What Price A Smart Phone?

         That devastated area known as the Democratic Republic of Congo has saw its people mired in blood, deprivation and forced migration to avoid possible death or serious injury for years. Its people suffer poverty and deprivation as a way of life, the reason, it is a very rich country with incredible wealth in natural resources. I wrote the following piece five years or so ago, sadly the people are still living in a swamp of violence, death, deprivation and corruption, all because of that rich bounty of natural resources.

 

     It says a lot about our present economic system when you look around the world and find that countries with the richest natural resources have some of the poorest people on our earth. The Middle East is a wash with oil, which transfers into unbelievable wealth, but you can't say its people are all very rich. This pattern is repeated across the planet, another example is the Democratic Republic of Congo. A vast country, the second largest in Africa, the 11th largest in the world. As well as having coal, oil and diamonds, it is also the richest source of cobalt in the world. That rather dull looking material produces unimaginable wealth for the corporate world, but little for the people of the that country. In fact it is the opposite, this immeasurable wealth is probably the main cause of the suffering of the people.
         Because of the economic system that prevails today, blood will be shed to get control of that wealth. Sadly that blood is shed for the end product of things like mobile phones and laptops, and these are products that the vast majority of the people who produce that raw material will never see.
        If it was just dreadful working conditions and poor pay, that would be bad enough, but we are talking about millions dying and millions more suffering unimaginable violence. Since its bitter struggle to be free from the Western colonialists, the country has been blighted by violence, and at the root of that, is the fact that it is very rich in raw materials like cobalt.
      The Second Congo War, sometimes referred to as the “African World War”, as it involved around twenty armed groups and nine other African countries started in 1998. No doubt all eager to get a slice of that wealth. Although “Peace Accords” were signed in 2003, fighting continued in the east of the country through 2007. In this region the prevalence of all manner of sexual violence and rape is often described as the worst in the world. Since 1998 this conflict has claimed the lives of more than 5.4 million people. Though this was a brutal conflict, more than 90% were not killed in combat, they died from such things as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malnutrition, brought about by the usual companions of war, displaced populations ending up living in unsanitary, over crowed conditions, combined with lack of shelter, clean water, food and medical care. What is even more tragic, 47% of those deaths were children under five.
         The country also has great agricultural potential but this is being stifled by this conflict, which still continues. It is the struggle to control those vast mineral resources that drives this most brutal and savage conflict. Is your mobile phone worth it?
       Surely we have the imagination and the ability to devise a economic system whereby natural resources do not equate with misery, poverty, deprivation and bloodshed for the many, and unbelievable opulence for the few.

 

According to World Report:

         Throughout 2018, government officials and security forces carried out widespread repression and serious human rights violations against political opposition leaders and supporters, pro-democracy and human rights activists, journalists, and peaceful protesters. The December 30 elections were marred by widespread irregularities, voter suppression, and violence. More than a million Congolese were unable to vote when voting was postponed until March 2019 in three pro-opposition areas.

The same report also states: 

       That 4.5 million people are displaced from their homes due to clashes with armed groups and government forces. 13 million people need humanitarian assistance, and 140+ armed groups are active in Eastern Congo's North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

        This is the pattern of corporate capitalism world wide, resources are for the profit of the few, while the many suffer as the plunders violently squabble over the riches of the country.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk      

Whose Poem?

 

       I copied this poem from somewhere some time ago but can't remember where I got it from. I would love to know who the poet is/was, so if any of you poets and poetry lovers out there can throw me a wee bit of info on this I'd be delighted.

The Seeds We Sow. 

 
Because of my ignorance, I sowed the seeds of anguish,
while my self indulgence planted the vine of pain,
my disregard of the future laid sorrow’s foundation.
Suddenly the future slaps me in the face,
while my children eat the food of that anguish
and chew the leaves of that vine,
as the sea of sorrow washes around their feet.
My yesterday shaped their tomorrow
My ignorance laid their path
and now my self indulgence is their burden.
It would appear that,
these failings of the father are burdened on his family.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Cyborg Society.

       Have the Swedes gone mad, not only in having more trust in their government than most citizens of other countries, but by jumping on the "chipping" bandwagon with greater enthusiasm? The Swedes don't seem to carry all the fears that once chipped it can open doors for you, but perhaps it can also close doors, shutting you out of certain benefits etc. I suppose with a few tweaks it could also be used to track you. Of course when it comes to tracking in our society, we should not be too complacent. Forgetting the almost total CCTV surveillance here in the UK, as we walk around with our smart phones in our pockets/purses we are being tracked, your phone is an excellent tracking device. However, I feel a chip in your body to be able to get in touch with technical gadgets is a gateway for the authorities to continue their desire to control your every action. Is the chip the gateway to the cyborg society? Perhaps in the near future we will see lots of Swedes with small holes in their hands where they pulled the chip out.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Two Exclusive Clubs That Control Our Lives.

         Two groups that don't get much publicity but wield tremendous power over all of our lives. In plush hotels and marble corridors behind closed doors they shape the world to their advantage, carving up their plunder and driving towards ever greater monopolization, to the detriment of all of us, the ordinary people. 

      These two groups are populated by some of the most powerful people on the planet, and despite the fact that they shape our world, they are not voted there by you and me.

      The two groups are the Bilderberg Group, and the World Economic Form, (Wikipedia:

   The Transnational Institute describes the World Economic Forum's main purpose as being "to function as a socializing institution for the emerging global elite, globalization's "Mafiocracy" of bankers, industrialists, oligarchs, technocrats and politicians. They promote common ideas, and serve common interests: their own."[65] In combination with the self-styled International Organization pretensions, has led to the citing of the informal motto "the NGO of the status quo".
      A study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, investigated the sociological impact of the WEF. It concluded that the WEF do not solve issues such as poverty, global warming, chronic illness, or debt. They have simply shifted the burden for the solution of these problems from governments and business to "responsible consumers subjects: the green consumer, the health-conscious consumer, and the financially literate consumer." They merely reframe the issues, and by so doing perpetuate them. Al Gore is singled out as a prime example. Gore's speeches deliberately shift focus away from the problems of unregulated markets and corporate activities to one of moral pathologies, individual greed, etc. In doing so he is actually promoting the creation of new markets, and hence perpetuating the same old problems in a new guise. New markets will follow the same patterns as the old ones because the core problem of corporate governance is never addressed.[66]

          A couple of extracts from an article that throws some light on their aims and activities.

       These quotes from Tarcoteca counterinfo: 

     What is in common between the World Economic Forum and the Bilderberg Club?

          The World Forum Economic WEF held annually in Davos is the world's most important economic meeting. The Forum is made up of 1,000 corporations and companies. Among them, those who organize the event are 200 known as Industrial Partners, being 100 and only 100 selected corporations the Strategic Partners, corporations responsible to mark the annual and general objectives for the remaining 1000.
        The Bilderberg Club is an exclusive club that meets annually to no more than 150 political careerists, business, military and university professors representing corporations and most powerful states of the West.
       The goals of both organizations are basically the same: unifying political objectives, market sharing, organizing global cartels and monopolies and enhance their synergy. Also members of both repeated insistently. So a question must be asked, what is the relationship between them?

And:

The World Economic Forum WEF

      The World Economic Forum WEF was founded in 1972 as what could be considered a great Club with a very unique Convenction, the largest informal gathering of entrepreneur, politicians and military in the world. Operational management is carried out by the companies themselves through the Schwab Foundation.
        In 1000 companies Members only 200 are the organizers, and just 100 are the one who set the programs and plans. Corporations acquire membership by status, divided into three castes. In 2014:
      - Strategic Partners, setting the general and annual targets, are 100 corporations of which all but one are also Industrial WEF Members
     - Industry Partners are corporations organized industrial monopolies and cartels, price fixing and territorial spread . There are 200 corporations.
       - Members of the Forum are about 1000 companies, under the umbrella, protection and in close collaboration with Industrial partners. Are organized in cartels waiting to be absorbed by the monopolistic Industrial Members.
      There are more than 2500 guests from corporations and individuals, such as politicians, journalists, military cupula, high priests, celebrities, spot stars, NGOs ... anyone with particular interest for the Forum are allowed to participate.

And:

FEM: The Bilderberg Club Project

       In 1973 members of the exclusive Bilderberg Club, founded in 1953, set in motion a plan to expand its area of action and influence without increasing the number of members, which means increasing the number of monopolies among which should distribute the markets.
      The Forum allows direct contact to companies of their own industrial sectors, closing thousands of agreements, both commercial contracts as political. The results are better than expected, the Forum remains the global market under control, manipulated, and provides fresh meat in the form of easily absorbed young companies.
      Local industries, heirs of national oligarchies, room with transnational corporations spread until its absorption.
         The formal part of the Forum is filled with the usual meaningless media circus, necessary to divert attention from the real purpose of the meeting: organizing international cartels, signing contracts, concerting on prices and buying companies with monopolistic purposes.

We are at war!

The fascist forces organized around its banks continue with their plans to raze and predate the world, and us within!

We now have the tools to get rid of their yoke. Let’s use them!

Organize the Assemblies! For the Libertarian Communism!

Join the Resistance, contact your local groups!

Read the full article HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Nikos Romanos Released From Prison.

         The news that Nikos Romanos has been released from prison must bring pleasure to the hearts of all anarchists. I have no doubt the the life Nikos has lead up to now was greatly influenced by that event on a Saturday evening in 2008, when, as a teenager out at a cafe with his teenage friend Alexis Grigoropoulos and was by his side when Alexis was shot dead in cold blood by a police officer. No matter his political views before that event, it is obvious that such a cold blood murder of his teenage friend standing beside him, would sharpen his hate of a system that harboured and armed such cold blooded murderers.

This from AWM English:

• Posted on: 11 July 2019

        Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos was released from prison in Greece yesterday after six years of imprisonment.
        Nikos was a close friend of Alexis Grigoropoulos, an anarchist teenager who was murdered in Exarcheia by the police in 2008, sparking the Greek anarchist insurrection.
       Nikos Romanos was arrested in February 2013 with 3 more people and charged with attempted armed robbery at the Agricultural Bank and TT Hellenic Postbank in Velvento, Kozani.
        He was also sentenced to 18 years in prison for possession and placement of explosive devices in 2012. Among the “targets” was the home of the former Minister of National Defense, Giannos Papantoniou.
       The court that originally sentenced Romanos had not admitted any mitigating circumstances, including his good behaviour while in prison but this decision was later reversed by the Supreme Court. Taking the Supreme Court’s decision into account, a Five-member Criminal Appeals Court that reconsidered his case recently reduced his sentence by four years, to 14 years in prison.
      This made possible the release of Romanos, whose six years in prison counted “double” due to days of work done while incarcerated, during which time he had also finished high school and sat university entrance exams, getting a place in the Athens TEI School of Management and Economy.
       In an interview earlier this year, Nikos stated, “Our goal should be to sharpen the subversive struggle in every form it can take, to transform it into a real danger for every ruler. Part of this process is reconstructing our historical memory, so it can serve as a compass for the strategies of struggle we employ. We should start talking again about the organization of different forms of revolutionary violence, the practices of revolutionary illegalism, and the need to diffuse these in the movement in order to overcome the “politics” (in the dirty and civil meaning of the word) that have infected our circles… Whoever arms his conscience to overthrow the brutal cycle of oppression and exploitation will definitely be the target of vengeful and authoritarian treatment by the regime. This does not mean that we will give up our fight, in the courtroom or elsewhere.”
        Anarchists around the world will celebrate the release of Nikos, a comrade who has remained intransigent in his revolutionary values in the face of harsh repression from the state.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Our Quiet March To Fascism Continues.

         The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.   Benito Mussolini

         About six years ago I wrote a wee piece, "Inch By Inch We Lose Control", about how I believed we were taking a quiet march to fascism, the following is just a rehash of that article, as I believe we are still taking that quiet march in the same direction, though we are now much closer to that destination.

      Like a tape-loop message, I keep repeating, that we are marching quietly towards full blown fascism. It won't be recognised by the jackboots on the streets, nor by people being locked up for not living to the laid down norms. No, the state has moved on from from those days, though that method will still be held in reserve to be used if needed. It will be much more subtle than that, just slowly bit by bit, the state introducing ever stronger legislation to control every aspect of your life. The establishment making more and more arbitrary decision over our heads. They have already neutered the spontaneity of the trade unions by legislation, and tied protesters in legal loops. There other things that pass almost unnoticed, but show state power acting out what can only be called dictatorial acts, unchallenged. The ever creeping CCTV surveillance, advanced facial recognition, trolling through your phone and internet activity. The interweaving of state and corporate bodies in the interest of “growth” and to the detriment of the people. The introduction of the “minimum wage” gave the employers a low legal standard to adhere to and moved the struggle for improvement away from the employer to the state. Wars are and will continue to be waged, despite the will of the people saying otherwise, remember Iraq, millions on the streets in protest, but the war went ahead. Hardly the hallmark of democracy.
      Surreptitiously and brutally, the all knowing, all powerful, all for your own good, state, reaches in and controls every aspect of your life, for no other purpose than to safeguard its own power and privileges, and it can do it at will, through its various agents, backed up by its own biased judiciary. Who do you believe has the right, the benevolent character, and the humanity to take control of your life? No doubt your answer will be nobody, then why do we tolerate the faceless ones, behind closed doors in their marble corridors of power, to control all avenues of our life?

And another quote from one of the masters of fascism:

       It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity.

Benito Mussolini

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Walls And Messages.

       I tend to go on about a presence on the street and in our communities by means of the paper, leaflet, sticker and poster. However there is another method of keeping you message on the street, and it doesn't cost a printer, ink cartridges and paper. I am of course talking about graffiti. It seems, like the paper on the street, to have gone out of fashion. Done in the right places it can last much longer than the paper, though it doesn't find its way into people's houses, but it can make its way into their minds. For some of us, a wee walk down memory lane.

       From British Culture Archive:

Anarchists & Underdogs 

Images of Social & Political Graffiti in the UK.

       Long before the days of social media and online petitions graffiti has been used as an expressive display against the corporate and political powers that be. When I say graffiti, I don’t mean the multi-coloured three dimensional ‘tagging’ and artwork that you see aside canal towpaths and scrapyards, I’m talking about early graffiti, hand written messages and slogans written by anarchists and underdogs across the county.

      I picked up a couple of books on this subject ‘The writing on the wall’ by Roger Perry and ‘Graffiti’ by Richard Freeman. These books show a number of early images of graffiti dating from the 1960s through to the 1970s, a long time before the Bronx and subway inspired art reached our shores. Amongst a number of nonsensical written messages and slogans, there are pictures of graffiti which addresses racism, capitalism, greed and inequality, all daubed across the walls and bridges of our inner cities and suburbs.

These images got me intrigued and made me want to dig deeper and seek out more images of this nature. A high number of the images I came across were taken during the turbulent Thatcher years, where tensions were high and the disenfranchised expressed their anger and feelings towards the Tory government and authorities of the era.

There is something about the images below, a bold statement that makes you think deeper about the message being put across and what became of the people who wrote them.

Gallery

‘Black is Beautiful’ Moss Side, Manchester, 1969. Photo © Michael Ward

‘No Nazis in Bradford’, 1970s. Photo © Don McCullin

‘Eat The Rich’ Notting Hill, 1977. Photo © Roger Perry

Dalston, 1978. Photo © Alan Denney.

‘I Fought The Law’ Ladbroke Grove, London, 1977. Photo © Roger Perry

Notting Hill Gate, 1974. Photo © Roger Perry

‘Dada Is Everywhere’ Malden Road, Kentish Town, 1974. Photo © Roger Perry

‘Strike A Body Blow to Capitalism’ Kings Cross, London, late 1970s. Photo © Roger Perry

‘All Submission To Authority Humiliates All Exercise Of Authority Perverts’ Clapton, North East London. Photo © Roger Perry

‘Words Do Not Mean Anything Today’ Chalk Farm, Camden, 1975. Photo © Roger Perry.

Elgin Avenue, London, 1970s Photo © Roger Perry.

‘I Can’t Breathe’ London 1960s Photo © Richard Freeman

‘Anarchy Lives’ East London, 1976. Photo © Judy Greenway.

‘We Want Decent Housing’ Hackney, 1970s. Photo © Unknown.

‘4,000,000 Unemployed, Thatcher Is Guilty’ Brixton, 1984. Photo © Mark McNestry

‘Don’t Cry For Me Maggie Thatcher’ Isle Of Dogs, 1980s. Photo © Unknown.

‘Wake Up Maggie’ Merseyside, 1980s. Photo © Unknown.

Thatcher Is An Android, 1980s. Photo © Unknown.

‘Scargill Rules’ Taken during the 1984-1985 Miner Strike, Easington Colliery, 1984. Photo © Unknown.

‘Why Vote? Anarchy’ Toxteth, 1960s. Photo © Unknown.

‘High Poll Tax’ Bury, 1991.

‘Free Kuwait with Tiger Tokens’ Hulme, early 90s. Photo © Richard Davis.

‘Snort Cocaine For Kicks/Fight Racist Scum’ Hulme, 1985. Photo © Unknown

‘Pigs get the f*ck outta here’ Hulme 1980s Photo © Richard Davis.

‘Ouch!! I’ve Been Hit By The Poll Tax’ Hackney, 1990. Photo © David Corio

It’s Grim Up North, M1 Motorway, circa early 1990s. Photo via KLF online.

Follow British Culture Archive:
Instagram twitter Facebook
Support British Culture Archive here
2019 © British Culture Archive

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Imprisoned Within The Illusions Of Freedom.

        There is a tendency to refer to people in this society being free or in prison, as if there was a clear demarcation between the two. It is all a matter of degree, in this so called free democratic society. Our society comprises of two types of prisons. The vast majority are confined to the open prison, with its illusions of freedom. However, you are still confined within the framework of controls, managed by CCTV cameras that record your every move and build a record of where you’ve been who you met and when. Then there is the confines of the wage slavery, binding you to a particular routine to earn the right to live a precarious half decent life. Your quality of live is inextricably link to your market value on any particular day. You are obliged to be subservient to the established order of inequality, laid down by the wealthy and powerful powers that be. Otherwise you could be transferred to the other prison, the closed prison. This is the one for those who cannot accept the stifling demeaning restrictions of the open prison, those who dare to challenge the system and its inequality and exploitation. In this prison surveillance is total, complete with bars, locked cages, guards, restricted movement and deprived of family and friends. It is where you end up if you can’t or won’t play by the rules laid down for the smooth running of this unjust and exploitative system. In the open prison your potential is limited to your market value, in the closed prison you potential is demeaned and destroyed by deliberate policies to turn you into a subservient citizen, so that you can be returned to the open prison to be a marketable asset to the system.
        If we talk of tearing down the walls of prisons to create a free society, we will not only have to address the walls of the closed prison, but the walls of the open prison as part and parcel of the same struggle for freedom for all. The walls that prevent equality across the whole of society, the walls that prevent the freedom of unmonitored movement, the financial walls that prevent the full development of the potential of all in society, and governs and stifles the quality of each of our lives. Tearing down one prison’s walls without addressing the other, still leaves us imprisoned within the confines of an unequal and exploitative system.
        Let us in unison start to tear down walls and re-imagine justice.
And again, one of my favourite quotes:

"Ah Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!"

A quotation from Omar Khayyam's, Rubaiyat.

Let us with fate conspire.

 Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Prophet Or A Deamer?

     Probably in contrast to my previous piece.

PROPHET OR DREAMER?

Am I a dreamer?
Ever dazzled by unrisen dawns,
always hearing the song of liberty
though freedom's flag is torn.

I walk towards a world
no borders, kings or slaves;
history claims the warrior's hand
peace the crown of bays.

I see the hungry feasting
midst the brotherhood of man;
all the children singing
the fear of famine gone.

I find the common man
hold his brother dear
create a world of social justice,
Elysian fields their sphere.

Freedom's flag is torn,
quiet is liberty's song,
unrisen suns still to dawn;
prophet, or dreamer born?

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Hope Or Now??

      Some years ago I read "The Coming Insurrection" by The Invisible Committee, and found it extremely interesting and informative, an excellent read. Since then I have plucked quotes from them every so often. I am now reading "Now" another of their renderings and again I find it fascinating. It is available as a free download from Libcom Library.
       The following is an extract from the first chapter, "Tomorrow Is Cancelled", I wonder if it resonates with you as it does with me? 

 

 

--------Hope. Now there's at least one disease this civilization has not infected us with. We're not despairing for all that. No one has ever acted out of hope. Hope is of a piece with waiting, with the refusal to see what is there, with the fear of breaking into the present-in short, with the fear of living. To hope is to declare one­self in advance to be without any hold on that from which something is expected nonetheless. It's to remove oneself from the process so as to avoid any connection with its outcome. It's wanting things to be different without embracing the means for this to come about. It's a kind of cowardice. One has to know what to commit to and then commit to it. Even if it means making enemies. Or making friends. Once we know what we want, we're no longer alone, the world repopulates. Everywhere there are allies, closenesses, and an infinite gradation of possible friendships. Nothing is close for someone who floats. Hope, that very slight but constant impetus toward tomorrow that is communicated to us day by day, is the best agent of the maintenance of order. We're daily informed of problems we can do nothing about, but to which there will surely be solutions tomor­row. The whole oppressive feeling of powerlessness that this social organization cultivates in everyone is only an immense pedagogy of waiting. It's an avoidance of now. But there isn't, there's never been, and there never will be anything but now. And even if the past can act upon the now, this is because it has itself never been anything but a now. Just as our tomorrow will be. The only way to understand something in the past is to under­stand that it too used to be a now. It's to feel the faint breath of the air in which the human beings of yesterday lived their lives. If we are so much inclined to flee from now, it's because now is the time of decision. It's the locus of the "I accept" or the "I refuse," of ''I'll pass on that" or ''I'll go with that." It's the locus of the logical act that imme­diately follows the perception. It is the present, and hence the locus of presence. It is the moment, endlessly renewed, of the taking of sides. Thinking in distant terms is always more comfortable. "In the end," things will change; "in the end," beings will be transfigured. Meanwhile, let's go on this way, let's remain what we are. A mind that thinks in terms of the future is incapable of acting in the present. It doesn't seek transformation; it avoids it. The current disaster is like a monstrous accumu­lation of all the deferrals of the past, to which are added those of each day and each moment, in a continuous time slide. But life is always decided now, and now, and now.------

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Hooray, We Have Big Bombs!!

       What is it that people see when there is a military parade? What is it that they are cheering? Why such joy at the sight of trained killers and weapons of mass destruction? Can't they see the blood stained rubble, the maimed kids and body parts, the fear, anguish and pain of a population? A population that has no other desired than to get on with their lives, struggling to care for their family and friends, just like you and I. All states do it, glorify their military and try to sell war as some sort of heroic stance against evil, what ever evil is. They always keep war as some sort of moral answer to their problems, concealing the facts that, as well as being the largest environmental polluter on Earth, it is also one of the largest money making businesses, for the few, on the planet. There is something sick at the heart of a society that revels in its ability to inflict mass killings on civilian populations.

        This is a wee bit late, almost a week after the event, but still well worth the read.

This from Common Dreams:

        President Trump’s order to the Pentagon to have an aerial parade of military aircraft over Washington, DC on July 4 provided a history lesson of America’s war mongering in the past two decades, and a terrifying view of what might appear in the skies of Iran if John Bolton gets his way.
      "With the U.S. political and media dogs of war howling again for blood in Iran, Trump’s decision to showcase America’s aerial firepower must have been cheered by the war hawks in the administration and Congress, and their friends in the weapons industry."
      The combat aircraft that were cheered by Trump’s supporters as they flew low over the monuments in the nation’s capital have not been cheered by people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Palestine as the same type of planes fly over their homes—terrifying and killing their children and wreaking havoc on their lives.
      Over those countries, Air Force B-2 Spirit, Air Force F-22 Raptor, Navy F-35C Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18 Hornet stealth fighters and bombers fly so high they are not seen or heard—until the massive explosions from their 500- to 2,000-pound bombs hit and obliterate everything and everyone in their radius. The blast radius of a 2,000-pound bomb is 82 feet, but the lethal fragmentation reaches 1,200 feet. In 2017, the Trump administration dropped the most massive non-nuclear bomb in its inventory—the 21,000 pound “mother of all bombs”—on a cave tunnel complex in Afghanistan.
     While most Americans have probably forgotten we are still at war in Afghanistan, the Trump administration “eased” the rules of engagement, allowing the military to drop more bombs in 2018 than in any other year since the war began in 2001. The 7,632 bombs dropped by American aircraft in 2018 made U.S. weapons makers rich, but hit 1,015 Afghan civilians.
      The Boeing-made combat attack Apache helicopters, a crowd pleaser on July 4, have been used by the U.S. Army to blow up homes and cars filled with civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Israeli military uses them to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the Saudi military has killed children in Yemen with these death machines.
      Billions of dollars worth of U.S. planes and bombs sold to Saudi Arabia raked in record profits for weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. But they pummeled Yemeni civilians since the air war started in 2015, killing people in marketplaces, weddings, funerals, and 40 children on a summer outing in a school bus. Radhya al-Mutawakel, chairwoman of the Yemeni human rights organization Mwatana, says the U.S. has legal and moral responsibility for selling weapons to the Saudi-led coalition. “Yemeni civilians are dying every day because of this war and you (America) are fueling this war,” al-Mutawakel said. “It is a shame that financial interests are worth more than the blood of innocent people.”
      One notorious vehicle of death that was not flown above Washington was America’s assassin drone. Perhaps it was too dangerous for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to be flown close to the President of the United States and a crowd of American citizens with its history of numerous inexplicable crashes and intelligence failures that have caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Iraq.
       John Bolton, who has the ear of the president every day, wrote in an op-ed in 2015 saying that in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, the U.S. should bomb Iran. Now that he has goaded Iran into stepping up its enrichment of uranium as a result of the U.S. reneging on the nuclear deal and European signatories bailing out on their responsibilities in the agreement, Bolton is itching to start the bombing. So are Bibi Netanyahu and Mohammad Bin Salman. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia have been trying for years to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran. Colleagues in the humanitarian and refugee arenas in the Middle East tell us a war is coming and are preparing for its nightmarish consequences throughout the region.
       With the U.S. political and media dogs of war howling again for blood in Iran, Trump’s decision to showcase America’s aerial firepower must have been cheered by the war hawks in the administration and Congress, and their friends in the weapons industry. But to those of us who want peaceful resolutions to international disputes, the Fourth of July display was a chilling reminder of the horrific deaths caused by successive Administrations’ propensity for war and the terror that might soon be raining down on the people of Iran if John Bolton gets his way.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk