PAYING FOR THE WAR WITH NURSES AND TEACHERS!!!!

    
       Some updates on the financial cost of Cameron's Libyan caper, it seems that every Prime Minister needs a war. These figures are from defence analyst Francis Tusa's estimate gathered from Parliamentary Questions.

      The four RAF Tornado GR4s now based in Italy. Running costs are £35,000 an hour, once they are in the air. The Tornados fired Storm Shadow and possibly Brimstone missiles during their first two sorties, but the MoD won't say how many they used. Each missile costs £750,000 to £800,000.
      The 10 Typhoon fighters also in Italy, more expensive because they are new. The cost to fly them is thought to be £70,000 an hour, though that may reduce to £40,000 an hour the longer the operation goes on.
       The Trafalgar-class submarine HMS Triumph, which has been in the Mediterranean for more than a week. It has been firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at Gaddafi's air defence systems. Running a submarine costs up to £200,000 a day. Its cruise missiles cost £500,000 each.
      The navy's two frigates in the Mediterranean – HMS Cumberland and HMS Westminster. Running costs about £90,000 a day. HMS Cumberland was diverted to Libya on its journey home to be scrapped, so every day it is there is above and beyond budget.

     
       That's a lot of teachers and nurses and it will not stop the Libyans from killing Libyans, which can be added to those that are being killed and maimed by the compassionate West's weapons of mass destruction. I know that we are not getting figures of casualties, "collateral damage" but it is inconceivable that such weapons can be rained down on a large city, (Tripoli, population 1,065,405 (2006 census) night after night and the people are unscathed. But doesn't the West always fights clean wars, we never kill civilians, only combatants. Remember "Shock-and-Awe" in Iraq and the following slaughter across that country including Fallujah December 23, 2004?
      Forty odd years of us supplying Qaddafi with hi-tec weapons of mass destruction and then going in with ours to knock his out. No doubt after this is all over we will have to re-arm Libya, now that is good business.

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THE HAND OF HYPOCRISY.

     

      As Western Cruise missiles blast holes in Libya's infrastructure, killing Libyans to save Libyans, and possibly laying the ground work for a civil war, nobody is saying where they go from here. How long will the no-fly zone last, don't know. What do we do if the Libyans killing Libyans drags on in a long stalemate, do we send in the Western cavalry to take sides and give one side a wee push, more or less guaranteeing a prolonged civil war and possible occupation. Just to keep the peace mind you. As in Iraq and Afghanistan, the moral policemen are up to the necks in shit. The idea that this will be a nice clean surgical operation with all of Libya being ever thankful to the West is an illusion. We have been “policing” Iraq since 1991 and Afghanistan since 2001. When does our involvement in Libya end and at what cost? Not counting the Libyan deaths and injured, there is already one American plane down with one pilot missing, and we have just started.

        Setting aside the human horror of what is happening in Libya and casting a glance at the financial side, there must be questions. Each time a Tornado jet runs a sortie it takes approximately £30,000 of fuel. How many have we run so far? If a Tornado is brought down there is the £50 million cost of a replacement. Each cruise missile that is fired cost £500,000. There have been more than 110 cruise missiles fired so far. A quick calculation comes up with £55 million already up in smoke and misery from cruise missiles alone, with the arms industry rubbing its hands at the thought of all those being replaced. I don't know what proportion of those cruise missiles were fire by the UK but I reckon that we would fire our fair share. Then of course we have our submarines out there in the Med. and I have no doubt our boys wanted a shot at firing their gear off, I wonder what it cost to send a sub to the Med. and then fire off a few £500,000 missiles? While this little pygmy war is being played out in Libya, let's not forget our long running and on going £4 billion a year affair in Afghanistan.

       I know you can't put a price on human life but at a time when we in the UK are being faced with draconian cuts to every fibre of the social structure of our society, wage cuts and mass unemployment, is this the right policy. Can we in the UK really afford to strut around the world bombing democracy into other countries? When we look at the figures of death and misery resulting from our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan can Libya be justified?

       Meanwhile in nearby Yemen and Bahrain protesters are being brutally crushed but no call for a no-fly zone. Well Bahrain is really a US naval base, which is very handy to have so near all that oil, and Bahrain is also on best buddy terms with that other autocratic despot regime, Saudi Arabia. So we don't want to upset that little power structure do we? Then of course no call for a no-fly zone over Israel while it carried out its policy of genocide in Gaza 2008/09

 

      It's all hypocrisy and is really about oil, resources and power, the Western powers have proved often enough that when it comes to the people of the Middle East and Africa, they don't give a shit.

