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Here is something
inspiring. If you are not happy about life today, you are not the only
one; in fact it seems just about everyone is unhappy about
life today. Here is a stirring article which puts the case that the
British nation, and perhaps the world in general, has endured FIFTY
YEARS of unnecessary depression.
http://www.rense.com/general34/MAVE.HTM
FIFTY, LONG, UNNECESSARY
YEARS OF DEPRESSION
"You have to understand, that, in Britain, people have
been unhappy and angry, for the past 50 years, but protest has been
crushed, like with the miners' strikes of the 1970s, sometimes using
very subtle methods."
Brits Move To Dump Blair
By Mark Burdman
Executive Intelligence Review
www.LaRouchePub.com/eiw
2-18-3
After a day, Feb. 15, which saw the largest political
demonstration ever in London, with two million marchers protesting
plans for a war in Iraq, and with tens of thousands marching in
Glasgow and Belfast, moves gathered pace, among leading circles in the
ruling Labour Party and elsewhere, for British Prime Minister Tony
Blair to be dumped, as soon as that can be arranged.
With all signs pointing to the Bush Administration being fully
committed to an Iraq war, in the weeks immediately ahead, the dumping
of Blair, the Administration's main ally for the war drive, might well
be the one qualitative event, that would knock the war off course.
Blair is reeling, not only from the mass demonstrations inside
Britain, but from his isolation, in the international
political-diplomatic arena. On Feb. 14, nations representing a large
percentage of humanity, spoke out during the United Nations Security
Council debate that followed the report by chief U.N. weapons
inspector Hans Blix -- a report that, itself, was a slap in the face
to Washington and London -- against a rush to war against Iraq. Then,
on Feb. 17, the insistence by Blair and his Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw, for an overt threat of short-term war against Iraq was rejected
by European Union leaders, at an emergency EU summit called by Greece,
the country currently occupying the rotating EU Presidency.
Blair returned to Britain, with his tail between his legs. He tried to
downplay the war rhetoric, during a Feb. 18 press conference,
insisting that "there is no rush to war," while sources close to him
claimed, on that day, that he would be having a private audience with
Pope John Paul II, on Feb. 22. This may be an attempt by Blair to
soften his image, but it is questionable, whether even the Holy Father
could redeem this corrupted soul. "TONY BLAIR IS FINISHED"
That there are significant efforts in motion, to get rid of him, was
confirmed, during a Feb. 16 discussion with Executive Intelligence
Review (EIR), by Tam Dalyell, the longest-serving member of the House
of Commons (known in Britain as the "Father of the House of Commons"),
and the most courageous fighter, against this immoral imperial war.
Dalyell's efforts have been highlighted, in recent editions of EIR.
He had attended the spring conference of the Labour Party, in Glasgow,
Scotland, on Feb. 15, where Blair had cowardly escaped the 70,000
antiwar demonstrators who had gathered there (see accompanying
article). Dalyell proclaimed: "The new situation is, that there are
serious people, who are serious about dumping Tony Blair. A lot of
people want him out." He added the qualification, that the complexity
of inner-Labour Party rules made this somewhat problematic,
technically speaking, but stressed that the desire and intent to get
rid of Blair is growing qualitatively, within Labour ranks.
This was confirmed, the next day, by British Labour parliamentarian
Alice Mahon, Dalyell's closest collaborator in antiwar efforts, within
the House of Commons. She was quoted, on the front-page of the Feb. 17
London Guardian, insisting that a leadership challenge to Blair will
be mounted, within Labour, if he refuses to allow more time for
weapons inspections in Iraq, and insists on rushing to war: "Yes, of
course, people are talking. There's no point in denying that."
Then, on Feb. 18, the Labour-linked London Daily Mirror, ran a
strongly worded article, by Whitehall Editor Paul Gilfeather, under
the headline, "We'll Oust Blair", with a sub-headline that "MPs
[Members of Parliament--ed.] plot an antiwar revolt to topple Prime
Minister: 'He Won't Listen, He Must Go.'"
Gilfeather stated: "Tony Blair faces a leadership challenge over his
plans to attack Iraq. The Daily Mirror has learned of a plot involving
disillusioned MPs, peers [Members of the House of Lords --ed.] and
union bosses. It would be the first such move against the Premier
since he swept to power in 1997. One ringleader said, 'These are firm
proposals.'"
The Mirror went on: "The Labour MP, who asked not to be named, added:
'We have the numbers required to mount a challenge. It is now a firm
view right across the Labour Party, that Tony Blair is finished,
because of his refusal to listen to overwhelming opposition to war
with Iraq.'"
Tony Woodley, deputy general secretary of the Transport and General
Workers Union (TGWU), told the Mirror: "Mr. Blair's in real trouble
here."
The Mirror article was accompanied by a photo of a goggle-eyed Blair,
with the caption, "FINISHED? Wild-eyed Blair insists he'll follow
George Bush to war."
Further adding insult to the Prime Minister, the lead front-page
article of the Labour-linked Guardian, on Feb. 18, had a banner
headline, "Blair's Popularity Plummets". The article noted that newest
poll results show "a rift between Tony Blair and the public over war
against Iraq". Blair "has sustained significant political damage" from
the Iraq debate, and "his personal rating has dropped through the
floor." Support for the war has fallen to 29%, the lowest since these
kinds of polls began to be taken, in August 2002. "THE IRAQ ISSUE IS A
CATALYST"
Even more precarious for Blair, is the reality, that the
demonstrations of Feb. 15 express much more, than only opposition to a
war against Iraq, as important as that issue is. The rotten, lying,
and "spin"-laden moves by the Blair government respecting Iraq, as
well as the extremely bellicose threats and unqualified support for a
most dubious American Administration, have become emblematic, for
millions of Britons, of a deeper rottenness, characterizing
present-day Great Britain.
