According to some newspapers, anyone who disagrees with the illegal occupation of Iraq is a Sick Muslim Extremist. If that is the case then I am a Sick Muslim Extremist.One of the great things about democracy is that we have rights. Since this is Britain, not America, we can't go around saying things like "I'm An American!" as if it means something. Knowing Britain, if one of us said "I'm a British!", the rest of the brits would shrug and sigh in a knowingly sympathy, before turning back to our copy of The Metro.
Anyway, there is the right to protest. Albeit, not in the zone around Westminster. In certain parts of the world there are what are, rather disgustingly, things known as Free Speech Zones. Designated protest areas. It is not unusual for these to marginalised and placed in underground carparks.
Democracy is great, but let's not beat around the bush here, we live in what I call 'Democracy Theatre', an illusion and perception of democracy. The will of millions is routinely humilated and ignored. Those in power and influence may breathe the same oxygen as us, but we are cordoned away from them. The world is shaped by what can make rich people richer, and not what is good for us.The food we buy exists only because it is profitable to sell. And to be profitable to sell, it has to be manufactured cheaply.
(Free Speech Zone, 2004 Democratic National Convention, USA)
One of the things that is important in Democracy is that other human beings have rights. Rights to do things we may not agree with. And also we have the rights to do things others may not agree with.
For example, whilst I would dearly love the electrocute wankers who listen to shitty tinny rap music on their silly phones, I'm aware that it isn't socially acceptable to do so yet. And whilst some of us may be tempted to liqiuidise hunt supporters with gyrocopters in James Bond executions, I'm more inclined to suggest that if you want to hunt foxes, you should pass a test : the test being parachuted into the countryside dressed in a lifesize fox suit and being chased by people with tasers set to 'kill' on cross country mopeds. If you enjoyed it and didn't get caught, well... you're probably some kind of Robocop prototype.
Nonetheless, everyone is entitled to their opinion. And whilst, according to some newspapers, anyone who disagrees with the illegal occupation of Iraq is a Sick Muslim Extremist. If that is the case then I am a Sick Muslim Extremist.
What is sick, and sickening, is the blind, unquestioning acceptance that whatever our country does is right, because our country does it.
The issue here is that Democracy is so arrogant, that capitalist countries wear it as a badge. Like colonial evangelists, we go into other countries and try to impose upon them by force and invasion our way of life, such as democracy. This is not to say that dictatorship is cool and groovy, because dictatorship is shitty. But realistically, at least in a dictatorship there is no 'democracy theatre'. Here, we get to vote for two indistinguishable puppets two and a half times a decade and a protest by 2,500,000 people - that is 5% of the entire population of this country - is ignored and sidelined as the work of a few mad nutters and not the democratic right to protest by civilised human beings who believe that blowing foreign people is not very clever.
Nobody seems to ask why 9/11 happened.
Nobody cares why. All the press does is paint the Muslims as mad nutters, without trying to understand them. If you do not understand other people, they will always outwit you. Because you do not know what they are going to do, and cannot predict how they will respond. It is bad military strategy not to understand the ideological oppositions way of thinking.
Ultimately, the freedoms democracy holds dear include the right to protest. To say things other people don't like. The right to hold differing opinions. Attempts to censor and silence dissent are undemocratic. It makes hypocrites of any proclaimed nationalism. The Sun should be ashamed of itself. I support the troops: I want them out of there. They should be ashamed that they unquestioningly followed ignorant and uninformed orders and enforced an illegal occupation, invasion, and genocidal mass murder on fabricated evidence. The Nuremberg Defence does not apply in this day and age. Human beings were given intelligence, brains and cognitive powers so that they could be used. Blind, unthinking support of our government is shameful, and debases the dignity of humanity. Protest is not only a right, but also a duty that all human beings should honour when they find themselves facing immoral behaviour. The war is undemocratic, and an insult to the principles our country holds dear. If The Sun believed in democracy, it would not insult those who protest against war criminals and war crimes.
"If we had not won the war, we would have been tried as War Criminals" - Robert S McNamara
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty" - Edward R Murrow
15 comments:
Really well put.
And notice the complete cowardice of most on the left, absolutely terrified of standing up to the Fleet Street bullies.
"illegal occupation, invasion, and genocidal mass murder"
Which court has pronounced this illegal.
