BLOG POSTS

Most will remember the incident in March 2007, when fifteen UK Marines were seized by Iranian forces from, troche so we were told, Iraqi territorial waters.^[1]

This now turns out not to be the case. The particular stretch of water where this incident occurred has been in contention for over four hundred years. The United States, along with its puppy, Britain, decided to make up their own territorial boundary following the invasion of Iraq, but failed to inform the Iranians.

Consequently, the Iranians considered the British boats to be trespassing in Iranian waters. They have always maintained that to be the case – rightly, it now appears.

Defense secretary, Des Browne, repeatedly told the British Parliament Iran had snatched the fifteen from Iraqi waters.

Under the British Freedom of Information Act, the Times newspaper gained access to official documents relating to the incident, finally exposing the lies and deception to public scrutiny.^[2]

Once again we have an example of the depths to which both US and UK governments are prepared to sink in order to manipulate the minds of their respective electorates. American politicians have been blatant of late in their publicly propagandist attitudes towards Iran, for no other purpose than keeping the US populace onside should suitable opportunity arise to manufacture cause for war with that nation.

Gordon Brown and his parliamentary minions display somewhat more subtlety, but are unflinching in their demands for stiffer sanctions – because Iran dares to do exactly what Britain and the US have been doing for years, enriching uranium.

If any good can ever come from the debacle that passes for US/UK military intervention in Iraq, it can only be in the exposé of lies, disinformation, and deceit that continue to pour unchecked from the mouths of political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Is it not time the British and American public stopped to consider the consequences of voting into office these devotees of closed and dishonest government?

^{[1] “Iranians seize 15 UK Marines in Gulf”, Times Online, March 23rd, 2007}

^{[2] Times Online, April 17th, 2008}

Filed under: Political bullshit

The major problem with America today is its militarism. No-one stops to ask why the Pentagon needs to spend four hundred billion dollars a year, when other nation’s defense budgets are only a fraction of that amount.

Of course, we all know the reason. The US struggles to maintain its superpower status, still viewing China and Russia as major threats, and India waiting in the wings.

Americans, in the main, are happy to support such crazy and expensive ideals. They’ve grown up being top dog of the pack and any possibility of relegation is anathema to them. Unfortunately, this attitude may feed the greedy arms dealers and weapons researchers, but produces that age-old problem of being unable to see the forest for the trees.

American’s are barraged by the threats from without, yet no-one defines the reality of this supposed menace. Fashion is important. Today, Iran (military budget around $6 billion, or 1.5% of America’s) is the most glamorous model on the catwalk of threats. Yesterday, it was North Korea (also around $6 billion)

Just who is America’s enemy today? In real terms there’s only one, and it’s not a nation but an extremist ideal. The terrorists who make up al Qaeda and other extreme Islamic factions around the world, spend only a few million dollars a year on their military budget. Russia’s is only a fraction (18.00%) of America’s, and China’s is even less.

So where do all these American dollars go?

Once the maintenance of the armed forces is paid for, most go on research and development of new, and usually not needed, weaponry and equipment.

Take a look at this BBC Website page. It illustrates just one of many Pentagon research projects, this one costing millions and millions of dollars and unlikely to be available for at least eight years, if at all (large numbers of these experimental projects are shelved after years of work and expense). The ‘robot suit’ is hoped to make soldiers in the field stronger and able to lift great weights with ease. It mimics Hollywood’s fictitious characters like Robocop, Universal Soldier, and Iron Man.

Will it help in the fight against terrorism? Hardly.

The macho Hollywood image is a symbol of America, but at what price? U.S. society is gradually crumbling from lack of services, poor schooling, prohibitively expensive healthcare, scarce jobs, lack of care for the old and infirm.

All so the little boys at the Pentagon can play their expensive games and have the biggest and the best toys in the world.

Filed under: Alms or arms?

America, with its moralistic media and strong churchism, is a vast, efficient, powerhouse of self-righteous hysteria. Perhaps, that’s the reason there’s been little apparent comment around the blogs, concerning the recent assault by SWAT teams and police on the Texas community known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Whatever one’s views on polygamy, the manner in which this ‘investigation’ has been carried out appears to have been overly heavy-handed, and fueled by self-righteous hysteria, rather than the possession of hard, solid, evidence.

Is not that, however, the way of America?

There have been numerous examples over the years, of America taking its almighty sledgehammer of so-called “justice” to swat a relatively small fly.

God knows, it’s reaction to the attacks of 9/11 is proof of that.

The removal of four hundred and sixteen children from their homes and parents, at a moment’s notice and with no chance to say goodbye, on the sole testimony of one anonymous female who has never been found, is not just a miscarriage of justice, but a crime against morality itself.

As usual the do-gooders and social workers are having their fifteen minutes of fame before a hot and over-excited media circus; reincarnated Hollywood John Waynes, in the guise of hard-boiled Texas law enforcement officers, chew tobacco, stare longingly at the far horizon, and mutter cavalierly of having “done the right thing”, and a hundred mothers are left grieving for the snatched offspring they justifiably fear will never be returned to them.

Whatever was going on at the Yearn for Zion ranch, however distasteful the crimes committed by and on some of this sect’s members (and, as yet, there is no solid evidence of forced marriages, or any other criminal activity) the moralistic self-righteousness that has been driving these recent events is yet another indictment of America; further confirmation that its membership of the civilized world is no more than a sad, immature, delusion.

Beneath its wafer-thin technological veneer, this nation is still as primitive and uncultured as any emerging African state.

Meanwhile, one hundred and thirty-nine mothers wait to determine whether the monster that surrounds them, the hostile behemoth they’ve attempted to hide from for years, will finally devour them and their children in a glut of self-righteous frenzy.

Filed under: America’s shame