Hindering

[poliphilo]

John Reid, the thuggish Minister for Defence (meaning Minister for War) has said that the Geneva Convention needs to be revised because it "hinders" British troops.

Yes, indeed; that's what the Geneva Convention is for, John; it's specifically designed to "hinder" the military.

I was thinking the Barbarian was at the gates. I was wrong. The Barbarian is through the gates and sitting in an office in Whitehall.

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

And the third or fourth largest party in Denmark (varies from poll to poll) wants to disregard the human rights convention so that Denmark can toughen our imigration policy. there's something rotten not only in the state of Denmark, but in Europe.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We have been corrupted by Bush and his gang.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I actually don't think that's true. In Denmark, at least, this trend has been going on since the mid-90's; I remember Le Nouvel Observateur ran a spread on rising Danish nationalism in 1997 while i lived in Paris, and while both the Danish and British governments are a touch too friendly with Bush et al, I hardly think that can be entirely blamed on Bush or the US. We, the British and Danish electorates, have voted these governments in power. The problem with Danish politics lies with the Danish population and the Danish politicians, rather than with some Texan git.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think we have been bamboozled and frightened into adopting the post-911 mindset and co-opted into fighting a series of American wars as America's satraps.

We elected Blair in 97 because he seemed like an exciting alternative to the weariness and seediness of the Major administration. We liked his apparent idealism and hadn't realised just how dangerous it would be.

We have gone on returning him to power because the Tories fell apart and there hasn't really been an alternative.

Barbarians

[methodius.livejournal.com]

The barbarian passed through the gates long ago, on the way to bomb Belgrade, Basra and Baghdad.

I have not forgottan how the belligerent Mr Blair indignantly denounced as "barbaric" the setting off of three crude nail bombs in London in the same week that people acting under his orders dropped fragmentation bombs in the marketplace in Nis -- weapons designed to do the same thing as the nail bombs, but far more efficiently.

Re: Barbarians

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

People like Blair don't seem to be able to make the connection.

They seem to think there's a moral difference between the bomb planted by a "terrorist" and the bomb dropped from the air.

I find him terrifying: a dictator and war criminal who believes he's doing God's will.

Re: Barbarians

[methodius.livejournal.com]

And you can't blame Bush for that. He supported Albright's war against Yugoslavia before Bush was in power. Looks like he's keen to jump into any war going.

He wasn't conned into being a war monger by anybody, it just seems to come naturally.

Re: Barbarians

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe he's waged more wars than any British prime minister in recent history.

I'm afraid he sees himself as a Christian warrior, commissioned by God to set the world to rights.

Re: Barbarians

[methodius.livejournal.com]

In the Orthodox Church we have a word for that: prelest, or in Greek, plani. It means something like "spiritual delusion". Western modernity, since the Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment, has propagated the cult of individualism, which has led to the idea of every man his own pope -- there's no one around to offer a reality check, and see if that "commission by God" is true, and people like Tony Blair don't even see any need to check.

But in Red Square, right outside the Kremlin, is St Basil's Cathedral, with its fantastic ice-cream cone domes, which looks like an eleaborate ecclesiastical joke. It was built by Ivan Grozhny ("the Terrible") to commemorate one of his military victories, but the name it is most commonly known by commemorates St Basil, the fool for Christ who sat at his gate and denonced Ivan's injustices and oppression.

If anyone like St Basil tried to get anywhere near Tony Blair he'd probably be shot seven times in the head at close range.

And "Tony the Terrible" sounds like an appropriate epithet for his historical legacy.

[paroxysma.livejournal.com]

We have the same problem in the United States. We have a spoiled little boy who likes to play with toy soldiers running our country.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They're all in it together; your lot, our lot. It makes me mad.

[methodius.livejournal.com]

"My Daddy had a war so I want one too"

[paroxysma.livejournal.com]

Precisely.