Angela Eagle, The War Criminals in Power, Iraq and Trident

Corbyn, McDonnell, Skinner and Galloway are, as far as I know the only living British politicians who have publicly stated that Iraq is a war crime, and that War Crimes Investigations and trials must flow. There may be more (Tony Benn has passed on...) Do let me know if there are any others.

The Blairite, Media and BBC attacks on Corbyn are the defence department of the British Power Establishment. They are defending that establishments operatives who worked on making the Iraq war happen.

Even IF people genuinely believe Jeremy Corbyn is not an 'effective leader' nor 'electable' and must be removed for Labour to gain ground in the next election, whenever that happens, ( an opinion not supported by the facts and the actuality of Corbyn's long political career) their support for his removal plays into the hands of the British Power Establishment.

Refusal to see that and integrate it into their desire to have a 'good' leader they can follow (which Corbyn rejects, he says the leadership must come from the grass roots) and a refusal to then mitigate their actions to dislodge him until they have a candidate who WILL pursue War Crimes Investigations and Trials with all due diligence is myopia, it is short sighted, it is folly, and worst of all it plays the hand of the War criminals.

It is not their intention to do so. I get that.

That does not alter the fact that the Power Establishment will benefit by reducing the threat of War Crimes Investigations and Trials of their operatives from that sectarian fight over the leadership, that needless distraction and they will use that to the hilt. No-one will be able to thwart that once the act is done.There are no credible MPs in the Labour Party who can stand and say they have the grounds and ability, the steel and grit to pursue the War Crimes issue.

In effect the leadership coup will protect the power establishment from a threat they really are vulnerable to. Our only leverage against them for all the harm they have and are causing. 

The reality, the legal reality, as well as the moral reality,  is that War Crimes were committed, and are being committed, by the British Government, the British State.

Supported by those Media who refused then and continue to refuse to tell the unadorned truth in this matter, and as such all actions of that Government, irrespective of who is in office have no legitimacy, until the matter of War Crimes is resolved by Justice. 

Every statute written since March 2003 is invalid.

An actively criminal Government cannot be legitimate under Law.

Yesterday, Angela Eagle cried tears in an interview explaining why she resigned and then refused to say if she'd mount a leadership challenge. "Now is not the time for this."

Now today she mounts that challenge.

She KNEW then what she knows now. Those tears were manipulation at it's most dramatic. Or darker.

Her voting record on matters of War speaks for itself.  She is culpable.

She DID vote for War against Iraq, she  voted against saying that the case for war against Iraq has not yet been established, she voted against an investigation into the Iraq War, and much more besides.

Her integrity is questionable, and her due diligence in such important matters is lacking. The Law was (and remains) quite clear on the matter and she had a duty of care know that Law and to uphold it.

Nuremburg made it quite clear that not knowing the Law is no defence in War Crimes trials. It is also a general principle of tort Law.

Ignorance of the Law is not a defence. Ignoring the Law is a crime in and of itself.

Politics is a dirty, dirty game and if we do not grasp the levels of manipulation, deceit and grooming involved, and we underestimate the capabilities of the power establishment in terms of their abilities to dig into our psychology and manipulate us, and have not the ability to identify, question and then counter those moves, we are way out of our depth.

Governance is another matter.

In governance, we are talking about the administration of the shared contributory resource we call taxation, which ought to be administered for the equal benefit of all who contribute, their families, their children and their communities.

That demands that policy is a) evidence based b) designed in part by the people whose lives it touches c) free of ideology, religion or mere opinion d) transparent and e) subject to responsive change as new information emerges.

I support any politician who can prove that they understand and adhere to these principles. I cannot trust those who do not. Neither can you.

Let me remind folk that 80 million people in the Middle East have had their entire civil society destroyed as a direct result of these Wars, and that must weigh heavily on all of us as tax payers. 80 million men, women, children, families. communities : look around at your loved ones and try to imagine what that must be life.

The human reality is why I write. I have no ideology. Just empathy.





Kindest regards

Corneilius

"Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe"

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What would Jesus Draw?

I would never have thought that being stranded in the centre of London, late in hours, by a Bus Strike, could be such a potent opportunity for reflection on matters topical.

As I traveled in the bus, I was thinking about ordinary folk in France, Iraq, Gaza, New York, Woolwich, in villages towns and cities around this Earth, when war comes knocking in the door.I meant knocking in. It is like that.

