IRAN AWAY
It's taken just a few months for Cameron and chums to do what Blair took 4 years to do. Back in '99 Clinton & Blair fought a limited air & special ops war in support of a popular uprising in Kosovo, leading to Kosovan pseudo-independence and eventual regime change in Yugoslavia. Blair came to believe that British military might was an all conquering force for good. So he invaded Iraq and helped kill a million people.
Fastforward to the present. Neo-Cameron and Wiliam "send him to the" Hague are feeling flush following an 'easy' (for them) victory in Libya. Now, despite having scrapped most of the UK's aircraft carriers and jetplanes, powerful and idiotic members of the British political elite believe that they can go to war against Iran and win. The recent Grauniad and Torygraph stories planted by anonymous “senior officials” about joint UK-Israeli military wargames are part of the plan. The ratcheting of tensions, the protests at the British embassy in Tehran, and the UK's closure of its embassy, are steps on the way to war.
William “Gaddafi is in Venezuela” Hague is, of course, utterly wrong about the West's chances of winning such a war. Iran has 3 times the size and population of iraq, and has a modern military (complete with its own space programme) and plenty of experience in 'asymetrical warfare'. Its government is broadly popular, especially when it plays to its a conservative, nationalist, religious base. That base hates Britain almost as much as it hates Israel and the USA. Were the west to strike, Iran would be free to leave the IAEA (the UN nuclear watchdog) and build the bomb everyone's so scared of. It's hard to see how a war would lead to regime change without an occupation of Tehran. It's hard to see the western powers even making it to Tehran, let alone staying there.
But the UK government could do with a war. The home front is looking decidedly unstable, and war could be used to justify all that 'Power of Nightmares' control-by-fear politics that we had to put up with during the last decade- orange alerts, dirty bombs, bogus 45 minute claims, and the rest of that nonsense. The (Neo-)Conservative Party could do with the distraction. And they've got friends in Israel (remember that Osborne's chum Werrity got busted whilst unofficially representing Britain in secret briefings with Mossad). Mostly Israel's loony rightwing leaders want an Iran War to distract from their domestic problems and their illegal occupation of Palestine. It's dangerous to look too hard for sanity the Knesset these days- the Israeli government has 'jumped the shark' as far as rational politics goes. Their entire official political structure now consists of far right groups competing to be the most extreme. On some level they are aware that they cant go to war without America, but if Britain and Israel lobby hard together, it's uncertain whether Obama has enough leadership to stop the militarist, rightwing and Zionist lobbies from forcing his hand.
The Iran War, the scripted but never shot finale of the War on Terror trilogy, may be fast approaching. In fact, it might even already be there. Parts of Iran keep blowing up, on the 30th a second Iranian military facility was hit by a massive explosion. Israel's intel minister, Dan Meridor, explained helpfully, “There are countries who impose economic sanctions and there are countries who act in other ways in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat." “Politics by other ways” is how famous military strategist Otto Clauswitz defined war.
There is an Iranian pro-war lobby at work too- the far right, ultra-religious theocrats who have never been happy with the small amount of democracy that Iran stubbornly retains. Here too the jingoistic distraction of a war can keep the crowds under control and not protesting against bad economic policy a corrupt political system. These guys, leaders of the Basij militias, and the Revolutionary Guard, wanted the British embassy closed just as much as their ideological brethren in the UK. Now that there are no official lines of communication, it's that bit easier for a situation to escalate out of control. If the west continues to launch clandestine attacks on Iran, sooner or later a spy will be caught in the act (7 CIA spooks were caught recently in Iran). If a wannabe James Bond appears on Iranian state TV, captured, beaten and bruised we could all end up regretting the lack of communication.
On the plus side however, if the Iran War kicks off we'll only need to change the Q for an N on those old Iraq War placards before we go marching.
I never landed in IKA
I was not refused entry- because I never went
I made the story up in a sad attempt to enhance my standing amongst other dim witted twats like me.
I am an inveterate liar and my pants are permanently on fire.
The Isreali bulldozers are still undertaking numerous demolitions in Palestine. In this week alone, four family homes, four Bedouin tents containing 40 people, a mosque, a public meeting house, a restaurant, a shop, a car wash, a bee farm owned by a women's co operative, a sheep farm, numerous barns, an irrigation pond and a plant nursery have all been smashed to pieces.
In May the (now disgraced ex-) Minster for War, Liam Fox announced the Trident Alternatives Review, with much fanfare from the beard and sandal brigade. Unfortunately six months down the line and Liam Fox's replacement Philip Hammond has now stated that the review will not be made public because of the “highly classified technical, intelligence and policy information covering extremely sensitive national security issues”.
It turns out there's another UK-based company linked to the Israeli Occupation whose name starts with EDO...
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets all over Honduras (and in cities around the world) on Monday 28th June, the first anniversary of the military coup. Not that they were commemorating the coup of course, but to celebrate the first birthday of the National Popular Resistance Front. The FNRP is a remarkable coalition of brave people from all the traditionally oppressed sectors of society: the Committee of Families of the Disappeared; a myriad of feminist organisations; indigenous groups; the Afro-descendant garífuna people; youth movements; the gay community; human rights activists and trades unions. The FNRP is an alliance of hundreds of grassroots organisations which, despite the risk to the lives of all involved, have refused to give in and accept the illegal takeover of their country by a ruthless and self-serving elite.
Ever keen to get an up close and personal look at the world's most troubled regions, SchNEWS was fortunate enough to sweet-talk Brightonian Al Jazeera journalist, Medyan Diarieh, recently returned from reporting in Afghanistan. As a Palestinian who has extensively covered the conflicts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Iraq and Turkish Kurdistan for many years, he's a man with a useful perspective on events on the ground in what's become Britain's longest war since the days of Empire. Medyan has become a well known figure amongst pro-Palestine and anti-war protesters, informing the public in the Arab-speaking world of the UK's solidarity movements.
Boeng Kak lake, situated in the centre of Phnom Penh, is where the backpackers hang out to have a beer and look out over the waters, as the residents collect snails, fish and water vegetables. One of the only large open spaces left in the city, it has been home to over four thousand families who live in wooden houses at its edges. Rather than making the most of this potential beauty spot, the Cambodian government had the grand idea of filling in the lake to replace it with some shiny new development. Even though the national Land Law should protect their rights, the World Bank has failed to secure tenure for the people of Boeng Kak within the much criticised Land Management Administration Project (LMAP). Nine hundred families have been evicted so far.
The Mexican government put an end to reports that 25,000 people have been killed in the last four years of Mexico's drug wars. The correct figure, they insist, is 28,000. Last month the candidate for election in Tamulipas State, on the US border, was killed in broad daylight by Los Narcos (narcotraficantes - ie drug traffickers. On 18th of August 2010 the body of a mayor (from the governing National Action Party- aka PAN) Edelmiro Cavazos, was found dumped by the roadside; blindfolded with his hands bound behind his back. Despite this the government of President Felipe Calderón is busy assuring anybody who can be bothered to listen that there is no narco-terrorism in Mexico.
The Israel-Palestine conflict has been pretty high-tech this last week. After two boats, the Canadian Tahrir and the Irish Saoirse, were illegally captured in international waters by Israeli commandos, Anonymous shut down the IDF and Mossad websites.
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