How familiar it all sounds. Merely replace Soviet Union and communism with al-Qaeda, and you are up to date. And it was all a fantasy. The Soviet Union had no bases in or designs on Central America; on the contrary, the Soviets were adamant in turning down appeals for their aid. The comic strips of "missile storage depots" that American officials presented to the United Nations were precursors to the lies told by Colin Powell in his infamous promotion of Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction at the Security Council in 2003.
Whereas Powell's lies paved the way for the invasion of Iraq and the violent death of at least 100,000 people, Reagan's lies disguised his onslaught on Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. By the end of his two terms, 300,000 people were dead. In Guatemala, his proxies - armed and tutored in torture by the CIA - were described by the UN as perpetrators of genocide.
THERE IS ONE MAJOR DIFFERENCE TODAY
That is the level of awareness among people everywhere of the true purpose of Bush and Blair's "war on terror" and the scale and diversity of the popular resistance to it. In Reagan's day, the notion that presidents and prime ministers lied as deliberate, calculated acts was considered exotic; Nixon's Watergate lies were said to be shocking because presidents did not lie outright.
Almost no one believes that any more. In Britain, thanks to Blair, a sea-change in public attitudes has taken place. No less than 80 per cent regard him as a liar; 82 per cent believe his warmongering was a principal cause of the London bombings; 72 per cent believe he has made this country a target. No modern prime minister has been the object of such informed opprobrium. In addition, a majority remain sceptical about the veracity of a "plot" to blow up aircraft flying from Heathrow. The recent, thuggish self-promotion of the Home Secretary (Interior Minister) John Reid is rejected by a clear majority, along with the media-promotion of Treasurer Gordon Brown as the man who brought economic prosperity to Britain while acting as paymaster for various imperial adventures. More than three-quarters of the population believe Brown and Blair have merely made the rich richer (YouGov and Guardian/ICM).
IN MY EXPERIENCE, THIS CRITICAL PUBLIC INTELLIGENCE AND MORAL SENSE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AHEAD OF THOSE WHO CLAIM TO SPEAK FOR THE PUBLIC.
What Vandana Shiva calls an "insurrection of subjugated knowledge" is on the rise in Britain and across the world, perhaps as never before, thanks to a revived internationalism aided by new technologies. Whereas Reagan could get away with many of his lies, Bush and Blair cannot. People know too much. And there is the presence of history; no imperial power has been able to sustain three simultaneous colonial wars indefinitely.
http://www.rense.com/general73/piglf.htm
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on September 1, 2006]
Note: http://www.rense.com/ge...
At Last! Some Encouraging News.
Posted on Friday, September 01 at 09:05 by DiogenesContributed By
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Now then (doing the Crocodile Dundee: "You call *that* a
knife?"- drawing his 2-hander)- "Mate, *tha'ss* a knife!"
Check *this* out (courtesy: Independent Online).
'Deluded': Extraordinary attack on Blair by Cabinet
'Self-indulgent' PM urged to 'end the pantomime' as
senior ministers meet to hasten his departure
By Francis Elliott, Whitehall Editor
Published: 03 September 2006
Tony Blair will be served notice to quit Downing Street
at a meeting of the Cabinet next week when senior
ministers plan to confront him over his refusal to commit
to a departure timetable.
One described Mr Blair this weekend as "deluded", while
another said he was being "self-indulgent". They are among
a growing number of cabinet ministers, some formerly loyal
to Mr Blair, who have concluded he must leave office
sooner rather than later if Labour is to have a chance of
winning a fourth term.
"This pantomime has to end or we are going to lose the
next election," said one last night.
Another was brutally dismissive of the Prime Minister's
attempt to "spray around policy initiatives" ahead of the
party's annual conference in Manchester. "Tony is deluding
himself if he thinks that anyone is listening to all this
stuff."
Senior ministers were speaking last night of "near-panic"
among MPs in marginal seats as Labour's poll ratings
plunge because of the in-fighting.
One said that Mr Blair was being "self-indulgent" in
seeking to bind the hands of his successor to ever-more
radical reforms of the public services .
A group of senior ministers is determined at a meeting of
a so-called "political Cabinet" next week to tell the
Prime Minister to his face that he must give a clear
timetable at the conference.
It will be the first time Mr Blair has met all his most
senior colleagues since his controversial handling of the
Lebanon conflict that led to near-mutiny.
His diminishing stock of political authority was laid bare
when ministers such as Jack Straw and Douglas Alexander
made clear their opposition to his hard-line stance.
Now he faces a full-scale revolt after suggesting that the
"largest part" of those MPs who want him to go also desire
a return to the beliefs and practices of "Old Labour".
The remark, made in his interview with The Times on
Thursday, was described as an "outrageous slur" by one of
Gordon Brown's key lieutenants. "Blair is doing the
Tories' dirty work for them."
Mr Blair's allies tried to cool tempers yesterday by
suggesting that the Prime Minister would announce his
departure ahead of the Scottish, Welsh and English local
authority elections in May.
But senior Labour MPs say they need a public commitment to
a timetable at the party's conference or they will begin
collecting support for a public call on Mr Blair to quit.
The fallout from his instruction to MPs to stop
"obsessing" about his departure showed little signs of
abating yesterday. He was dogged during a visit to
Edinburgh by reporters' shouted questions on his exit
plans.
And the internal battles convulsing Labour were set to
intensify last night with fresh interventions from Ed
Balls, Mr Brown's most trusted adviser on one side, and
Alan Milburn, an ultra-Blairite, on the other.
Mr Balls is set to repeat his warning to Mr Blair that he
must not make the mistake of Margaret Thatcher by staying
too long in power.
e.p.1
- Justice Louis Brandeis
---
Expect little from life and get more from it.