9/11 --- 12/16??

      Say 9/11 and everybody will know what you are referring to and as the 8th anniversary passes, heads of state will pass their comments similar to Tony Blair’s words, “the worst crime ever committed against humanity.” It was indeed a dreadful crime and many suffered and died with many more carrying the loss of loved ones for the rest of their lives. On the pretext of hunting for its perpetrators it also unleashed brutal violence and wars in other countries backed up with all the might of the Western world. That violence still continues in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, there is no comments from Western leaders on the brutal crime committed on 12/16?? December 16. 2009 will mark the 11th. Anniversary of an even more brutal crime against humanity than 9/11. A crime that caused more deaths and more destruction than 9/11. It will pass without any wall-to-wall media coverage, without the bowed heads of those political leaders in the West, I doubt if it will even get a mention. Its perpetrates will not be hunted down and brought to justice. Why, because they were Western leaders and not a vague foreign organisation. Three years before 9/11, December 16, 1998, Clinton and Blair set in motion Operation Desert Fox and for four horrendously terrifying nights, defenceless Iraqi civilians were brutally assaulted by an invisible enemy. 10,000 people died, mostly women and children, more than three times the number on 9/11. The “military” targets that were obliterated included Baghdad’s residential area, Hal Adel, the Baghdad Museum of Natural History, Baghdad’s Teaching Hospital, the Tikrit Teaching Hospital and the home of Saddam’s daughter Hala.What rained down on the civilians of Iraq those four nights included, 325 cruise missiles launched by the US Navy, 100 launched by the US Air Force. On top of this UK and US bombers flew 650 sorties. The pentagon had calculated on a “medium-based scenario” of 10,000 civilian deaths. A calculated, state perpetrated kill that had no legal sanction, no UN mandate, no form of international authorisation. Tony Blair has often used 9/11 as a support for the attack on Iraq, but Operation Desert Fox, 16/12 was three years before 9/11. Why are the perpetrators of the 16/12 “the worst crime ever committed against humanity” not being hunted down and brought to justice, we know who they are and where they are.

Originally printed in the Anarchist Critic Sept. 08 but worth printing again.

SCOTTISH UNEMPLOYMENT.

Those who still hold the illusion that capitalism brings prosperity to all should perhaps look at the unemployment figures for Scotland. In a written answer in the Scottish Parliament Jim Mathers wrote that the figure for those 18 to 25 years old in the Eastend of Glasgow who were unemployed and not in education or training in 2008 was 32%. The figure for Shettleston and Baillieston for the same year was 37.4%.

For those unemployed, not in education or training between 16 and 19 in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland in 2008 it was a staggering 24.6%. The 2008 figure for Scotland as a whole for those 16 to 19 it comes in at 11.9%. For the Scottish population as a whole it is approximately 6%.

With those in employment struggling, and in some cases in poverty, we can be assured that each percentage point in these unemployment figures represents real poverty. Real poverty in the midst of arrogant flaunted wealth of the “elite” parasites that infest our society, and this will continue as long as we follow meekly the party political system and the corporate greed mongers. What the system has in store for us as it tries to “fix it” is higher unemployment and savage cuts to the social services, while they weave the illusion that happiness can be purchased in the high street and the only way to save the world is to feed the consumer machine.

Stealing somebody's land

What other country could get away with continually stealing another country's land. It seems that Israel can do as it wishes with its neighbours land and the world looks the other way. Have a look at the map showing Palestinian land in 1960 and compare what they have today, it is a mere fraction and the land grab goes on.

Construction of settlements began in 1967, shortly after the Middle East War

Some 280,000 Israelis now live in the 121 officially-recognised settlements in the West Bank

A further 190,000 Israelis live in settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem

The largest West Bank settlement is Maale Adumim, where more than 30,000 people were living in 2005

There are a further 102 unauthorised outposts in the West Bank which are not officially recognised by Israel

The population of West Bank settlements has been growing at a rate of 5-6% since 2001.

Israel has no intentions of stopping until there is no Palestinian land left and their dream of a "Greater Israel" will be a reality at the expense of the people of Palestine. I believe it is called genocide.

ann anrky's home.

a lot of snouts at the trough!!

The number of politicians and their advisers on the UK public purse has now past the 29,000 mark. Last year’s cost of this feeding frenzy was almost £500 million. In the last 30 years this is about a 10 fold increase on the number of parasites that we feed. That special breed of ermine parasites called the "Lords" for the year 07/08 cost you approximately £20 million in expenses, salaries etc. Your MEP’s salaries cost you almost £5 million plus expenses, which the European Parliament refuses to publish.
Ask yourselves, is there a better and more cost effective way of organising our communities?. Do we need to feed this plague of parasites and keep them in luxury so that we can have boring jobs with crap wages? Think outside the box.

WAR

The death of Harry Patch, the last survivor from the 1914/18 trenches has given the state another opportunity to glorify war and call for blind patriotism. By state propaganda via its institutions and the media the “Great” war has become the Great lie, an illusion of the “Glorious Dead”. Anything associated with it becomes a grandiose spectacle of empty pomp, another attempt to legitimise the brutality of war.
As long as we attach words like honour and glory to what is no more than state instigated cold-blooded organised brutality on a mammoth scale, then it will never end. Modern war is a place where your actions kill the elderly, the innocent, women and children, all in the name of the corporate world and state power, war is never glorious. To talk in terms of glory regards war only encourages another generation of youth to step forward and carry on that carnage, to the benefit of the power mongers with no gain to the ordinary people of either side. Perhaps we should listen to the words of someone who was there, Harry Patch, when he says, “War is organised murder and nothing else.”
If we wish an end to war we must first “tell it like it is”, in all its pointless savage, indiscriminate, brutal slaughter, lay bare all the anguish and misery heaped on the ordinary people of both sides. Then we must attack the root cause, state power and corporate greed, creating a society based on mutual aid, voluntary co-operation and free association. A society that sees to the needs of all our people on principles of sustainability, free ourselves from the grip of those parasites the shareholders and their lapdogs, the “political parties” with their state institutions.