-Caveat Lector- ----- Original Message ----- From: LM <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: LM-commentary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, April 16, 1999 5:10 AM Subject: LM COMMENTARY: New Britain's moral crusdae/04-16-99 : : 'The war against the Serbs is about projecting a self-image of the ethical : New Britain bestriding the world. It is a crusade' : : Mick Hume, LM editor : : John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, can denounce 'Mr : Milloffosoffeffic', but he cannot pronounce him. Robin Cook, the foreign : secretary, seems to think that Kosovo is being ravaged by President : Milosevic's 'Siberian forces'. Mr Cook has also assured us that he 'knows' : that the Serbs executed 20 Albanian teachers in front of their pupils in : Goden. What he does not appear to know is that Goden is a village with just : 200 inhabitants - yet, it seems, with a teacher/pupil ratio beyond even the : fantasies of the NUT conference fringe. : : The Balkans may no longer seem so faraway, but these are still countries of : which our government knows little and cares less. So what did Tony Blair : mean when he told parliament that the war is being fought 'for a moral : purpose as much as a strategic interest'? What moral purpose moved Mr Blair : to become the first Labour prime minister to lead Britain into a major : international war, involving democratic socialist air strikes on passenger : trains, TV transmitters and homes? : : The war's moral purpose clearly has little to do with the welfare of the : region's peoples. Kosovo's Albanians are a hapless army of televisual : victims whose suffering provides a convenient pretext for war. NATO : contemptuously bombed their towns and cities. Then, when the air strikes : precipitated a predictable humanitarian crisis, the 'shocked' West rushed : in news crews to capture the refugees' tears - 'say "rape camp" for the : cameras'. : : The true position that the Kosovo Albanians hold in Britain's official : affections is best revealed by the magical transformation these people : undergo when the lucky few step off the ferry at Dover. Under the terms of : New Labour's asylum laws, it's goodbye refugees from hell, hello dirty : scrounging gypsies. : : The 'moral purpose' of Mr Blair's war is not to be found in the Balkans, : but at home. As ever, foreign policy is an extension of domestic politics. : The war against the Serbs is primarily about giving Mr Blair's government : an aura of moral authority and a sense of mission. It is about projecting a : self-image of the ethical New Britain bestriding the world. It is a crusade. : : Like their medieval predecessors, new Labour's crusaders seem almost : entirely ignorant of who they are off to fight and why. It is a case of : 'insert appropriate enemy here', be it President Saddam Hussein or Slobodan : Milosevic. All that matters is to find a suitably ugly infidel against whom : to prove their own righteousness. Since the government finds it difficult : to forge a moral consensus in Britain on everything from genetic : engineering to road-building, it eagerly seizes opportunities to lay down : the law about what is Right and Wrong on the world stage. : : This is what Mr Blair meant when he announced that the war against the : Serbs is 'no longer just a military conflict. It is a battle between Good : and Evil; between civilisation and barbarity'. Implicit in this statement : is that, as a counterpoint to the Evil Mr Milosevic, Mr Blair is a force : for Good in Britain and around the world. New Labour has appointed itself : saviour of civilisation, on a noble mission to re-educate the barbarians. : : The self-image of New Britain which Mr Blair's crusade seeks to endorse is : captured by touching pictures of British Army officers bottle-feeding : Albanian babies and brushing the hair of young refugee girls separated from : their parents. This is a nanny state with a difference, claiming the right : to act in loco parentis for all those it deems deserving. Armed with a : brick of moral superiority in her handbag, Clare Short, the international : development minister, can bully Macedonian border officials about not : acting like civilised Europeans. And behind her, an army of radical : activists, actors, journalists and others in search of a cause with which : to make themselves feel better, have signed on for new Labour's religious war. : : As a new crusade, Mr Blair's war need not be restrained by the rules of : realpolitik. All that matters is that Something Must Be Done, and let's : worry about the consequences later. The out-of-control character of this : adventure raises serious questions about where it all might end. : : No doubt Mr Blair and his followers sincerely believe their war is a just : moral cause. After all, the righteous (or in this case the self-righteous) : can do no wrong. But those who think that anything goes so long as the : Kosovo Albanians are saved might remember what happened to previous victims : picked by Western liberals to justify 'humanitarian' interventions. They : were dropped when the moral roadshow moved on. Anybody seen an Iraqi marsh : Arab lately? : : This article was originally published in The Times (London) on 15 April 1999. : : ----------------------------- : : Mick Hume will be speaking at the launch meeting of Journalists Against War : in the Balkans on Monday 19 April at 7.30pm. Other speakers include: : journalists John Pilger and Phillip Knightley, Tim Gopsill, editor of The : Journalist, Tony Benn MP, and Richard Keeble, senior lecturer in journalism : at City University. : : The meeting will take place at The Freedom Forum, Stanhope House, Stanhope : Place, London W2 2HH. (Nearest Underground station: Marble Arch). For more : information, phone Richard Keeble on (0171) 477 8225 or (01223) 893 675, or : Tim Gopsill on (0171) 843 3701. : : : ------------------------------------------------------------------ : If you are not on this mailing list and would like to join, create a mail : from the address at which you would like to receive the commentaries - : : To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> : Body: Subscribe LM-commentary Yourname : : You should receive a confirmation of your subscription to the list. : : To unsubscribe, create a mail from the address at which you are subscribed : and send to the same address with - : : To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> : Body: Unsubscribe LM-commentary : : If you have problems (un)subscribing, email: : <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. : : ------------------------------------------------------------------ : You don't have to keep this Commentary to yourself. 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