Wherever violence has been inflicted upon innocent civilians by warring parties, all sides irrespective of their ‘legitimacy’ will equally seek to justify that violence. At the beginning, throughout and at the end, and in their relative hagiographies/ History’s, and constantly re-enforced by their mainstream narratives, their myths. Our violence is 'good'. Theirs is 'bad'.

That act of violence from the perspective of the ordinary folk victimised in such atrocious manner. In the immediacy of that horror. Is always bad, very, very bad. and of course it is ignored. If it is mentioned, it is glossed over and an apology is issued. Sometimes compensation - shut your mouth money - is offered. Justice, never.

I considered the bus I was traveling in. What would we all feel if an explosive went off, or the bus was raked with bullets, attacking random innocents? I tried imagining the cascades of feelings, the terror, the fear, the confusion, the loss of hope, the panic, the shock that each and every person would in different ways be going through. And the pain. Utter horror. I shuddered as the bus rode on.

For each person, for every civilian harmed by violence the act is more than terrifying, it is physically horrifying, burning deep, deep into their very souls, their sense of self. To be so tortured and to see others in the same state, is for many, understandably an experience of utter helplessness. Hopelessness.

My thoughts were interrupted. The lights flicker,

The bus stops. We are at Oxford circus. The driver calls out “Last Stop! Last Stop” and flickers the lights. They go off. It’s 2.45am. I had left the event at 2.30am.

I thought “Great the journey is going well.”

“though it is late and I really need to get back home to get some sleep to be up, ready for some work at 10am…”

I walked around the corner to catch my second bus, for a 40 minute ride to where my home is.

I checked the time table and TFL on my phone. The timetable says the bus route is running. Bus in 18 minutes. Cool.

I fell back to my previous explorations of the meanings of that lived experience for those who go through it, and the consequences for their lives, and their relationships, and how it’s just not a part of the mainstream narrative on war and peace.

A huge part of the reality of both the Charlie Hebdo shootings and Falluja, of Nigeria and Boko Haram, of Chile in 1979, WWI and WWII and ….  and so on… the official history is littered with ‘great victories’, our broken lives are only of sentimental value, as ‘sacrifices’ for this cause, that flag, ‘our’ faith…

That my readers is a lot of trauma…..

Haven’t we had enough. already?

This is the appalling truth : the mainstream narrative reflexively, intentionally dilutes, sentimentalises, and compartmentalises the meaning of the lived experience of those who go through war-like violence inflicted upon them intentionally, arbitrarily simply because the violence was introduced as part of some politically driven  power struggle and that is the permitted narrative. People can side with one or the other – the meaning of the lived experience is taboo.

I noticed that my thinking was eating up the time… There was three of us at the bus stop, a few people walking in the street, frequent buses yet never the one I needed. I checked the time. It was 4pm.

“Oh dear!...”

Looks like this route is a strike route… I began to think on other options. Tube at 5.45am?  Walk to Trafalgar Square, Bus to Heathrow, Bus to home - two, possibly more hours?

I was looking at the street, imagining what it might be like to have a bomb go off or a shooting, seeing the debris, the damaged bodies, bits of bodies, people moving in shock. I shuddered. Horrible feeling.

Yuk!

How could anyone, anyone at all think on that and FEEL it’s meanings and not shudder, not wish to withdraw , not wish to prevent it, and how could anyone inflict THAT on innocent people?

The mainstream narrative, what some call ‘straight psycho-social reality’, ensures that what is understood by an ‘informed’ public, rather than the reality, populates and dominates all public discourse. Government routinely signals that it is un-moved by either protest or reasoned dissent. The violence continues on all sides.

The official Charlie Hebdo narrative ignores the meaning of the lived experience of one set of abused people, those who just happen to be born in  and live under the rule or ‘governance’ of their official enemies, and ignores the meaning of the lived experience those who just happen to be born in and live under the rule of oppressive regimes who are their allies. Gaza and Saudi Arabia.

This is 100% unacceptable. It is professional amoral brutal hypocrisy at every degree.

Under Rome, Reconciliation was process to 're consilo' - to bring back into the home, to return to the family of Rome (the abuser).

