ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
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| Seamus Milne |
There is currently an article in the Comment section of the Guardian by
Seamus Milne.
This piece is intended to expose the wicked machinations of western
governments, particularly the UK and US. Forget Assad’s torture factories, the
shelling and bombing of his own citizens, (long before any external
intervention), and the continuing supply of sophisticated weaponry from Russia;
the real villains are, you guessed it, David Cameron and Barack Obama. I quote:-
‘The Assad regime bears responsibility for that, of course, [acts of violence
against its own citizens] But so do those who have funded and fuelled the
war, bleeding Syria and weakening the Arab world in the process. The demand by
Cameron and other western politicians to increase the flow of arms is reckless
and cynical.’
From reading this you would not guess that the one person who has done more
than an other ‘fund and fuel the war’ has been the Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Russian support for the Assad regime during the critical days
when street protests threatened to create a critical mass, ensured Assad’s
survival and consequently created the conditions for civil war. The subsequent failure of Western
governments to provide significant support for those seeking to overthrow this
disgusting regime in the early days of the conflict also created the conditions
for a long conflict and the entry of anti western Islamacist forces that where
willing to provide such support. [1]
Where during this period were the protests outside the Russian embassy
called by the ‘Stop the War’ crowd?
The logic of Mr Milne’s Argument is that Assad should have been allowed to
put down the popular uprising two years ago, though he knows that even his
friends in the ‘Stop the War’ crowd find this difficult to say openly. So he
couches his arguments in weasel words about negotiation, whilst omitting the fact
that the deal breaker is Assad’s removal. Russia has already vetoed that and
the rebel’s will not countenance his remaining in power. Can you blame them?
The dishonesty of this piece is a further demonstration of just how deep the
rot has gone in much of the so called ‘left.’ It is a prime example of the
Alice Through the Looking Glass world they inhabit and of a mindset that
borders on the pathological. In this world Britain still lords it over the
oppressed people of the Earth, though the USA is now the real villain.
In any
conflict the first question to arise is, which side is the US likely to back?
Once this question is resolved all the other pieces fall into place; thus from
Kuwait to Bosnia and the Balkan conflicts, to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Mali and
the Sudan, no matter how brutal, disgusting or totalitarian those fighting
against the west, they must be supported. The degree of dishonesty and sophistry
employed in advancing these causes would even impress a Henry Kissinger.[2]
I first came across this mindset in its most developed form during the
second Iraq war. This was in the form of the ubiqitious ‘but;’ thus you could state that
Hussain had used Chemical weapons…”but we supplied them,” or you could point to
his war of aggression against Iran…”but we supported him.” These non sequitars
were supposed to seal any argument. And indeed I began to realise confronting this
kind of mindset was rather like debating a paranoid szhizophrenic. Mr Milne may believe his arguments to be unassailable, this is one
delusion however that must not, under any circumstances, be humoured.
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