Is this what they mean by civilisation?

Sunday, December 31, 2006

His last words: 'Palestine belongs to the Arabs'. The executioner's last words to him: 'Go to hell'. Few will mourn Saddam Hussein, especially among those of us who opposed his policies from the very beginning. But that exchange alone means that in the Arab world at least he will continue to be remembered as someone who spoke up for justice for the Palestinians and who was one of the few rulers in the region who stood up to the Americans.

It wasn't always so. Saddam was brought to power with the blessing of the Americans, who provided intelligence to help him root out his Communist opponents, hanged by him as he was hanged yesterday. Iraq was encouraged to wage war against the new Islamic Republic of Iran. The US helped with arms and intelligence, including the provision of chemical weapons which filled its victims' lungs with blood. Throughout the 1980s these weapons supplies continued, and when the outcome looked too evenly balanced, the US intervened even more directly on Iraq's side. As the war neared its end, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft, killing 300 people 'by accident'.

Saddam stopped being a friend and ally when he went too far and invaded Kuwait, even though April Glaspie, US ambassador to Iraq, led him to think the US would not intervene.

Just as they were able to make him, they were able to break him too. War in 1991, bombing and sanctions for 12 years, another war and invasion, capture, trial and then execution. All made in America: the trial, imprisonment and execution had little to do with the Iraqis who had suffered so much under him. Saddam was 'handed over to the Iraqi authorities' from the Americans only at 5.30am; he died at 5.55am.

And what a gangster operation it was: the only man not hooded was the condemned man, the final exchanges were argumentative and insulting, the whole episode was filmed and all except the actual death shown on state televison.

Those who waged war in the name of enlightenment values will perhaps draw the parallels with the public executions where crowds lined what is now Oxford Street to watch the condemned on their way to Tyburn tree. It was regarded as a mark of civilisation that such executions were abandoned over 100 years ago, and any capital punishment more than 40 years ago. Yet we allow this barbarism to take place under the guise of punishing dictatorship.

Most dictators will not fear similar punishment: their countries are crucial staging posts in the increasingly frenzied trips by Tony Blair to find peace in the Middle East, any prosect of which has been destroyed by his and George Bush's policies.

Those policies are tearing the region apart, and increasing terror threats elsewhere in the world. Yet it was announced on the same day as Saddam's execution that John Scarlett, the man who sexed up the dossier to tell us the lie that Saddam's weapons could hit British interests in 45 minutes, is to be knighted for services to diplomacy.

George Bush is reportedly thinking of sending even more US troops into Iraq 'to finish the job' in a country which has been destroyed by the invasion. And while many of us might feel that a new year holiday in Robin Gibb's Florida villa comes pretty close to hell, Tony Blair remains unpunished and unaccountable for his role in the disaster.

So when are these criminals going to be caught?

12/31/2006 11:49:00 AM | Permalink

Or does it explode?

Thursday, December 21, 2006

George Bush's latest reason for continuing the war in Iraq? 'One thing we cannot do is give up on the ordinary moms and dads across the Middle East'. The ordinary moms and dads do seem to have given up on him, however. The standing of the US and Britain has never been lower in the region, given a further ratchet downward by Tony Blair's pre Christmas crusade there.

Blair's preaching somehow made me think of the great poem by the black American Langston Hughes, 'Dream Deferred' which goes like this

What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up/Like a raisin in the sun?/Or fester like a sore-/And then run?/Does it stink like rotten meat?/Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?/Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load./Or does it explode?

The grievances of the Middle East towards the west represent such a dream deferred: the injustice to the Palestinians, the continuing crime of the Iraq war and occupation, the support for vile and dictatorial regimes such as Saudi Arabia, the many visible and invisible hurts of the old colonialism and its new counterpart.

Democracy in the region is preached but not practiced by the west, which turns a blind eye to imprisonment and torture, and only supports elections when the outcome is right. So the Hamas victory in Palestine has been undermined from day one, with the loser being promoted as the victor. The autocratic monarchs and unelected dictators are plied with arms and shielded from criminal investigation by the British prime minister.

Meanwhile Iran, which has seen in the past week real elections (where the president's supporters did badly) and real protests against the president, is back up there as part of the axis of evil.

No wonder ordinary moms and dads see this as doublespeak and hypocrisy. Silence should not be seen as acquiesence. And when there are explosions of mass protest across the region, no one should be surprised.

12/21/2006 10:47:00 AM | Permalink

A spectre is haunting Westminster

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

It is said that generals always fight the battles of the last war. The same could be said of the Labour government over Trident. It's back to the 1980s as far as they're concerned. The spectres of Michael Foot in his donkey jacket at the Cenotaph, of Thatcher and Reagan sneering at the disarmament movement, still haunt those whose greatest fear is being denounced by Rupert Murdoch.

How else do we explain the government plans to replace Trident, a system which can't even be used without US permission, designed to fight an enemy that doesn't exist, at the astronomical cost of £25 billion (and rising)? And it's been sold to us by Blair with the argument that it would give Britain greater independence from the US!

They don't seem to have noticed that life has moved on. The Cold War has gone, we are deeply embroiled in unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and large numbers of people believe that the US and President Bush present the greatest danger to our security. And at a time when hospital closures, student tuition fees and housing shortages are all presented as the only alternative because the money isn't there and because governments can no longer spend on public services, the money for Trident seems all the more obscene.

The people who sold us WMD, the 45 minute claim, the legality of the war and the dodgy dossier are at it again. They find a willing and credulous audience among MPs. Cabinet ministers tell us that we need Trident to combat North Korea and Iran. Really?

After the debacle of Iraq there is really no reason why this spin should be listened to nor why Labour MPs should follow their government into the voting lobbies. Public opinion is divided on the issue, but is much more heavily against Trident when the cost is raised. MPs made a very big mistake in voting for the Iraq war, as many now recognise. They are in danger of repeating that mistake.

The British parliament now has the record of being the most supine among the belligerent powers. Even in the US, there is much more official inquiry into what went wrong. Tomorrow James Baker's Iraq Study Group is due to report. There has been much talk about whether US troops should withdraw or in George Bush's words should make a 'graceful exit'. Disgraceful exit might be more like it.

Whatever the conclusions of the report, it will tacitly acknowledge that the US has lost in Iraq and that the occupying powers have presided over an ever worsening situation. It's a shame our parliament can't even muster a debate on the subject.

12/05/2006 01:13:00 PM | Permalink