The Politics of Dancing

On Newsnight last week the blustering Galloway sought to present himself as a supporter of the Syrian people, portraying his support for the Assad regime as part of ancient history. He got away with it as a consequence of the intervention of Diane Abbot. Consequently in the interest of furthering public knowledge I reproduce e-mails between Mr Galloway and Bouthaina Shaaban who serves as media adviser to Assad. These are e-mails that Mr Galloway thought would never see the light of day. (Errors of spelling and grammar have not been corrected). The following is the original correspondence between George Galloway and Bouthaina Shaaban: From: b.shaaban@mopa.gov.sy Sent: Sun 15/08/10 6:30 PM To: buthainak1@hotmail.co.uk Fwd: VivaPalestina5 convoy to Gaza  Your Excellency dear Ambassador and honourable lady Dr Shaaban, Assalam o Aleukum. Thank you for your beautiful reply. I knew that I could rely on you and the last Arab country in this historic endeavour. Given the shortness of t...

The Red Cross and Red Crescent are still kept out as Assad’s death squads finish off their work in the Baba Amr district of Homs, which has been subjected to a month-long bombardment by Syrian forces. The misnamed Stop the War Coalition can however chalk this up as one campaign victory, since they have campaigned throughout against any form of foreign intervention. I look forward to a statement on their website boasting of their success. There is a piece on their website by someone called Matt Carr who writes a blog called the infernal machine,   http://www.infernalmachine.co.uk/ , which talks about intervention in Syria in the context of The battle of Omdurman! I kid you not. What on earth can you say of people who write this kind of drivel other than this is the kind of drivel that they write?   Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.

Watching reports and horrific descriptions of the situation in Homs in Syria after Assad was given the green light by the Russian and Chinese veto, a bombardment with some parallels to that inflicted on Gaza by the Israeli’s. What of the reaction of the misnamed Stop the War Coalition, are they demonstrating outside the Syrian embassy? Calling for action against the Assad regime? Are they holding candle lit vigils, signing petitions against the violence of the Assad regime, demanding a stop to this war? No, I quote:- ‘ We therefore oppose any foreign attempts to create an unrepresentative “government-in-exile”, which would have no purpose beyond further legitimising the case for military intervention. World opinion, as expressed at the United Nations, is also clearly against any interference in Syria, with China, Russia, India and Brazil among those opposed.’ So there you have it, our self styled left wing peace loving radicals stand shoulder to shoulder with the reactionary reg...

From the Stop the War website:- ‘The killing of Muammar Gadaffi in Sirte has been marked by a round of celebration by western governments over their intervention in Libya. As with the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, it will be described as a turning point and a further victory in the seemingly endless 'war on terror'. There is little reason for the triumphal. Nato's war on Libya was not a 'humanitarian intervention' but a war for regime change -- illegal under international law. It was about the western powers attempting to regain control of the region in the face of the Arab uprisings across the Middle East. Yet despite its overthrow of the regime in Libya imperialism faces many problems in the region. In Libya itself it is already clear that there are many divisions between the different elements in the new government, and not at all clear that a stable regime will emerge. Even if it does, th...

There comes a point when polemic starts to feel redundant, irony superfluous, when people condemn themselves from their own mouths. I suspect we have reached that point already respecting the situation in Libya and the range of usual suspects opposed to any form of intervention. George Galloway has long passed the point at which he has become a parody of himself. Some have accused him of being two faced; this does Mr Galloway a disservice, Mr Galloway is multi faceted, able to adopt both face and tone to whatever audience he is speaking, thus when addressing autocratic gangsters in the arab world both face and tone are both deferential and obsequious, in the US he adopts his ‘ more in sorrow than anger’ tone, whilst addressing a so called ‘left’ audience in the UK he becomes Daniel defying Goliath, all the time slipping the wad of notes supplied by the Iranian propaganda service of Press TV deftly into his back pocket. A man so corrupt that he cannot pass a flooding gutter ...

From the so called ‘Stop the War Coalition’ website:- ‘We can best discharge [our responsibility] it by demanding that the government at long last takes its hands off the Middle East and its people, leaving them to settle accounts with their own rulers’ Well I rather think at present we are watching the government of Libya settle accounts with the unhappy Libyan people and unless there is serious external support Gaddafi will triumph. Now if you visit, holding your nose, the website of this unholy ‘coalition’, you can read more of this piffle, coached so shamefully in a language that speaks of ‘solidarity,’ which I imagine they think confirms their left wing credentials. Of course solidarity of this variety is about as plentiful as Monopoly money and just about as valuable.

Blood on Their Hands It is Mr Churchill, Prime Minister Atlee and President Truman, (President Roosevelt having escaped justice through the happy coincidence of his death), who should be on trial in Nuremberg . It is they who have blood on their hands. Despite no threat or attacks on Great Britain or France they conspired to launch an illegal war in defiance of the principles of the League Of Nations . Then despite being offered reasonable peace terms by Chancellor Hitler Britain continued to wage aggressive war, leading to the mass slaughter of Europe ’s Jewish population. Along with the imperialist American military, intent on world wide hegemony, we have invaded and destabilised Western Europe and devastated Germany , leaving a heap of rubble in which its starving citizens seek to eke out an existence. We say that there must be a full public enquiry and the war mongers put on trial!

Liam Fox the defence secretary, said he wanted troops out "as soon as possible" and insisted that British soldiers were not there "for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th- century country" [1] I hope the so called Stop the War Coalition are happy with their new comrade. [1] Guardian 23/o5/10

Tomorrow Tony Blair will appear before the Chilcot enquiry. In his particular case the hearing is being characterised as a trial. However Mr Blair has already been found guilty, by an unholy alliance of the majority of the print media, the liberal left, the stop the war coalition crowd and the far right. It is now axiomatic that a) Tony Blair Lied to get Britain into the war and b) The real cause of the war was oil. To even question these statements one is greeted by a sneering incredulity, particularly if you suggest that Mr Blair had good motives for his actions. No amount of evidence to the contrary will ever convince this crowd and so we get the ugly baying that Blair is a ‘war criminal’ who should face trial. This in a week when a very real war criminal Ali Hassan al-Majid, known to the world as "Chemical Ali" after he ordered the gassing of thousands of Kurds in the town of Halabja , has been hanged in Iraq . An event made possible by the actions of Mr Tony Blair.

During the sixties and seventies there used to be a standard line trotted out by the reactionary right when discussing the independence struggles in Africa, particularly Apartheid South Africa, this could be called the Daily Telegraph line. It used to go along the following lines, what needed to be understood that these were intensely tribal cultures; they were neither ready nor suited for western style democracy. The word primitive was rarely used, merely implied, the racism underlying this argument not even disguised. On question time a week or so ago the spokesperson for the Respect Party, commenting on the current struggles in Afghanistan clarified that what needed to be understood is that Afghanistan is an intensely tribal culture and that trying to impose western style democracy was inappropriate! Further comment feels redundant.

I’m reluctant to talk about Mr Galloway again, so much so that I have put off writing about him, but eventually you cannot ignore the smell in your nostrils. The last time I mentioned Mr Galloway’s name in what in fact was intended as an attack on the so called ‘Stop the War Coalition’ I got the usual response, along the lines of ‘that’s George for you a suitable case for satire!’ This of course is part of the image Mr Galloway likes to cultivate, Gorgeous George, the cheeky chappie , who likes appearing on Big Brother, jocular Georgie the Talksport shock Jock. There is however another George, this is the George who displays, in Christopher Hitchens words ‘ a different set of manners,’ when meeting Middle Eastern dictators such as the thuggish Mr Bashar al -Assad the President of Syria. Mr Galloway informs the Syrian people how fortunate they are to have such a ruler. Not fortunate enough however to vote for him in free and fair elections! Perhaps I should pass over the praise for ...

On yesterdays mornings news I heard that an al - Qaeda affiliated group has 'claimed responsibility' for the bombings that killed more than 155 people in Baghdad at the weekend. These groups are amongst those lauded by Mr Galloway as 'the resistance,' comparing them to the French Marquis in the last war! I also checked out the website of the misnamed 'Stop The War Coalition' to read their condemnation of this atrocity. There was of course nothing. One can barely imagine the outrage that would pour forth if any British or American action resulted in the death of over 155 innocent civilians. This of course only reflects the moral bankruptcy, phony radicalism and shallow mindset that passes for left wing thinking these days but there is also a stronger stench coming from this website, it is the stench of decay, the death of a long, noble, sometimes misguided tradition of opposition to war and violence. In place of this noble tradition of pacifism and non violen...

I have long thought about writing something about the ghastly Mr George Galloway, apologist for Saddam Hussein, suicide murderers and sundry other Islamacist fruitcakes. However where to start or then again why start at all, why spend words time and energy on this miserable little man? No, better direct the reader to the man himself. I particularly recommend the Galloway Hitchens debate on the Iraq war. However the most priceless moment occurs on the Bill Maher show when Hitchens makes a very unpolitically correct joke at the expense of suicide murderers. Galloway's face at this point gives the game away, for it is not the politically incorrect nature of the joke that truly offend him, it is the slight to suicide murderers whom Galloway has only recently been lauding as 'freedom fighters.' It is, to quote Hitchens a glimpse of 'the piggy face of fascism;' it is the face of a demagogue, a man who under no circumstances should ever be given access to anything remotely...

It would seem from a number of independent reports that the troop surge in Iraq has proved successful and certainly in a a number of formerly unsafe areas there is now a degree of stability only dreamt about even a year ago. Now the acid test, ask someone in the so called 'Stop The War Coalition' the following question, taking it as read that you opposed the original invasion, are you pleased about this? Stand back and wait for the torrent of weasel words and prevarications. Then ask yourself what really motivates these people.

One of the current mantras of those who would tend to characterise themselves as progressive or left is the ‘fact’ that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the cause for the radicalisation of Muslim youth and the resultant acts of mass murder committed in London and Madrid. This particular ‘truth’ has become so embedded that anyone who casts doubt upon it becomes immediately open to ridicule and open contempt. However if you point out that the 9/11 attacks occurred prior to either of these military campaigns the rules suddenly change and you are informed that Israel’s repression of the Palestinians and the situating of American troops on Saudi soil are the catalyst. No mention is made of the liberation of Kosovo or, somewhat the belated efforts by the Americans to halt Serb aggression against the predominantly Muslim Bosnian state. To understand the growth of radical Islam and its related offshoot Islamic terrorism one needs to go back way beyond 9/11 to the late 1960’s and the failur...