- There's an old story about Oliver Cromwell. After he
had taken the Irish town of Drogheda the citizens were brought to the main
square. Cromwell announced to his lieutenants: "Right! Kill all the
women and rape all the men." One of his aides said: "Excuse me,
general. Isn't it the other way around?" A voice from the crowd called
out: "Mr Cromwell knows what he's doing."
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- That voice is the voice of Tony Blair -- "Mr Bush
knows what he's doing."
-
- The fact is that Mr Bush and his gang do know what they're
doing and Blair, unless he really is the deluded idiot he often appears
to be, also knows what they're doing. Bush and company are determined,
quite simply, to control the world and the world's resources. And they
don't give a damn how many people they murder on the way. And Blair goes
along with it.
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- He hasn't the support of the Labour Party, he hasn't
the support of the country or of the celebrated "international community".
How can he justify taking this country into a war nobody wants? He can't.
He can only resort to rhetoric, cliche and propaganda. Little did we think
when we voted Blair into power that we would come to despise him. The idea
that he has influence over Bush is laughable. His supine acceptance of
US bullying is pathetic.
-
- Bullying is, of course, a time-honoured US tradition.
Addressing the Greek ambassador to the US in 1965, Lyndon Johnson said:
"F*** your parliament and your constitution. The US is an elephant.
Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows continue itching
the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephant's trunk, whacked
good."
-
- He meant what he said. Shortly afterwards the colonels,
supported by the US, took over in Greece and the Greek people spent seven
years in hell.
-
- As for the US elephant, it has grown to be a monster
of grotesque and obscene proportions.
-
- The terrible atrocity in Bali does not alter the facts
of the case.
-
- The "special relationship" between the US and
the UK has, in the last 12 years, brought about the deaths of thousands
upon thousands of people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia. All this in pursuit
of the US and UK "moral crusade" to bring "peace and stability"
to the world.
-
- The use of depleted uranium in the Gulf War has been
particularly effective. Radiation levels in Iraq are appallingly high.
Babies are born with no brain, no eyes, no genitals. Where they do have
ears, mouths or rectums, all that issues from these orifices is blood.
-
- Blair and Bush are of course totally indifferent to such
facts, not forgetting the charming, grinning, beguiling Bill Clinton, who
was apparently given a standing ovation at the Labour Party conference.
For what? Killing Iraqi children? Or Serbian children?
-
- Bush has said: "We will not allow the world's worst
weapons to remain in the hands of the world's worst leaders." Quite
right. Look in the mirror chum. That's you.
-
- The US is at this moment developing advanced systems
of "weapons of mass destruction", and is prepared to use them
where it sees fit. It has walked away from international agreements on
biological and chemical weapons, refusing to allow any inspection of its
own factories.
-
- It is holding hundreds of Afghans prisoner in Guantanamo
Bay, allowing them no legal redress despite their being charged with nothing,
holding them captive virtually for ever.
-
- It is insisting on immunity from the international criminal
court, a stance that beggars belief but which is now supported by the UK.
The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
-
- Tony Blair's contemptible subservience to this criminal
US regime demeans and dishonours his country.
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-
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- Harold Pinter is a playwright, director, actor, poet
and political activist. This text was first delivered as a speech to an
anti-war meeting at the House of Commons
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