Vanquished Rebel Leaders would go through a ritual, where they would be publicly forgiven, welcomed back with a ritual embrace, and then ritually strangled. By the leaders suffering this, and new roman aligned leaders appointed from within the rebel community, no further reprisals would be taken against that community and the taxes would of course increase. An Heroic Sacrifice. Victor and Victim. These are the vernacular of Power. The Roman Empire was a business.

Same words, different meaning in the lived experience.

The hypocrisy of the language of power. Of ignoring the meaning of the lived experience of those upon whom such extremes of violence are inflicted. Of manipulating the lives of the dead, maimed, wound as part of a mainstream narrative,which is sectarian - "our power is good, theirs is obviously bad." when all power exercised in this way is equally amoral.

Our dead, maimed and wounded are ‘victims’, ‘sacrificed’, ‘heroes’, they are identified, given a back story. Their dead, maimed and wounded are ‘collateral damage’; they remain largely without identity. If their identity is used, it most often by Charities, seeking funding to apply expensive though most often useful sticking plasters to a sea of life threatening injuries and situations, caused largely by power psychology.

The only thing that’s true in the narrative is that there are dead, maimed and wounded everywhere. What that actually means, in each and every case, is besides the point.

The cruelty of this dominate narrative is horrific. Truly inhumane. Not healthy, at all.

The thread of violence is what weaves the Emperors clothes. You have to pretend that thread is something other than what it is, and that it shines, and exudes power and glory. That is the mainstream narrative.

By mainstream I include the news media, and I include as part of it all that core psychology of Power as a psycho-social narrative that has lived meaning.

The Naked Bully.

Not the naked ape.

The Bully. Learned behaviour.

And all the bully can think of is how to manipulate the lives of those who died, who were maimed, wounded and traumatised or who witnessed what took place in a small office in Paris, in ways that will enhance his or her power.

On all sides, they all do it.

The bully culture. 

There’s a man at the bus stopping acting strangely. He’s heaving these massive sighs, moving erratically, subdued shouts, dancing like a boxer.

“What time is it, and where is that bus?”

I gave up, and walked to the tube station. It was 5.15. The station doors open at 5.30, and at least I will be warm. 

The newspaper headlines are sickening. They miss the point. I read them only to understand how they are doing what they are doing, how people might be influenced by that and what is the best response to rebut all that?

I got home eventually for 7.55am. Yeah. Not a 40 minute ride. One line delayed as over night work over ran. Another held back for ages due to a ‘signal failure’.

Signal failure. That’s what the prevailing Official narrative on war, terror and reality is.

A massive signal failure.

An easy one to fix.

If one tells the truth without fear or favour. What would Jesus draw?

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Tony Blair: Accountabilty cannot stop with him alone.

Tony Blair's 'essay' on Iraq, Syria etc ::

http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/news/entry/iraq-syria-and-the-middle-east-an-essay-by-tony-blair/

I would like to suggest that he is not alone in accountability for the war crimes of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that meaningful accountability must include all culpable officials and other actors involved. He cannot be set up as a fall guy on his own. To do that would be a failure of equal proportions to the wars themselves.

Here's some pertinent points concerning his recent essay .... some background the mainstream media has avoided like the plague...

1. Blair claims that the underlying problem is "Islamic Fundamentalism". Some of the most extreme Islamic Fundamentalists are the Wahhabist Saudi Regime, Quatar, Bahrain etc - all 'allies' of the West. These States have are Religious Autocracies, and are extreme puritans amongst other things, and been funding attacks on progressive Islamic Social Democracy movements across the Middle East and further afield, since the 1940s, in order to protect their Power, supported by the Western Powers, who also helped to established these States as their local proxies.

2. The popular uprisings in North Africa, and Ukraine have a common thread. A progressive grass roots protest undermined by 'imported' violence from 'foreign fighters' who escalate violence.

This pattern is old, well used and well documented and we know that Power often has a hidden hand in terms of planting paid agent provocateurs within protests and activist communities. It's a standard tactic.

Once that cycle of violence starts things get out of hand quickly and the progressive grass roots movements are sidelined. Until the violence cycle ends. Which is not possible when Western 'military funding and training' is supplied to one side or the other.

This is true in Syria. A state that was/is a Militarized Government : The primary reason the State in Syria is militarized is because an official state of war exists between the Syrian State and the Israeli State.