The point was made by a leading British social-psychology expert, in a
background discussion with EIR, on Feb. 17. He stated: "Not since the
[night of Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 1997] death of Princess Diana, and the
funerals and mass outpourings of deep emotion and anger at established
institutions that Britain saw then, has anything been seen here, like
we are seeing now, with the mass protests against an Iraq war."
He stressed:
"You have to understand, that the Iraq issue is
primarily a CATALYST, for something much bigger. There is the EXTERNAL
reality, respecting the danger of war, but there is the crucial
INTERNAL reality, that much of Britain is COLLAPSING. The health
system is a disaster, the road and rail infrastructure is a disaster.
So, what you have, with the Iraq issue, is a DOUBLE PROTEST: the OVERT
protest, against a war, and the COVERT protest, against the state of
Britain."
The expert went on: "You have to understand, that, in Britain, people
have been unhappy and angry, for the past 50 years, but protest has
been crushed, like with the miners' strikes of the 1970s, sometimes
using very subtle methods. But now, this buildup of internal protest,
is finding an expression, through the Iraq issue. And this time, the
protest, because of the massive presence of mainstream 'Middle
England' protesters who are peaceful people, cannot be dispersed by
force, or related methods. Were the government now to do something
like that, it would seem to be just like the Iraqi and North Korean
regimes that are always being criticized."
He emphasized again: "Remember what happened after Diana died. People
experienced, through their sadness and other emotions, a reconnection
with reality. That is what we are seeing now, but this time, I think
we will see more profound, and longer-lasting effects." BLAIRITE
PROPAGANDA: "THE REAL SIGN OF DESPERATION"
With their backs to the wall, Blair and his entourage are mounting a
flight-forward counter-attack, on three interrelated fronts, all of
which have the potential to backfire, and blow up in their faces.
For one, Blair himself, in his Feb. 15 speech to the spring Labour
conference in Glasgow, suddenly "shifted the goalposts", and changed
the official British government policy, for why it thinks war with
Iraq is necessary. Until now, as proclaimed in a number of dubious
British government dossiers, Iraq's guilt was that it possessed
weapons of mass destruction that could be handed over to terrorist
groups, and that it was deceptively concealing this "fact". But on
Feb. 15, Blair insisted that "humanity would be better off" without
Saddam Hussein, and that this was a fundamental moral issue. This was
the first official endorsement, by Blair, of the Bush Administration's
"regime change in Iraq" agenda.
Linked to this, is the point stressed to EIR by a number of informed
British strategists, and by commentaries in the British press: Blair
is desperate for war, as soon as possible, and for that war to be
devastating, short, and effective, so that he can neutralize his
millions of British detractors, with the sneer, "I was right all
along, and you were wrong." Of course, this is an enormously high-risk
strategy, as well as being disgusting, morally, and homicidal, in
terms of what war would unleash, in Iraq, among its neighbors, and
globally.
The third prong of the Blair counter-strategy, is to tar his enemies,
with having "blood on their hands", for "supporting Saddam", and, more
crudely, as "stooges of Saddam". This propaganda campaign is receiving
giant support from the neo-conservative press owned by Rupert Murdoch
(Times, Sunday Times, Sun) and Lord Conrad Black's Hollinger
Corporation (Spectator magazine, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph),
as well as from a handful of "liberal imperialist" leftist
commentators.
An egregiously blatant example of this, was provided by the Times'
Maniac-in-Chief, Lord William Rees-Mogg, who headlined his weekly
column Feb. 17, on the subject of the Feb. 15 mass demonstrations: "In
All Honesty, They Were Still Saddam's Useful Idiots." He ranted: "I
respect the good intentions of those who marched on Saturday.
Unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
Rees-Mogg and his ilk were roasted, in the same Feb. 17 Times, by one
of Britain's most respected military strategists, Sir Timothy Garden.
Currently at the Department of Defence Studies, King's College,
London, Garden was formerly Commandant of the Royal College of Defence
Studies, and later director of the Royal Institute of International
Affairs ("Chatham House").
He asserted: "The rush to
war in Iraq gives an opportunity for every merchant of spin to stir
the pot. Plagiarised academic writings are attributed to impeccable
intelligence sources. International terrorism, local dissidents and
tinpot dictators are linked with nuclear weapons by inadequate commas.
Old inspectors' reports are rehashed to sound like new discoveries of
Iraqi deception. But the real sign of desperation is when the war
advocates start calling their critics appeasers."
Garden acknowledged, that there are certainly likenesses between
Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler, but the comparisons quickly can be
reduced to meaninglessness. Hitler had vast military potential, and
there are real lessons to be learned, about the dangers of having
appeased him. But Iraq's military infrastructure has been
significantly destroyed and dismantled, and there has been a
"successful mixture of containment and deterrence" in dealing with
him, so it is absurd to accuse France and Germany of appeasement if
they delay precipitate use of military force against him.
He concluded:
"The contrast between pre-war Germany and Iraq could
scarcely be more stark. In Iraq, we face a Third World country that
has been declining in military strength since we stopped supporting
its regional power strategy....With no threat to Europe, America, or
even to Iraq's neighbors, war seems a very odd choice."
http://www.rense.com/general34/MAVE.HTM
______________
Editor of Inspiring Times:
FIFTY LONG YEARS OF COVER UP OF
'FREE ENERGY',
THE 'UFO'
REALITY, AND MANY OTHER THINGS |
