> PILGER: BLAIR IS A COWARD > > > Jan 29 2003 > > > John Pilger: His most damning verdict on Tony Blair > > > http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12581179&method=full&si > teid=50143 > > > William Russell, the great correspondent who reported the carnage of imperial > wars, may have first used the expression "blood on his hands" to describe > impeccable politicians who, at a safe distance, order the mass killing of > ordinary people. > > In my experience "on his hands" applies especially to those modern political > leaders who have had no personal experience of war, like George W Bush, who > managed not to serve in Vietnam, and the effete Tony Blair. > > There is about them the essential cowardice of the man who causes death and > suffering not by his own hand but through a chain of command that affirms > his "authority". > > In 1946 the judges at Nuremberg who tried the Nazi leaders for war crimes > left no doubt about what they regarded as the gravest crimes against > humanity. > > The most serious was unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state that offered no > threat to one's homeland. Then there was the murder of civilians, for which > responsibility rested with the "highest authority". > > Blair is about to commit both these crimes, for which he is being denied even > the flimsiest United Nations cover now that the weapons inspectors have > found, as one put it, "zilch". > > Like those in the dock at Nuremberg, he has no democratic cover. > > Using the archaic "royal prerogative" he did not consult parliament or the > people when he dispatched 35,000 troops and ships and aircraft to the Gulf; > he consulted a foreign power, the Washington regime. > > Unelected in 2000, the Washington regime of George W Bush is now > totalitarian, captured by a clique whose fanaticism and ambitions of > "endless war" and "full spectrum dominance" are a matter of record. > > All the world knows their names: Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Cheney and > Perle, and Powell, the false liberal. Bush's State of the Union speech last > night was reminiscent of that other great moment in 1938 when Hitler called > his generals together and told them: "I must have war." He then had it. > > To call Blair a mere "poodle" is to allow him distance from the killing of > innocent Iraqi men, women and children for which he will share > responsibility. > > He is the embodiment of the most dangerous appeasement humanity has known > since the 1930s. The current American elite is the Third Reich of our times, > although this distinction ought not to let us forget that they have merely > accelerated more than half a century of unrelenting American state > terrorism: from the atomic bombs dropped cynically on Japan as a signal of > their new power to the dozens of countries invaded, directly or by proxy, to > destroy democracy wherever it collided with American "interests", such as a > voracious appetite for the world's resources, like oil. > > When you next hear Blair or Straw or Bush talk about "bringing democracy to > the people of Iraq", remember that it was the CIA that installed the Ba'ath > Party in Baghdad from which emerged Saddam Hussein. > > "That was my favourite coup," said the CIA man responsible. When you next > hear Blair and Bush talking about a "smoking gun" in Iraq, ask why the US > government last December confiscated the 12,000 pages of Iraq's weapons > declaration, saying they contained "sensitive information" which needed "a > little editing". > > Sensitive indeed. The original Iraqi documents listed 150 American, British > and other foreign companies that supplied Iraq with its nuclear, chemical > and missile technology, many of them in illegal transactions. In 2000 Peter > Hain, then a Foreign Office Minister, blocked a parliamentary request to > publish the full list of lawbreaking British companies. He has never > explained why. > > As a reporter of many wars I am constantly aware that words on the page like > these can seem almost abstract, part of a great chess game unconnected to > people's lives. > > The most vivid images I carry make that connection. They are the end result > of orders given far away by the likes of Bush and Blair, who never see, or > would have the courage to see, the effect of their actions on ordinary > lives: the blood on their hands. > > Let me give a couple of examples. Waves of B52 bombers will be used in the > attack on Iraq. In Vietnam, where more than a million people were killed in > the American invasion of the 1960s, I once watched three ladders of bombs > curve in the sky, falling from B52s flying in formation, unseen above the > clouds. > > They dropped about 70 tons of explosives that day in what was known as the > "long box" pattern, the military term for carpet bombing. Everything inside > a "box" was presumed destroyed. > > When I reached a village within the "box", the street had been replaced by a > crater. > > I slipped on the severed shank of a buffalo and fell hard into a ditch filled > with pieces of limbs and the intact bodies of children thrown into the air > by the blast. > > The children's skin had folded back, like parchment, revealing veins and > burnt flesh that seeped blood, while the eyes, intact, stared straight > ahead. A small leg had been so contorted by the blast that the foot seemed > to be growing from a shoulder. I vomited. > > I am being purposely graphic. This is what I saw, and often; yet even in that > "media war" I never saw images of these grotesque sights on television or in > the pages of a newspaper. > > I saw them only pinned on the wall of news agency offices in Saigon as a kind > of freaks' gallery. > > SOME years later I often came upon terribly deformed Vietnamese children in > villages where American aircraft had sprayed a herbicide called Agent Orange. > > It was banned in the United States, not surprisingly for it contained Dioxin, > the deadliest known poison. > > This terrible chemical weapon, which the cliche-mongers would now call a > weapon of mass destruction, was dumped on almost half of South Vietnam. > > Today, as the poison continues to move through water and soil and food, > children continue to be born without palates and chins and scrotums or are > stillborn. Many have leukaemia. > > You never saw these children on the TV news then; they were too hideous for > their pictures, the evidence of a great crime, even to be pinned up on a > wall and they are old news now. > > That is