It also happened in Venezuela, during the failed coup to oust Hugo Chavez in 2002. There were direct links to US support in these events.

The Syrian Government faced a progressive movement, was willing to make concessions (albeit slowly), then that movement was infiltrated by foreign fighters who escalated the violence, even to the extent of invading urban areas, causing locals to flee, which forced the State to defend itself.... then Western allied funding for those foreign fighters increased dramatically whilst laying ALL the blame for the violence on the Syrian State Government.

Thus the  indigenous movement for a Social Democracy is thwarted.

Indigenous Arab Social Democracy is seen as a threat, because it would necessarily involve projects such as Nationalising Resources, stepping away from Western/Eastern power alliances, etc, etc.... this happened also in Ireland in 1916, 1922 and in Northern Ireland in the 60s.

The escalation of violence is a deliberate tactic, and has been deployed many, many times. It's a pattern, and it's intentional.

3. The history of these areas cannot be avoided : the issue goes back to Colonial state line drawing which split communities and installed 'Power' that would work with 'Western Interests' (Corporations, Resource 'Management' etc.) and undermined any local grass roots Social Democracy which sought to develop 'resources' for the grass roots benefits.

4. History is also about patterns.

Look to what has happened in South America and understand that the Western Powers knew what would happen in Iraq because they had practiced it in South America - wars cannot be sustained for much longer than a decade, chaos will follow all wars, a traumatised people will take two or three generations to get back on an even keel, if they have a chance.

In South America the exposure of the US Governments and Corporations direct involvement in horrific practices known as 'counter-insurgency' in the 70s and 80s led to a partial withdrawal from such direct intervention, (the War On Drugs was a cover story to allow the continuation of this direct intervention) which allowed grass roots movements to gain traction and slowly alter the power dynamic. Bolivia, Agrentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Honduras, Equador, Nicaragua, Panama etc etc...

The internet in the late 90s and early 2000s helped the grass roots movements gain support across the world as information became widely more available, and the action of Western Power was exposed.

5. The proliferation of violence in the Middle East and Persia is a direct result of Western support for one side over another...

The Militia that emerged post invasion in Iraq were two fold : The US funded Militarised Police and local shia and sunni, kurdish and secular resistance to them. In other words the US created the civil war. All these groups lived side by side at the grass roots without tension (as they had done for many centuries) and in Saddam's Government were members of each grouping who participated in Power - the divide in Iraq was always along power lines rather than sectarian lines. The US support for one sect and the violence that followed created the sectarianism the now dominates the situation.

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The details of all these patterns are laid out in some detail, very well referenced and evidenced in Naomi Klein's opus: Shock Doctrine. And in that book she warned that the Economic Policies we are subject to in the UK today were on their way. She was correct because she has studied the matter in some depth, and sought out the evidence.

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Blair knows EXACTLY what he is doing - he is lying through his teeth, protecting himself and his allies. His words make sense only if you ignore the wider historical realities and his personal responsibility in causing so much trauma.

Lastly two quotes to illustrate the central problem of Power and the dynamic of integenerational trauma..

Reaching back in time, a quote from Keith Joseph, Conservative Education Minister under Thatcher...1984

"We are in a period of considerable social change. There may be social unrest, but we can cope with the Toxteths. But if we have a highly educated and idle population we may possibly anticipate more serious social conflict. People must be educated to know their place."

This reveals a preoccupation with conditioning the children of each generation to accept the status quo of Power as 'right' and 'normal', even if it causes harm, or trauma to a large part of the population, and even if parts of that population are so hurt, so enraged by their mistreatment that the are reduced to rioting in order to be heard or felt. It shows that Power is happy to accept low level rioting as it is something they can handle, or 'manage' or even utilise.

and

“Like traumatized individuals, traumatized countries need to remember, grieve and atone for their wrongs in order to avoid reliving them.” Judith Herman

I would say the the the UK or 'Great Britain' has not yet gone through the process of honest remembrance, grief or atonement.... and THAT is a big part of this problem.

Certainly Blair has not done this, he as studiously avoided it as have the UK Government. Bear in mind that Blair is calling for more violence, not less violence.

Blair cannot be held meaningfully accountable without exposing the thousands of other officials and other actors who were directly involved in pushing for and prosecuting the illegal and amoral wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the same degree of accountability.



Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe