55.7 billion for HS2, the £3 billion of arm sales to Saudi Arabia in the first 18 months of the war with Yemen (CAAT), £7 billion for two sitting duck aircraft carriers that now need more billions for a flotilla of warships to protect them when out at sea and, £100 billion to replace Trident WMD.  YET,  a struggling, a poorly endowed in some areas NHS with some shortages, growing homelessness but large homes being built for the well heeled.  AND, the more we spend the less we have and the more damage we do to our life support systems.

Our three speakers are well worth hearing.  Mark Dowd, in particular, is a most articulate, engaging, well thought of public speaker who is always goes down like a bomb with audiences (non violent bomb, of course).  He is on our side - the side of the poor, the disadvantaged and vulnerable and, on the side of the climate.  He will be the grand finale to the meeting.  I, personally would welcome good natured, humorous heckling and other contributions from the floor.

Robin Yassin-Kassab

1. I was at Wigtown Book Festival yesterday when I heard Robin speak very powerfully and assuredly about Syria. He said, “I stand with the people not the states”. His oratory brought a round of applause. For me, this is all very well but when the people get clobbered when they stand up to their oppressive dictator, is it really worth all the bloodshed and mayhem?

   In both Christianity and Islam, aren’t the adherents urged to obey the earthly powers, the authorities of the land that have been ordained of God/Allah? I have not been impressed with the behaviour and foreign policy of our English monarchs and rulers down the centuries. However, I would not dream of trying to overthrow them, knowing I would simply end up in jail or with my head cut off or being burnt at the stake! Here in Wigtown, two women were drowned at the stake in the 17th century because they would not acknowledge the authority of their earthly king over and above that of their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

   Today, we Westerners continue to enjoy great comforts and ease of life. But then we are the top dogs in the world, still. Our economic wealth has partly come from the armaments and ammunition that we make and sell that end up in the hands of any old dodgy regime! Far better to gain employment in more ethical ways. But then the Scots will get their wages from building and maintaining WMD at Faslane for the English to sail beneath the high seas to threaten nuclear annihilation on a huge section of humanity! Our own aggression, immorality and illegality sets a very bad example to other countries and peoples, like Assad and Islamic State.

   

   Tim Weller

   September 29, 2015 at 1:06 pm

   Reply
   • Tim, I think it’s a misconception that people in Syria in 2011 (or Russia 1917, or France 1789) all decided to have a revolution. It doesn’t happen like that. Instead, regimes collapse when they can no longer bear the weight of their own economic/social/political contradictions. And yes, Islam has an idea about loyalty to the ruler even if he’s unjust – but it’s not an idea I agree with. I don’t blame the revolution for what’s happened in Syria, but the violence of the counter-revolution.

     

     Robin Yassin-Kassab

     September 29, 2015 at 1:52 pm

     Reply
     • Thanks, Robin for the reply.
       I think you have lived in Syria and know all about what’s going on. So could you tell me if the present ‘civil’ war started from a peaceful protest demo being put down by force by Assad, please?
       Or, how did it start? Was it part of the Arab Spring revolts?
       I think I know why you want shot of Assad but, would you mind putting in down for me so that I know and understand your position, please?
       Was Assad a friend of the West, at one time? If so, why did they turn against him?
       Thanks for your help.
       Tim

       

       Tim Weller

       October 8, 2015 at 3:13 pm
2. Tim, I’m afraid I don’t have time to respond to your questions now, but I have a book coming out January 20th 2016, with Leila al-Shami, called Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War. That answers your questions. Or, you could read back on this blog from March 2011.

   

   Robin Yassin-Kassab

   October 8, 2015 at 5:08 pm

   Reply
   • Robin, could you listen to this 6 mins, 10 October Radio 4 ‘Today’ interview with Peter Ford who was UK Ambassador to Syria from 2003 to 2006. The interview starts at 1 hr 35 mins 10 secs

     http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06gtbj1

     What do you make of it? 27 days left to listen. Tim

     

     Tim Weller

     October 12, 2015 at 9:04 pm

     Reply
     • if you want to learn what an ex-ambassador to Syria who understands the situation thinks, follow Simon Collis.

