The Cruise Missile Liberals David Edwards, Media Lens, Britain, 9 March 2014 News that 2015 might turn out to be the first year since 1914 when British troops will not be fighting a war somewhere in the world appeared to come as a shock to many. But in fact, the British record of Permanent War stretches back much further. Seumas Milne commented in the Guardian that empire forces 'were involved in violent suppression of anti-colonial rebellions every year from at least the 1760s for the next 200 years, quite apart from multiple other full-scale wars'. One might think a rational society would try to identify and counter the institutional forces responsible for hundreds of years of continuous war. Basic questions could be asked: Who actually shapes foreign policy? What are their goals? How much influence does the public really have? In our society, as we have noted, defence issues are barely mentioned at election time, while foreign policy options among the major parties are limited to pro-war choices. If the great and good of politics, academia and media are to be believed, there is nothing to discuss, UK policy has always been guided by humanitarian values. Winston Churchill described 'the reputation of the British empire as a valiant and benignant force in the history of mankind'. (Quoted, Mark Curtis, The Ambiguities of Power, Zed Books, 1995, p.1) A professor of government at the University of Manchester described Britain as 'a defender of political freedom'. (Ibid, p.2) Shortly after Nato began pounding Afghanistan in 2001, the Guardian's editors commented on a speech by Tony Blair: 'The core of the speech - intellectual as well as moral - came when he contrasted the west's commitment to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties and the terrorists' proven wish to cause as many civilian casualties as possible... Let them do their worst, we shall do our best, as Churchill put it. That is still a key difference.' (Leader, 'Blair plays it cooler - A new tone, but few new answers,' The Guardian, October 31, 2001) Alternatively, we can turn to the official record. Released government documents indicate, for example, the thinking behind the mid-twentieth century wars in Southeast Asia. The UK, the US and France agreed that it was 'important for the economy of Western Europe that Western Europe trading and business interests in Southeast Asia should be maintained', since it was 'rich in natural resources and certain countries in the area at present produce surplus foodstuffs'. (Quoted, Ibid, p.20) Similarly: 'The position of the rulers of the Persian Gulf might be thought of as that of independence, regulated, supervised and defined' by the British government. (US Department of State memorandum, 15 March, 1946. Quoted, Ibid, p.22) Similar perspectives and motives for 'intervention' are revealed wherever we look and universally labelled 'defence of democracy'. From: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#starred/144da960d1fef8d6 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
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