Genocide - grow up
sgl,
I see that Harry's place is your link on your blog. Quelle surprise.
As for the legality of the Iraq war, the government won't let a parliamentary inquiry take place, let alone a "court" decide on the matter.
But even if they did, to people like you it'd make no difference.
HOwever, you can have a look at this
http://merryabla64.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/the-war-on-iraq-is-the-supreme-international-war-crime/
if your attention span can take it.
Also this here (http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=11205) may get your cogs to move a little.
Or here:
http://www.actionagainstwar.org/documents/TheIllegalWar3.doc
"Genocide - grow up"
What a shame you didn't go to Iraq yourself. You were probably too busy playing Call of Duty on Xbox.
You obviously judge human lives as if they were ants.
But if one day the same happens to you, then you won't have any grounds to complain.
Claude
"people like you" - what does this mean -people who don't happen to agree with you.
As I said no international court has declared the iraq invasion as illegal -prove me wrong.
As for the genocide - look up what it means.
You have no idea how i judge human life.
Blair won two elections after the war, Bush one - go figure
Must try harder
sgl. Are you really that blinkered to expect an International court to try the US government?
Read. Look around. Open your eyes. You'll learn that it's proven that the US started tapping the phone of at least five non permanent nations in the Security Council in the run up to their final vote as they were suspected of leaning towards a "no".
----
Blair won one election after the war. Not two. DO your homework properly.
The wonky UK voting system may have helped too, you know...
----
Mussolini was voted into Parliament too. So was Milosevic. Do elections justify crap regardless?
Firstly, you're right about the number of elections, nevertheless the fact that he won one after the war shows that
the country was more with him than against him, if you don't like election results - tough.
So you admit that the war has never been declared illegal, except of course in your head, but this isn't going to stop you stating this as a fact whenever you wish.
Our parliamentary system doesn't suit you.
Our legal system doesn't suit you.
You live in a democracy - work to get it changed, but until then it is what it is -live with it.
I'm still waiting to hear where this genocide took place.
Oh dear took a battering on LC as well. Not a good day is it
SGL,
the war was illegal.
Practically every lawyer in the country, including in the Lords, said so. And I suspect they may have a better grasp of the subject than one Mr SGL.
The thing is, SGL, you need to get an update.
It's not 2003 anymore.
There's been news in the meantime.
The dodgy dossier, the nicked PhD thesis, the attempts to to rig the UN vote, Iraq in a state of civil war for years. The death toll is estimated at ONE MILLION.
And did you know, SGL? It's been six years and no WMDs were ever found. I bet that's news for you.
GW Bush may have been re-elected in 2004, but his legacy is the most left-wing US President in at least half a century, voted in on an anti-war ticket. And a Republican Party in shreds for at least a generation!!!
sgl : the occupation and invasion has occured on a false justification. Falsified evidence is illegal. The British Government has refused an inquiry, and we know from the Kelly inquiry they are not averse to whitewashes. If there had been a legal prosecution in favour of this war it would not have been successful as the Government could not prove beyond reasonable doubt any verifable evidence. Was it that the Iraqis were incredibly good at hiding WMD's, or was it that they simply weren't there to hide? Hans Blix turned Iraq inside out : and sometimes absence of proof is actually proof of absence.
Genocide? "Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group." The war is ideological and targed at religious and national groups, and and has been aimed at a specific ethnic, racial, religious, and national group : Iraq. It started with the blockades of food and medicine that killed millions, and continued with the invasion. Ask yourself this question, if your country was invaded by a foreign power on a false pretence, wouldn't you resist? It is clear to me that the war has been fought on false grounds, justified by lies, and targeted ideologically at groups of differing beliefs. of course, all this could have been avoided if Saddam had say, let America have the oil. You may think people who say its an oil are Moonbats (or whatever phrase is used), but it sure as hell if isn't about UN resolutions.
If it was about a refusal to follow UN resolutions, America would have shelled Israel into a smoking heap of skeletons thirty years ago. The hypocrisy is offensive.
'Our boys' are nothing but tools used to uphold empires of business.
