Eviction notice

Monday, January 22, 2007

You might have expected more of a media fuss. No, not about Big Brother but about Alistair Beaton's The trial of Tony Blair. He is after all still the prime minister, yet this programme ended with Blair disappearing in a police van to be put on trial as a war criminal.

Cherie took the light bulbs from no 10 when they departed. A light bulb lit up above her head with the realisation that their new £3 million house off the Edgware Road put them slap in the middle of thousands of Lebanese _yet another group of people with a grudge against Blair.

But not a single voice raised in parliament, no outrage from angry viewers. Perhaps everyone is just hoping that life will imitate art and that Blair's next stop will be the Hague. Although judging by the investigation of cash for honours he may be facing domestic proceedings first.

The silence speaks eloquently of majority opinion on the war and the warmonger. But it rolls on inexorably. Yesterday the 130th British soldier was killed, as were 25 US soldiers. Today an estimated 75 Iraqis died in a market bombing. Little of it makes the headlines, and few believe that the extra US troops _21,000 as part of Bush's surge _will do anything but lead to further deaths.

One image that did get reported was that of soldiers tied to a helicopter trying to rescue, unsuccessfully, one of their number killed in Afghanistan. The war there is getting worse. The Nato troops are calling in airstrikes because they cannot win battles; the airstrikes are killing lots of people; more Afghans are turning against the troops and supporting the Taliban.

The outgoing Nato commander told the Guardian that he wanted one more year to defeat the Taliban. That's what the US has been saying in Iraq for nearly four years now. No wonder he's worried. Especially when you consider these facts: the Taliban has increased their area of operations more than four times between 2005 and 2006, and is now effectively running parts of the south and east; direct fire attacks nearly trebled to 3,824 between 2005 and 2006;suicide attacks increased from 18 to 116; attacks on Afghan forces incresed over 300%, and those on Nato forces by 270%.

The military expect a big offensive against them this spring.

War is stretching from Helmand province to the Horn of Africa, where Somalis is the latest victim of US intervention. The rhetoric against Iran is rising again. The long war _the war on terror rebranded _ at least is an accurate description.

Blair promises us war for a generation. He and Bush are both on their way out, but the Bush gang is determined to shoot it out on the streets of Baghdad rather than admit defeat.

Expect much blaming of Iraqis for the mayhem created by the occupation; expect too more attacks on the French (and Germans) for failing to pull their weight and sacrifice their troops in Afghanistan.

Expect also an escalation of anti war protest to match this surge: already the Washington demo next weekend looks like being one of the biggest ever against the war. Our date is 24th of February _ against Trident and for troops out of Iraq _ which also promises a good response.

So we shouldn't take silence as agreement. If 82% voted to evict Jade Goody from the Big Brother house, how many would do the same to see the back of Blair?

1/22/2007 01:24:00 PM | Permalink