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PLAYING FAVOURITES!!!

    The absolute monarch of Bahrain, King Hamad, violently crushes peaceful protesters, in the process dozens are killed and he claims that a foreign plot has been crushed. Across the way, Qaddafi claims that the protesters are a foreign plot and starts to crush them violently. In the first case the West nods approvingly, and in the second, it starts to bomb the shit out of the country. Could it be that the Western imperialist powers are playing favourites? To the Western powers are the protesters in Libya worth more than the protesters in Bahrain? We can stand by and watch one group being brutally crushed but must run in and save the second group. Though the saving may leave their country torn asunder and could lead to civil war for some years to come. Of course that would be fine by the West, it could set up a puppet government and take control of the oil, just like Iraq. Am I being a little too cynical?

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THE CARING COMPASSIONATE WEST!!!

      
         No matter what argument that is put forward to justify the bombing of Libya, the REALITY is that it will be ordinary Libyan people that will die, young, old and innocent. Our wonderful cruise missiles do not just hit bad guys and they go off with a helluva big bang, we can be sure that and one certain beneficiary will be the arms industry. Of course, to the politicians sitting ever so safe in their corridors of power, these lives are a price worth paying!! The world is peppered with dictators that repress “their” people with a vicious violence, some we put there and some we help stay there and most of them are armed to the teeth by the same benevolent West, and of course we do lots of profitable business with them. So now the West has placed its bets and we have Libyans cheering and Libyans dyeing. The result will be a divide country potholed by cruise missiles and pockmark with graves of innocent Libyans. I object very strongly to being labelled as a Gaddafi supporter because I oppose the bombing. Is brute force the only answer that the so called moralistic and civilised West has to these problems? If so can we really call ourselves “civilised”? It is surely naive to think that the West is pouring all this money and blasting off all these very expensive missiles out of compassion for the Libyan people. We have proved in the past the the West doesn’t give a shit about the people of the Middle East nor North Africa, and many other places. The ordinary people of the West might care, but the Western state apparatus? Don’t make me laugh, it’s not funny.

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THE DOGS OF WAR SMELL BLOOD.

STOP THE WAR COALITION   19 March 2011

Email office@stopwar.org.uk
Tel: 020 7801 2768
Web: http://stopwar.org.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/STWuk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition

EMERGENCY PROTEST:
HANDS OFF LIBYA: STOP THE BOMBING NOW
SUNDAY 20 MARCH 3-4PM
DOWNING ST, WHITEHALL, LONDON

     Britain and the USA have bombed Libya with more than one hundred Tomahawk  cruise missiles. These are not precision guided weapons but weapons of mass destruction that will create many civilian casualties in Libya. The United Nations resolution authorising a no-fly zone begins as it will continue, with a full-scale military attack on the country.

   

       Stop the War condemns this barbarous attack which will result, not in protecting the people of Libya, but in enslaving them under the domination of the West. We know only too well the death and destruction that imperialism has brought to the peoples of the region. We call on all those who oppose these attacks to demonstrate at Downing Street at 3pm on Sunday 20 March.

SOLIDARITY

LOCAL STOP THE WAR GROUPS

     We are asking all local Stop the War groups around the country to call protests in their area. If you would like to be involved in local protests where you live, contact your nearest Stop the War group: SEE http://bit.ly/dRSlpl

     A leaflet putting the case for non-intervention and a petition, initiated by Tony Benn, John Pilger and others, are both available to download for printing, here:

LEAFLET: http://tinyurl.com/6henp2l

PETITION: http://tinyurl.com/6z9lk2x

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MORE ON WESTERN IMPERIALISM.

More on the West blood lust for military action in Libya. We are eager to fight those we arm to stop them using the arms that we gladly sold them, like they say, "Business is business".



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THE BENEVOLENT UK STATE MACHINE!!!

   
   Here we go again, the selfless British state rushing in for the good of the Libyan people, that wonderful honourable, benevolent state that only thinks of the well being of people across the globe, it has no financial, political or commercial interest in these actions. I'm sure the Iraqi and the Afghan people will have a different view.  Our arms industry seem to make a fortune selling all manner of arms to brutal distators and then our state sends in our young people to destroy them. Then of course we have to sell the new regime more arms. Jeremy Corbyn MP: Speech in House of Commons debate on Libya, 17 March is worth listening to, a view that will resonate with most thinking people.

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