Let us not remember the problem with this form of democracy : 51,001 votes will ensure 100% representation for this minority, even if 49,999 people do not vote for it. Democracy is a state of the 'largest minority', not a representation of the will of the people. Proportional representation is equally flawed, as it hands absolute power to the controlling vote of floating/undecideds. See the Italian hung parliments where rule is effectively in the hands of a minority set of 5%-vote holding parties.
If this ever went to court, it would be declared illegal. But it won't go to court. And why? Because if you ask the guilty to judge themselves, they'll always judge themselves innocent.
We're dealing with "Belief Politics", not Fact Politics, where facts are moulded to fit a belief, and not the other way round. It is a terrifying state of affairs where our 'leaders' distort reality to justify their actions.
sgl,
you really are one.
First your patronising tone is simply ridiculous.
Second. You are ignorant of facts. Which doesn't surprise me. The whole Iraq war was construed around a fable and a load of ignorance.
The fact alone that ONE MILLION PEOPLE aren't "genocide" for you qualifies you for what you are.
A *****. But I don't want to offend the people who run this blog.
Anita, these are serious matters i don't give a toss what tone you think i may or may not have.
A million dead, prove it, and while you're at it prove that most were killed by coalition forces.
Pathetic.
sgl,
but you need to read more or else your "argument" will always be as feeble as a james blunt song.
You've been talking arse so far without giving a single reason why the Iraq war would have been a good idea!
****
There are dozens of studies of the Iraq war death toll. Have a look. Stop trolling other people's blogs, there's a world out there full of facts to be discovered.
A precise count is impossible, partly courtesy of what Gen. Tommy Franks famously said in the wake of the Iraq invasion- "We don't do body counts", echoed by Rumsfeld when he said they don't do "body counts on other people".
(Which by the way automatically set the tone for the contempt in which Iraqi lives are seen in certain quarters).
Now you're probably going to ask us to "prove" that Tommy Franks and Rumsfy said that, aren't you?
***
I ain't gonna do all the usual cutting and pasting of links because you're never going to look at them anyway. However, one will do as it is a decent summary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/19/iraq
****
You have a blinkered view of the world and you find it more comfortable and easier to believe that the Government is doing the right thing.
Questioning the veracity of things is too complex for some.
The Washington Post quotes the famous Lancet study talking of 655,000 death caused by the invasion. The British Opinion Research Business (all notorious communists, of course) goes well over a million.
How lame is your "Prove it"? Do you want the corpses shown? How pathetic can you be?
Most were killed by coalition forces? Who said that ("Prove it!")?
But, for sure, ALL were killed as a result of the invasion, which opened the biggest can of worms of the decade and got Iraq into a total state of anarchy.
****
I suggest if you want further "proof", you pack your rucksack and get your arse into gear and spend a few months in Iraq. Possibly as a volunteer.
All these pro-war people talking from the safety of their living room, slippers and SKY TV on.
Ignorance plays really bad tricks.
Thanks for being living proof (prove it!) of it
interesting how my post was completely ignored...
You may rant all you wish, but the war has never been adjudged illegal and the accusation of genocide just doesn't hold.
You seem to believe that you're the only one who ever reads anything or has any knowledge of these matters. Just how long did you serve in the army for, for example.
Success with your blog, you obviously prefer to vent and have people tell you have right you are, any dissent is immediately attacked with personal abuse.
Smug left, luckily for the rest of us, you have no power and never will have.
The war was started using falsified evidence. That is illegal. Lack of a conviction for such is evidence of a corrupt, self serving system.
Approx 1,000,000 dead as a result of a war aimed at a nation appears to fit the textbook definition of genocide to me. Just because they aren't wearing yellow stars doesn't mean it isn't genocide.
Nobody needs serve in the army to have an opinion on the army. By this extension, only politicians can comment on the world, as the rest of us mere proles are ignorant of the world of politics.
I have not dispensed abuse (if anything telling someone you disagree with to "grow up" is more abusive and certainly disrespectful). I cannot comment on anyone else.
Hey did you watch Man U v Liverpool the other day?
Ooh...hold on...I'm not a football player, I can't talk about it!
Don't you think tuition fees are starting to be a little...oops...did it again. I'm not at Uni, only university students can have an opinion on the matter.
The way OAPs are treated in this country is frankly...Shit...! I'm not an OAP! I'm not allowed to express myself.
sgl,
to use one of your own quotes: GROW UP.
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