       

       Robin Yassin-Kassab

       October 14, 2015 at 11:07 am
   • Is the angelic West on the side of governments (regimes) or rebels?

     Why should a government NOT be ruthless in putting down a rebellion? Any UK government would be. Even the good people of Scotland in 2014 had the fear of God put up them, if they dared to be so stroppy as to vote for independence from big brother England. Our problem, in our so well meaning, we know what is best for you fortress, is supporting the rebels to overthrow their governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Tunisia, Libya and now Syria. And look where it gets us.

     Rage against the oppressor with extreme care and with non-violence. Only overthrow an oppressive government (regime) by the ballot box, not the bomb and bullet. If there is no ballot box, put up with the tyrant or get out of his reign of terror, oppression, sheer nastiness.

     

     Tim Weller

     October 14, 2015 at 8:06 am

     Reply
     • Tim, who do you think you are to be telling people to ‘put up with the tyrant’? When state officials torture your children to death, rape your wife and destroy your home, I hope someone tells you to put up with it. That’s first. Second, when you say ‘why should any government not be ruthless in putting down a rebellion’ you are talking like a fascist. Are you aware that the Syrian regime has killed 300,000 people and driven out millions? Why shouldn’t it? you ask. Do you leave comments on Jewish people’s sites telling them Hitler had a right to be ruthless? And the armed rebellion was a response to months of state murder, rape and torture. Third, believe it or not, the West is not the prime cause of events in the Middle East. The Tunisian, Libyan and Syrian revolutions were initiated, led and fought by the Tunisians, Libyans and Syrians. Fourth, I already told you I don’t have time to do answers to individual questions, but then you post an ex-British ambassador and ask me to comment. Well here you are: this man is either ignorant of the situation is a straight-forward racist and imperialist. Now please stop trolling.

Quotable Quotes

Sir Michael Fallon  Today  11 May 2013:

"If you have armed forces, you have to be prepared to use them."

If you have WMD, you have to be prepared to use them, too.  Just as Theresa May said soon after becoming PM in 2015 when asked if you she would be prepared to strike back with Trident missiles if the UK was attacked.  She said, 'Yes'.  She was either lying or mentally unstable in adding to the destruction and radiation in making a retaliatory attack to further wipe out even more of every kind of life on Earth.

Churchill was in full agreement with the use of chemical weapons in the World War, part One.  He was also wanting to use them in the Middle East and in India between the wars.

The 'defence' budget is to grow by 0.5% every year from the present 2% of the nation's gross income.

We have to carry on growing come hell or high water.  Just like cancer does in our bodies!

CONGRATULATIONS!

​

Dear James and team

Congratulations for winning the vote last night.  When will you win our wars in the Meddle East?

After four years of war, when will your side overthrow Assad to install our democratically elected, Western sympathetic leader?

Your side overthrew the Russian sympathetic President Yanukovych in Ukraine to replace him with our man, Petro Poronshenko.  War in eastern Ukraine ever since.  When will you win that war, James?

Your side has now lost four wars against 'weak', 'powerless' Afghanistan since the first 1839-42 war.

Your side overthrew Saddam but lost everything else; certainly, lost the peace in Iraq.

Your side overthrew Gaddafi (the friend of Tony Blair for a time) but gained anarchy in Libya.

You allowed terrorists to drive us brave Brits out of Palestine in 1947 to install our Judeo-Christian State in the Muslim Meddle East in 1948.  Many wars, over 67 years, ever since.  A failed state in successfully turning its neighbours into enemies. 

Your side overthrew democratically elected Mosadeq in Iran to install our man, the Shah.  Success for a time but little love and respect for the West for doing so, ever since.

Your side overthrew democratically and fairly elected Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to put in our Western sympathetic military government in Cairo.

After this 100 year record of Western and Christian misbehaviour, no wonder a very small minority of Muslims are radicalised and are raging against us!

When will your side make it safe, once more for white faces to move freely in the Meddle East and Tunisia without fear of kidnap and death?

The 'Today' programme this morning said that, in the second year of bombing there have, so far, been 7,500 air strikes to wipe Islamic State off the face of the earth.  Yet, the mightiest military force the world has ever seen, is nowhere near winning.  What is so inept about our armed forces, please James?

Winning votes for war to take place far from our shores, is so easy in safe and secure UK.  Victory in wars to bring tolerance and peace throughout the Near East and Meddle East is never delivered by your side.  Not even in our own powerful and WMD armed Israel!

Best wishes for the start of some true success for your side in 2016.  You certainly need it.

Tim

Standing with the people means being cut down by the state!

It was good to read the above posts and replies.  I was at Wigtown Book Festival yesterday when I heard Robin Yassin-Kassab speak very powerfully and assuredly about Syria.  He said, "I stand with the people not the states".  His oratory brought a round of applause.  For me, this is all very well but when the people get clobbered when they stand up to their oppressive dictator, is it really worth all the bloodshed and mayhem?

In both Christianity and Islam, aren't the adherents urged to obey the earthly powers, the authorities of the land that have been ordained of God/Allah?  I have not been impressed with the behaviour and foreign policy of our English monarchs and rulers down the centuries.  However, I would not dream of trying to overthrow them, knowing I would simply end up in jail or with my head cut off or being burnt at the stake!  Here in Wigtown, two women were drowned at the stake in 1685 because they would not acknowledge the authority of their earthly king over and above that of their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

Today, we Westerners continue to enjoy great comforts and ease of life.  But then we are the top dogs in the world, still.  Our economic wealth has partly come from the armaments and ammunition that we make and sell that end up in the hands of any old dodgy regime.  Far better to gain employment in more ethical ways.  But then the Scots will get their wages from building and maintaining WMD at Faslane for the English to sail beneath the high seas to threaten nuclear annihilation on a huge section of humanity!  Our own aggression, immorality and illegality sets a very bad example to other countries and peoples, like Assad and Islamic State.  Tim Weller

REPLY:
Tim, I think it’s a misconception that people in Syria in 2011 (or Russia 1917, or France 1789) all decided to have a revolution. It doesn’t happen like that. Instead, regimes collapse when they can no longer bear the weight of their own economic/social/political contradictions. And yes, Islam has an idea about loyalty to the ruler even if he’s unjust – but it’s not an idea I agree with. I don’t blame the revolution for what’s happened in Syria, but the violence of the counter-revolution.

I do blame the revolution in Syria, Robin because State violence was met with protester violence.  Pretty impossible for most of us not to, I know.  But then that shows how important it is to rebel only if you are of the amazing calibre and of the heroic stature of a Gandhi or a Dr Martin Luther King Jnr or one of their many tens of thousands of followers who resisted even revenge over the decades of  suffering.  But, in the process, slowly wearing down the powers that be - and winning!

I think governments (if they do what America, Britain and France want) or regimes (if they don't), Robin will always stifle any opposition either by force as in Syria in 2011 or, much more sensibly as in London by Police action (like kettling) to allow dissent on the streets but only up to a point.  Like last year, the Establishment put the fear of God up some Scots to make them vote 'No' to independence.  The English government and all major parties threatened the Scots with all kinds of dire consequences if they rebelled and voted 'Yes'.  In countries like Ukraine, Syria and Israel, dissent is met with violence.  The West uses violence, coercion and coups to get their way in countries that are not part of their supposedly so very free and democratic Club of nations that toe their line (the Western aligned countries).

NOTES:
Wikipedia has:
"The unrest began in the early spring of 2011 within the context of Arab Spring protests, with nationwide protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government, whose forces responded with violent crackdowns. The conflict gradually morphed from prominent protests to an armed rebellion after months of military sieges."

"The Arab Spring (Arabic: الربيع العربي‎, ar-rabīˁ al-ˁarabī) was a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests (both non-violent and violent), riots, and civil wars in the Arab world that began on 18 December 2010 in Tunisia with the Tunisian Revolution, and spread throughout the countries of the Arab League and its surroundings."

"Many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses from authorities,^[23][24][25] as well as from pro-government militias and counter-demonstrators. These attacks were answered with violence from protestors in some cases.^[26][27][28] A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is Ash-sha`b yurid isqat an-nizam ("the people want to bring down the regime")."

Upping the anti; more militarism; and, Western warring with more Trident

For me, it's immoral and unacceptable to threaten to wipe out much of humanity with these Western weapons. We used them twice in 1945, too and that was a spur to the Soviet Union also getting the ultimate WMD. And, we can't blame the Muslims for this barbarity that also sets them a very bad example.

Nuclear weapons stopped the Cuban missile crisis ending in nuclear holocaust

Such was the thought from a friend.  The problem is, however, that the very nations who have the most nuclear weapons to wipe humanity off the face of the earth the greatest number of times, are the very ones who cause the most wars, viz: USA/UK/Israel, Soviet Union/Russia.  Their possession of WMD is no brake on their extremist tendency for warfare and, in this century and last, for killing the greatest number of people ever seen in the history of humanity.  Nukes are no deterrent to aggression and violence.

The enormous stockpile of WMD was no disincentive for the USA to put Jupiter missiles in Turkey near to the border with USSR, nor was it a discouragement to the USSR in their bid to put missiles (ICBMs) near to the USA landmass.  It was this one-sided, aggressive policy of the West that caused the Cuban missile crisis in the first place.

The truth is, these nukes are so destructive, with the blowback of radiation on the attacker, too that they are just too impractical to be of any use in a crisis or no crisis; in time of war or in time of peace.  Therefore, they are not deterrent.  Why have them when they have to remain unused white elephants, stuck in their underground silos for ever or, having to be moved around the subterranean depths of the world's oceans in a cigar shaped metal tin?

Could these nukes simply bring the thought to these imperious states in the nuclear club that they can throw their weight around in the world?  That they can strut around like self-important, gilded peacocks to use coercion, force, aggression and violence to get their way whenever they want?

Remembering what went wrong over our so virtuous military intervention in Iraq

This is written ten years on since London was awash with 1-2 million opponents of our nation's intention to attack, invade and occupy Iraq.  "Britain's biggest ever political protest"  (Andrew Murray in the Guardian 15.2.2013).  This blog has partly relied on that article (here, in double quotation marks) to catalogue the many blunders of those who should have been men and women of integrity and honour.  Instead, I think, they became war criminals and terrorists.

1. Iraq is steeped in history.  It is the birthplace of civilisation.  Indeed, the birthplace of Abraham who was the father/founder of three world faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Even so, they are at loggerheads and, there is an absence of understanding or even respect amongst them.  Each faith believes that it alone has the Truth and Right on their side.
2. There was an over reliance on what the enemies of Saddam Hussein were saying about his weapons of mass destruction (WMD).  An over-reliance because he was no longer our friend but was our enemy by this time.
3. An under-reliance on finding the evidence for WMD before the attack commenced on the 19 February 2003.
4. Our crime of aggression in attacking Iraq seems to have been about finishing the job from the Gulf War of 1990/1, when we failed to remove Saddam Hussein and had been kicking ourselves ever since for not doing so.
5. Saddam was no friend of Al-Qaeda, not an Islamist or militant Muslim and, he governed a secular state.  Yet, it was widely believed that he was, in order to help justify attack, regime change and occupation by ourselves - and retribution for 9/11!
6. The UN inspectors were not allowed to finish the job before our premature and over-enthusiastic desire for the opening shock and awe attack.  Unseemly haste, sidelining, even dismissing our own, Western, weapons inspectors.  They didn't come up with what we wanted them to say, so we went ahead anyway before their final and definitive report confirming that there were almost certainly no WMD.
7. The UN did not "give the attack a patina of legality." Andrew Murray (patina = shallow covering or cosmetic gloss)
8. The war did not make the Christian West safer from terrorism.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  We saw martyrdom videos showing that the martyrs saw themselves as soldiers defending Islam from the Christian Western attackers and occupiers of holy Muslim soil.
9. The Iraqi people did not welcome the invaders as liberators.
10. "Tony Blair was motivated solely by his secret pledges to stand by President Bush come what may."
11. "Consideration of legality and British public opinion scarcely registered with him."
12. "The Iraqi people have paid a staggering price" for the unwarranted and unlawful eight year war.
13. "The war was justified by the dodgy dossier" and a student's dissertation.
14. Justified by: "The 45 mins Iraqi missile threat."
15. There was "Duplicitous diplomacy."
16. Saddam Hussein - a one time ally and excellent customer of our highly valued arms industry and traders.
17.  This man and many tens of thousands of his citizens were wiped off the face of the map without a trial for him or, UN support for such extra-judicial killing by ourselves.
18. Even after Saddam was removed from power and we were in total control throughout the country, still no WMD could be found.  In other words, we were completely fooled and our intelligence experts and politicians proved, yet again, to be in the wrong.  They were led up the garden path.  They are guilty and were gullible.  They are war criminals.

ISLAM IS ALL SWEETNESS AND LIGHT - when ...

... compared with the Christian West and Israel!

1. The 20th century was the most violent, destructive and horrific in the history of humanity, it seems to me. But we can't blame the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists or the blacks. It has to be us - the Christians and the whites, in my opinion!
2. Centuries of persecution of Jews by Christians and not Muslims.
3. You can't blame Islam for the holocaust. It was a Christian nation that did it.
4. Centuries of on/off warfare in Europe between the Christian nations cannot be blamed on Islam. In fact, centuries of interference, invasions, attacks and occupations around the world by the white man was much more widespread, harmful and longer lasting than Islamic empires like the Mogul Empire in India.
5. Those European centuries of violence ended in the Great (magnificent) War to end all wars that Islam did not start. The Christian European nations started it and such was their unsatisfactory and unjust settlement that it then led to World War part 2 in 1939!
6. It was not Islam who also gave the world WMD and were the first to use them.
7. You can't blame the Muslims for vapourising Pacific Ocean islands on which nuclear bombs were tested.
8. The traditional Christian and Bible based, Western nations made 11 mega tonnes bombs that are 1,000 times more destructive than the Hiroshima bomb. Our half a mega tonne thermo-nuclear bomb makes it the most powerful weapon of mass destruction ever. All this evil intent is nothing to do with the much criticised (and even despised) Arabs, Muslims, Middle East nations!
9. It is our good friend and ally, the President of the USA who has the means to annihilate most of humanity; not a Muslim president or President Ahmadinejad of Iran.
10. The richest and most economically and military powerful nations and empires have been the Christian ones. They have dominated the world for centuries. Yet, their founder rejected any kind of domination in the Temptations of Christ.
11. It was the Christian nations who had the most slaves and indulged in the most slavery when compared with the Arab nations.
12. It was not Islam who that was responsible for Bloody Sunday and other horrors over 800 years of our occupation, settlement planting and colonial rule in Ireland.
13. Islam is not responsible for the thousands of men, women and children that our friend and ally, Israel has killed in its 62 yrs. 1,400 alone in the 2008/9 war on Gaza. In contrast, 13 Israelis were killed in that same war.
14. It was not Islam that introduced concentration camps. It was, guess who? Us - the UK in the Boer War. The camps killed 20,000 women and children!
15. It was not Islam that was responsible for Bhopal and decades of indifference, carelessness and complacency in the USA.
16. You cannot blame the the Islamic nations for the most greenhouse gas emissions and the most "help yourself to the most natural resources in the world" mentality and behaviour of the West.
17. The Christian nations and the Church waged their holy Crusades against 'evil' Islam. Evangelical Christian, GW Bush Jnr did the same with the War of Terrorism launched on 7 October 2001 that continues to this day. He called it a crusade until he was told not to.
18. We can't blame Islam for attacking Iraq to remove their WMD, only to find there were none, after all!
19. We can't blame Islam for the West's hypocritical behaviour in removing leaders it doesn't like but preaching the importance of electing governments and their leaders.
