Tony Blair: Legacy of Death & Destruction

Tony Blair, the man who co-instigated (with George W. Bush) the Iraq War that fractured the Middle East, destroyed multi religious societies, led to 500,000+ deaths, caused millions of people to become refugees, spawned ISIS & other terrorist organisations and who benefits from huge payments given to him by anti democratic elites now has the audacity to label Jeremy Corbyn a 'dangerous experiment'!

Why does the BBC and other media organisations waste viewers time and taxpayers monies to broadcast the lies and delusions of a failed politician who should be prosecuted for war crimes?  
On today's Andrew Marr Show (BBC) the ex Greek Foreign Minister Yanis Varoufakis was brilliant when he said that Blair's decision to get involved in Keep Britain in the EU would only benefit the Brexit campaign as he is a glass of poison to any campaign that he gets involved in. Varoufakis also commented that the best outcome for humanity would be for Tony Blair to be forgotten and to be treated with the contempt that he deserves. I

Tony Blair - Warmonger & War Criminal.

The arrogance of Tony Blair in denying today that the 2003 US-led invasion is responsible for the Mad Max nightmare world of today's Iraq is pathetic.
No humiliation or apology for co-leading a war that has led to millions of ordinary people being killed, maimed, forced from their homes, regions and countries. His war has fragmented countries, turned neighbour against neighbour and led to a rise of an insane, anti-female, sectarian, intolerant, brutal Islamist fundamentalism that has no respect for sanctity of human life. 
Saddam was a vicious bloody tyrant. But in Iraq just before the US invasion, it is estimated that 25% of marriages were mixed, between Sunni and Shia, Kurd and Arab. People were encouraged to attend each other's places of worship. In Baghdad up until 2003, Christians, Sunnis and Shiites mixed socially. 
Now that has changed beyond recognition.The 2,000 year old Christian communities of Syria & Iraq are close to extinction due to the actions of western neo-cons, American right-wing Christians and Sunni extremists. The map of the Middle East is being redrawn in the blood of the innocents by jihadists.

Whilst the Middle East has been ignited since the Iraqi invasion, Blair of course has done well financially, making millions on the international lecture trail. But It is unacceptable and immoral that Blair acts as an international 'peace envoy' in the Middle East for the EU, the UN and others, paid of course by our taxes. Sack him from this position, let the British Labour Party disown him and put him and Bush on trial in the Hague for war crimes.

Michael D Higgins: Greatest Advocate of International Human Rights in the History of Dáil Éireann

More than any public representative in the history of the Oireachtas, Michael D Higgins has campaigned tirelessly at home and abroad against the oppression of peoples, in defense of human rights and in securing justice for all.

It is notable that whilst generations of Irish parliamentarians unashamedly kept their mouths shut on human rights abuses perpetuated by successive United States governments and their allies, Michael D has had the courage of his convictions to not allow himself to be coerced into silence. He did not distinguish between torture and coercion committed by the USA, China, Soviet Union or any other regime. Whenever the opportunity arose to defend the downtrodden and stand up to the powerful, he did so.

In recognition of this consistent, effective and proud record,  he became the first recipient of the Seán MacBride Peace Prize awarded by the International Peace Bureau in Helsinki in 1992. 

Solidarity with Oppressed Peoples Everywhere

His international causes including highlighting abuses in countries such as Western Sahara, Chile, Iraq, Turkey, East Timor and Somalia, some of which he visited and some of which he was expelled from.

In particular, he has been since the 1970s an outspoken critic of the brutal armed occupation and creeping colonisation being perpetrated by the Israelis in Palestine.

He was an early supporter of the Anti-Apartheid movement as it sought to end the racial oppression of blacks in Southern Africa and introduce democracy.  

On February 11^th 1990, I along with dozens of other peace activists was lucky enough to be with him in a packed Atlanta Hotel on Dominick Street Galway city, as we watched the release of Nelson Mandela from prison unfold live on television. Michael D and the rest of us were part of the international people power movement that finally succeeded in forcing Western governments to end their unswerving support of the racist South African government.

UCG Reunion 2008: Remembering the Anti-Apartheid Campaign

He was never afraid to take on the so-called defenders of the ‘Free World’ as they poured weaponry and military advisors into Chile and Nicaragua in order to overthrow democratically elected governments who were endeavouring to end the economic stranglehold of the nations natural resources held by a tiny elite and multinational corporations.

He visited Nicaragua and El Salvador in the early 1980s as tens of thousands were being slaughtered by US armed paramilitary gangs and authoritarian regimes. His endeavours at the time were praised by Irish Catholic missionaries who had lived in the region and by Bishop Eamon Casey of Galway

In 1984 he was one of only 4 TDs to join the huge public protests against US President Ronald Reagan’s visit to Ireland.  Michael D was with other graduates that included myself outside UCG in Galway when we burned our degrees to coincide with Reagan being awarded a Honorary Doctorate of Law by the university authorities, even though he had just previously broken international law by mining the ports of a sovereign state- Nicaragua.

In the last decade Michael has been the leading parliamentary campaigner against the illegal invasion of Iraq by US coalition forces, against the illegal detention camp at the US military base in Guantanamo Cuba, against the CIA rendition flights including their use of Shannon Airport and against the militarisation of the Salthill Airshow.

Michael D Higgins participating in the Galway Alliance Against War demonstrations held to condemn the presence of military planes at the Salthill Airshow from air forces that participated in the illegal Iraq war

Check out also my blog article Michael D. Higgins: Conscience of the Nation

Dying Embers of Middle Eastern Christianity

At a time when Christians across the world celebrate the birth of their founder, a dangerous cocktail mix of Christian, Islamic and Jewish fundamentalism is leading to the near extinction of native Christianity in its birthplace with a mass exodus of frightened Arab and other indigenous Christians fleeing rabid persecution.

At the beginning of the last century, Christians represented a quarter of the population of the Middle East. Their churches dotted the landscapes of what is now Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. When Islam appeared in the region in the seventh century, Arab Christianity was already six hundred years old. Its worldwide influence was profound. They practised the custom of ‘prostration’ now almost exclusively associated with Muslims, and had always used (and still does) the term ‘Allah’ to refer to ‘God’. Egypt's Coptic Christians gave to the early Irish Celtic church its tradition of monasticism. Assyrian Christian scholars translated many of the Greco-Roman and Persian scientific texts into Arabic, thereby helping in the flowering of Islamic civilisation under the Abbasid Caliphate. From the eight until the eleventh century the Nestorians, with their heartland in modern Iraq and Iran were the most influential of all Christian churches with bishoprics stretching as car as southern Arabia and eastern China.

A religious tolerance more or less held in the Middle East for centuries until it began to be replaced about one hundred years ago by hatred and even genocide. This began in World War One when, according to many leading historians, the Ottoman Turks massacred three million Armenians, Assyrian and Pontiac Greeks in World War One because of their faith and ethnicity.

From 2001, the ‘Born-Again Christian’ George Bush unleashed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that he termed a ‘crusade’ which has led to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Combined with the pro-Zionist views of influential right-wing American Christians, who believe that all of Palestine must become Jewish in preparation for Christ’s return to Earth for the great final battle of ‘Armageddon’ (aka the ‘Rapture’), the response across the Middle East and environs has been the unleashing of a wave of murderous religious extremism. Too often local Christian communitities became an easy and accessible target. Christians now make up less than 6% of the region's population.

Yet as with Russia and China, US foreign policy is driven by an imperial greed that has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, liberty and justice. Its key global allies are bigoted religious authoritarian regimes such as Israel with its campaign of colonisation of Arab lands by foreign Jewish settlers; Saudi Arabia where Christian worship and that of other religions is banned, where school children are taught to hate ‘infidels’ or non-believers, and where conversion from Islam to any other religion (apostasy) is punishable by death; Iraq where a campaign of ethnic cleansing has led to possibly 500,000 Christians fleeing the country since 2004; and an Egypt where religious discrimination is practiced, where churches are bombed; where reports of the kidnapping, rape and forced marriages of young Christian Coptic women to Muslim men are increasing.

The great Irish writer and Protestant cleric Jonathan Swift was correct in his analysis that “We have enough religion to make us hate each other but not enough to make us love one another”.

So surely there is an obvious case for the expulsion of these and other countries from a United Nations with its ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ that includes Article 18 which states “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”?

Sadly the EU and the Irish government will do little of substance to end religious and other types of persecution in countries where they have vested economic interests.

Britain's Iraqi War Tribunal- Another Political Whitewash!

It was obvious from today's appearance of Tony Blair at the British Tribunal into the Iraqi War, that its members were his friends & allies, as well as some being open supporters of the war & of Israel (who wanted Saddam toppled). They asked no difficult questions & listened often in silence to his long well-rehearsed replies. Blair played a crucial part in securing the peace process in Northern Ireland during the late 1990s. But he deserves to be tried as an international war criminal in The Hague for his role in the death of 100,000s Iraqis, the forced exile of millions, the use of WMDs...

The British 'old boys' network lives on!

Galway Businesses Glorify Terrorist Bombers

99 Red Balloons Over Galway BayForsaking morality & in order to make a 'fast buck', certain prominent Salthill businesses once again decided to promote the only air force in the world that is killing civilians on a weekly basis. Amazingly these people see no conflict in attending Church services on Sunday morning-to honour a peace-preaching Christ that abhored violence- and then a few hours later officiating at a military dominated air show extravaganza in the skies over Galway Bay where the top act is the US Air Force's latest state-of-the-art killing machinesThe media said over 80,000 (exaggerated) watched the military airplanes in action while only a few hundred took part in the anti-war demonstration at the famous Spanish Arch. The latter event though had some prominent speakers including the new Galway City Mayor (Councillor Tom Costello) and an ex-commandant of the Irish Army (Ed Horgan). But though small in number, the anti-war participants proudly stood up for the principles of neutrality and anti-imperialism that inspired the founders of our state to take up arms against our British occupiers who were then engaged in a world power struggle where millions of ordinary people needlessly died serving in a war that was portrayed as a gallant war for peace and democracy against tyranny ("...a war to end all wars..."). Shades of today's 'Global War Against Terrorism'.

Anyway, I was proud to attend the demo with my young son Dáire. I also had the following letter published in the weekly 'Galway Independent' in the days before the air-show:

End the Support of Terrorist Bombers

Dear Editor,

Over the last few years, American airplanes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia have killed thousands of civilians including children and old people in their homes, at weddings, in hospitals, in market places, in vehicles and at places of worship. Whole villages have been flattened as a result of carpet-bombing. Yet while this barbarity continues, certain Salthill business people have deemed it suitable ‘family entertainment’ for the US Air Force to show off their weapons of mass destruction in the skies above Galway. They are calling on us all to adulate a killing machine that has even been condemned by the present US-supported Afghani government for its indiscriminate air bombing of civilian areas that has only led to an upsurge in recruitment to those forces fighting the Americans. Tactics such as ‘Shock and Awe’ with their accompanying obliteration of residential neighbourhoods and infrastructure has resulted in the victims undertaking armed retribution against the perpetrators of this madness. To compound the misery of those that survive the initial onslaughts, the US Air Force has no hesitation in dropping anti-personnel cluster bombs containing hundreds of bomblets that transform the targetted farms and villages into massive mine-fields thereby increasing the death toll for years to come. The US regime believes that their aerial strategy will force the acquiescence of the populations being bombed. Yet they have learnt nothing from their own recent history. The 9/11 bombings caused the majority of Americans to support a ‘revenge’ war on Afghanistan. The US Air force’s blanket-bombing of North Vietnam, though it led to the killing of over 200,000 people and the virtual wipe-out of urban life south of Hanoi, only stiffened the resolve of the survivors to fight on and to ultimately win their war against the USA. The ‘gung-ho’ attitude and incompetence of many American pilots has been widely condemned recently as a result of the large number of incidents where Allied soldiers were killed by ‘friendly-fire’. It is reprehensible that the Salthill Air Show organisers glorify these evil terrorist bombers who commit such atrocities against innocent people. As someone that enjoys with my family the many delights of our local seaside resort most weekends, I fail to understand why their business leaders promote weaponry that continues to kill and to maim so many families.Check out an article that I wrote regarding last year's Salthill Airshow, the content of which formed the basis for a letter to the 'Galway Independent' newspaper.
Sights & Sounds of US Warplanes Reawakens Fear in Galway