B vs. B vs. B
Even Tony Blair's wife
realizes he's not helping the "War on Terror" by being a lapdog to the thug in
the White House.
Tony Blair is beginning to speak like Bush.
From Tony Blair ’s monthly press conference:
Until we get rid of this frankly complete nonsense in trying to build some equivalence between what we are doing helping Iraqis and Afghans get their democracy and these people going in deliberately killing wholly innocent people for the sake of it, until we eliminate that we are not going to confront this ideology in the way it needs to be confronted and my point to you is this, it is time we stopped saying OK we abhor their methods, but we kind of see something in their ideas or maybe they have got a sliver of excuse or justification. They have got no justification for it.
Cherie Booth is a founding member of Matrix Chambers, London, from which she continues to practice as a barrister. The group specializes in human rights law.
She married a politician.
Cherie Booth , the prime minister's wife...warned Britain must not "cheapen" its reputation for civil liberties in response to the London bombings, while her husband called for tougher judicial attitudes.
In a speech in Malaysia, Ms Booth told an audience it would be "all too easy" to undermine Britain's "deeply held values" with an unduly hasty response to the attacks. The remarks could be interpreted as a shot across the government's bows as it drafts emergency anti-terrorism measures.
George Bush’s appointee for foreign agitprop is one of the advisors who pushed to sell him as a Texas good ol’ boy living on the family ranch -- which he bought in 1999.
Only two senators were in the room when Karen Hughes testified at her confirmation hearings. When it came time for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote on her nomination...she was easily approved.
Unfortunately, Hughes's most important constituents aren't going to respond to engagement and empowerment, let alone exchange and education, unless the latter involves those flight schools where they don't teach you how to take off or land. It has become clear in Iraq, if it wasn't already, that what we call the "war on terrorism" is in fact a small part of a larger intellectual and religious struggle within Islam, between moderates who want to live in modern countries, and radicals who want to impose their extreme interpretation of sharia, or religious law.
To fight these ideas, friendly state visits from Laura Bush will not suffice. Neither will more Britney Spears songs for Muslim teenagers, which is what we play on U.S.-funded Farsi and Arabic radio in the Middle East.
Anne Applebaum’s article in the Washington POST points out incompetence and hypocrisy; but, doesn’t examine the larger contradiction. Bush and Blair hope and believe that problems can be solved by throwing propaganda at them. That may work at winning elections. After all, people both sides of the pond are brainwashed from birth to believe in advertising -- even when we end up with Edsels and Microsoft Bob and the Millenium Dome. It’s a little more difficult to convince people that the dudes with guns who don’t speak your language are shooting up your neighborhood to make your life better. The same reason offered by the dudes with guns -- who do speak your language. Especially when some of them -- the Brits -- are back for the third time in living memory and your grandfather and father fought to kick them out.
We’ve started a civil war. The best-known modern example of “victory” won with outside troops involved Hitler and Franco.
Posted: Wed - July 27, 2005 at 07:08 AM