the true face of war. Will you be shown it by satellite when Iraq is > attacked? I doubt it. > > I was starkly reminded of the children of Vietnam when I travelled in Iraq > two years ago. A paediatrician showed me hospital wards of children > similarly deformed: a phenomenon unheard of prior to the Gulf war in 1991. > > She kept a photo album of those who had died, their smiles undimmed on grey > little faces. Now and then she would turn away and wipe her eyes. > > More than 300 tons of depleted uranium, another weapon of mass destruction, > were fired by American aircraft and tanks and possibly by the British. > > Many of the rounds were solid uranium which, inhaled or ingested, causes > cancer. In a country where dust carries everything, swirling through markets > and playgrounds, children are especially vulnerable. > > For 12 years Iraq has been denied specialist equipment that would allow its > engineers to decontaminate its southern battlefields. > > It has also been denied equipment and drugs that would identify and treat the > cancer which, it is estimated, will affect almost half the population in the > south. > > LAST November Jeremy Corbyn MP asked the Junior Defence Minister Adam Ingram > what stocks of weapons containing depleted uranium were held by British > forces operating in Iraq. > > His robotic reply was: "I am withholding details in accordance with Exemption > 1 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information." > > Let us be clear about what the Bush-Blair attack will do to our fellow human > beings in a country already stricken by an embargo run by America and > Britain and aimed not at Saddam Hussein but at the civilian population, who > are denied even vaccines for the children. Last week the Pentagon in > Washington announced matter of factly that it intended to shatter Iraq > "physically, emotionally and psychologically" by raining down on its people > 800 cruise missiles in two days. > > This will be more than twice the number of missiles launched during the > entire 40 days of the 1991 Gulf War. > > A military strategist named Harlan Ullman told American television: "There > will not be a safe place in Baghdad. The sheer size of this has never been > seen before, never been contemplated before." > > The strategy is known as Shock and Awe and Ullman is apparently its proud > inventor. He said: "You have this simultaneous effect, rather like the > nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, not taking days or weeks but minutes." > > What will his "Hiroshima effect" actually do to a population of whom almost > half are children under the age of 14? > > The answer is to be found in a "confidential" UN document, based on World > Health Organisation estimates, which says that "as many as 500,000 people > could require treatment as a result of direct and indirect injuries". > > A Bush-Blair attack will destroy "a functioning primary health care system" > and deny clean water to 39 per cent of the population. There is "likely [to > be] an outbreak of diseases in epidemic if not pandemic proportions". > > It is Washington's utter disregard for humanity, I believe, together with > Blair's lies that have turned most people in this country against them, > including people who have not protested before. > > Last weekend Blair said there was no need for the UN weapons inspectors to > find a "smoking gun" for Iraq to be attacked. > > Compare that with his reassurance in October 2001 that there would be no > "wider war" against Iraq unless there was "absolute evidence" of Iraqi > complicity in September 11. And there has been no evidence. > > Blair's deceptions are too numerous to list here. He has lied about the > nature and effect of the embargo on Iraq by covering up the fact that > Washington, with Britain's support, is withholding more than $5billion worth > of humanitarian supplies approved by the Security Council. > > He has lied about Iraq buying aluminium tubes, which he told Parliament were > "needed to enrich uranium". The International Atomic Energy Agency has > denied this outright. > > He has lied about an Iraqi "threat", which he discovered only following > September 11 2001 when Bush made Iraq a gratuitous target of his "war on > terror". Blair's "Iraq dossier" has been mocked by human rights groups. > > However, what is wonderful is that across the world the sheer force of public > opinion isolates Bush and Blair and their lemming, John Howard in Australia. > > So few people believe them and support them that The Guardian this week went > in search of the few who do - "the hawks". The paper published a list of > celebrity warmongers, some apparently shy at describing their contortion of > intellect and morality. It is a small list. > > IN CONTRAST the majority of people in the West, including the United States, > are now against this gruesome adventure and the numbers grow every day. > > It is time MPs joined their constituents and reclaimed the true authority of > parliament. MPs like Tam Dalyell, Alice Mahon, Jeremy Corbyn and George > Galloway have stood alone for too long on this issue and there have been too > many sham debates manipulated by Downing Street. > > If, as Galloway says, a majority of Labour backbenchers are against an > attack, let them speak up now. > > Blair's figleaf of a "coalition" is very important to Bush and only the moral > power of the British people can bring the troops home without them firing a > shot. > > The consequences of not speaking out go well beyond an attack on Iraq. > Washington will effectively take over the Middle East, ensuring an age of > terrorism other than their own. > > The next American attack is likely to be Iran - the Israelis want this - and > their aircraft are already in place in Turkey. Then it may be China's turn. > > "Endless war" is Vice-President Cheney's contribution to our understanding. > > Bush has said he will use nuclear weapons "if necessary". On March 26 last > Geoffrey Hoon said that other countries "can be absolutely confident that in > the right conditions we would be willing to use our nuclear weapons". > > Such madness is the true enemy. What's more, it is right here at home and > you, the British people, can stop it. > > > On Saturday, February 15, a great demonstration against an attack on Iraq > will be held in London. > > Contact the Stop the War Coalition on 07951 235 915 and [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > >
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