20. We cannot blame Islam for wiping out so many of the very long established, original peoples in both North and South America. It was Spain, France and the UK taking God, guns and the white man's germs. God led them to believe He had given them the new lands across the Atlantic. Guns helped to kill the original peoples; and, germs brought diseases that, again, led the colonisers to sincerely believe it was the hand of the good Lord in using the Western, European brought diseases to make it easier for them to claim the land for themselves as the Indians succumbed to foreign diseases and died in their hundreds of thousands (from BBC Radio 4, 'America: Empire of Liberty')
21. Unlike the Christian nations, Islam did not interfere or involve itself in affairs to bring Muslim culture, Shariah law, governance and Islamic faith to the Western, white nations. Rather, we have seen attempts by the hegemonic, white, Western European and Christian nations to impose their culture, commercialism, democracy and Christianity on the Middle East nations - and, SE Asia in the immediate post-war years.
22. We can’t blame Islam for the Korean War of 1950–1953 when, according to Lord Alton, nearly 3 million died (mostly Korean) but of which 38,000 were US and UN soldiers, 600,000 Chinese combatants and 1,000 UK servicemen. (‘Today’ programme on 27.11.10)
23. It was not Islam that was responsible for slaughtering 2-4 million men, women and children in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the West's war from 1959 to 1975.
24. It was not Islam that was responsible for apartheid. Rather, it was the Dutch Reformed Church from Western Europe - yet, again, the stamp and authority and dictat of supposedly enlightened, forward thinking and so very democratic and civilised and traditional Christian nations!
25. We can't blame Islam for running the world in such a partial, lopsided way that the traditional Christian, white and very powerful nations have it all their own way on the world stage.
26. Muslim convert and heavyweight boxing champion at 32 yrs, Mohammed Ali, went to prison rather than fight in that crime of aggression, the Vietnam War. I have not heard of any Christian who had that same moral courage as that famous Muslim. Rather, some dodged the draft by fleeing to Canada.
27. We have proved to be the worst or the real terrorists down the centuries with our empires that were founded on violence throughout the world. Many Western European nations, in order to found their empires, went out to explore, conquer and decimate local populations of black people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone.
28. The Bible based and Christian European nations, if you look through history from today back down through past centuries, have killed many more humans than the Islamic nations.
29. It was not Muslims who invented poison gas, nor were they the first to use it.
30. The vast bulk of prison mistreatment, abuse, rape, torture and murder in Iraq and Afghanistan was done by foreign, NATO soldiers and not the home-grown prison officers and soldiers.
31. British intelligence was complicit in the mistreatment and even torture of Muslim detainees.
32. It was not Muslims who killed 23 people in Oklahoma in 1996.
33. It was Muslims who killed nearly 3,000 men and women on 11 September 2001. The Quran frequently asserts that their God is forgiving and merciful. Our nine years and continuing reaction of furious warfare shows that our version of God is the exact opposite. Our Bible says, “ ‘Vengeance is mine. I will repay’, says the Lord.” We believe the Lord needs a little help with his revenge!
34. Even taking into account that the Bible is very much bigger than the Quran, from my reading of both, there is clearly much more bloodshed in the Bible than the Quran. In fact, there are no stories of bloodshed in the Quran. In the Bible, we have 'Rules for waging holy war' in Deuteronomy 20 v 1-20. My commentary has: " ... holy war is not a human enterprise ... but is an action in which the Lord himself is engaged and in which his people respond with fanatical devotion." Does that help to explain the much greater violence and aggression by the Christian nations than the Islamic ones?

An Alternative View of the 20th Century! Version 1

Our centuries of violent history in W Europe - we alone had many wars with France, Spain and the Netherlands - culminated in the British concentration camps of the Boer War and deaths of more than 20,000 Boer women and children, alone! If that wasn't enough, we joined in the foolish Great War to end all wars, with our young men rushing to the Front to join in the warring fun. They thought it would all be over by Christmas 1914!

Former Conservative leader, Sir Ian Duncan Smith, has acknowledged that that war led to the 2nd World War. Therefore, I think it is legitimate to say that Hitler was the consequence of centuries of warfare in W Europe. The men of violence and the nations of violence, like our own, were entirely responsible for this monster of our own making, with their predilection for aggression, killing and murder. Therefore, one could further argue, it was only right that they should sort out Hitler, rather than the people of non-violent direct action, like me!

Attack on Egypt over Suez: A disproportionate response by the UK, France and Israel that was such a crime of aggression that it did not even get the approval of the USA! There was deception in the House of Commons and support by Churchill and both main political parties. Many more Egyptians killed than on our side.

Vietnam War: According to Dennis Healey, he dissuaded Harold Wilson from joining the US by saying that we were fully engaged in fighting Communism elsewhere in SE Asia and, therefore, could send no troops. 3-4m men, women and children - and mainly civilians -slaughtered by ourselves in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, alone! In shocking contrast, only 58,000 American soldiers and, virtually no American civilians died. Our side used WMD - "tens of million of gallons of agent orange dioxin was sprayed on Vietnam and babies with hideous deformities are still being born", said Christopher Hitchens on 'Start the Week' on 30.5.05.

Cambodian civil war may have been one unintended consequence of our warring in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. We certainly did not set the Khmer Rouge a good example!

Diego Garcia: We ejected the Chagos Islanders from Diego Garcia to make way for our best buddy's military air base - fully supported by the voters of our two main political parties that always get by far the bulk of the votes!

War on Iran: We used a surrogate, Iraq to attack our old enemy, Iran. 1m young men on both sides died from our weapons between 1980 and 1988. Saddam Hussein, who was "a bitch but he was our son of a bitch", very kindly did our dirty work for us! Unlike ourselves, Iran has not attacked another country for over 200 years!


Falklands War: A war that Argentina should easily have won had General Galteiri been more ruthless and competent and determined to keep the islands. His exocets might have been used to sink the troop carrying 'Canberra' before the soldiers disembarked. Our unlawful sinking of the 'Belgrano' led to over 400 sailors drowning and freezing to death. And, then,we rejoiced at our mighty victory and gave thanks to God, in St Paul's Cathedral, for his help!

There is a widespread complacency that our actions are wholly admirable. When they turn out not to be, we were well intentioned, thoroughly sincere and we only wanted, after all, the very best for the other country. "It wasn't my fault, guv!" Blair said, time and again, "I did what I considered to be right for the country and my party"!

We can do what we like around the world because we are democrats; we know best for other cultures, religions and political systems. After all, they could not possibly refuse our democratic ways and our God, even if it must be forced on them down the barrel of a gun! Paddy Ashdown said, "International law is made by the strong and powerful. It is what they can get away with!"

Stage managed, controlled and spiritual spinning!

This was a Terry Law organised meeting, on the 3 April 2007, where the notices made it clear that Georges Sada was to be the main speaker. In fact, he was the big draw to get the people in, like our friends and me, to hear Terry speak and evangelise. Poor old Georges was confined to answering questions and very much taking the back seat to the even greater man. This was most misleading, in my opinion and not good enough.

Soon, Terry and Georges came striding onto the platform after the warm up man had done his job and introduced them. At the end of the meeting, both men marched off, never to be seen again. They disappeared into a back room and never met their supporters and their most generous donors who had dug deep into their pockets only a few minutes earlier! No personal thanks from Terry who is directly funded by the gifts of the faithful, like those in the packed meeting tonight. I did track the men down and gave Georges the following question:

“Caiphas believed, ‘It is expedient for one man to die for the people.’ You believe it is expedient for 655,000 Iraqis to be slaughtered in less than 4 years, a million severely wounded, over 2m who have fled Iraq and nearly 2m Iraqis displaced within their country. All that was to enable our one time good friend and arms customer to be removed from power. Is that really what Jesus would have done? Don’t you want morality rather than expediency?”

I did not think that Terry was being sincere when he apologised that there was no time for audience questions to either Georges or himself. He stage managed the meeting from beginning to end and the spinning could not allow any risk of an awkward question! From the outset, he had no intention of allowing questions, it seemed to me.

Terry and Georges enthusiastic supporters were loud in their acclamation of Georges' work and for standing up to Saddam Hussein. He was given a standing ovation at one point. Yet, if he knew that there were WMD (actually, chemical weapons) why did he not tell the weapons inspectors and, single-handedly, stop the war? Was it not because he strongly wanted the war to oust his former President - and our one time friend and good arms purchaser? Georges was desperate for the overthrowing of the tyrant. The Bible believing Christians in the meeting were desperate to be reassured that there were WMD, for they had so strongly supported the 19 March 2003 attack!

This great gathering of true Christian believers, believe in evil to overthrow evil; that the ends justify the means but, for me, this is the antithesis of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It is far from paradise.