Safer Together?

9550414fd2b622e8e2c582d254b9e0968f99fd663cd87ab02885e5b57844b7e7Just as we reflect on the security madness of British ‘defence’ policy and the huge opportunity for peace and justice that Yes presents to us, it’s worth also thinking about Tony Blair’s mental health.

Writing in the Independent on Sunday, Patrick Cockburn does a beautiful job unpacking just how unhinged the multi-millionaire former Labour leader has become, writing: “Overall, his speech is so bizarre in its assertions that it should forever rule him out as a serious commentator on the Middle East.”

Read the full text here.

Here was Blair re-emerging into the glare. Black tie, fixed eyes, stiff arm movements, broken karma.

The speech was to the Bloomberg London HQ.

Cockburn writes:

‘The speech, entitled “Why the Middle East matters”, is about the threat from radical Islam, what it consists of and how it should be countered. Mr Blair says that “there is a titanic struggle going on within the region between those who want the region to embrace the modern world and those who, instead, want to create a politics of religious difference and exclusivity.” On one side stand those who want “pluralistic societies and open economies”, on the other those who want to impose an exclusive Islamic ideology.

Here the reader might suppose that Blair is building up towards some sharp criticism of Saudi Arabia and its fundamentalist Wahhabi creed. What could be more opposed to pluralism in politics and religion than a theocratic absolute monarchy such as Saudi Arabia which is so notoriously intolerant of other versions of Islam, such as Shi’ism, as well as Christianity and Judaism, and is, moreover, the only place in the world where women are not allowed to drive? Here is the home country of 15 out of 19 of the 9/11 hijackers and of the then leader of al-Qa’ida, Osama bin Laden, whose religious views are rooted in mainstream Wahhabism.

Blair denounces those who espouse an Islamist ideology in which the ultimate goal “is not a society which someone else can change after winning an election”. Surely he should be thinking here about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, his namesake in Jordan and the Gulf royals who inherited their thrones. But Blair goes on to make the astonishing claim that the guilty party in fostering extreme jihadist Islam is none other than the Muslim Brotherhood which stood for and won an election in Egypt before it was overthrown by the military.

It is worth quoting Blair again to get the flavour of his thoughts about what happened in Egypt last year. “The Muslim Brotherhood was not simply a bad government,” he says. “It was systematically taking over the traditions and institutions of the country. The revolt of 30 June was not an ordinary protest. It was the absolutely necessary rescue of a nation.”

This is demented stuff. If the Muslim Brotherhood had indeed been taking over Egyptian institutions such as the army, police and judiciary, they would not have been so easily overthrown by the army on 3 July. And what great Egyptian traditions were being eliminated by the Brotherhood other than that of rule by unelected military governments? Blair mentions the number of soldiers and police who died but not the 1,400 protesters killed between July last year and January, according to a report by Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch says that the Egyptian authorities now show “zero tolerance for any form of dissent, arresting and prosecuting journalists, demonstrators and academics, for peacefully expressing their views”. In reality, events in Egypt can only encourage recruitment by jihadi al-Qa’ida-type movements which will argue that the fate of the Brotherhood, which tried to take power democratically, shows that elections are a charade and the only way forward is through violence.’

Read the full article here ‘Demented Tony Blair recites the Saudis’ creed in his latest speech’.

This is important not just to watch the further movement of a neocon off the political spectrum but the sheer disdain for political democracy that he expresses.

It’s a deep insight into the Atlantacist tradition in British politics and a further reason to distance ourselves from the foreign policy radicalism Blair and his networks represent. Blair represents a moral vacuum and the leadership for rogue states everywhere.

 

 

 

 

Comments (0)

Join the Discussion

Your email address will not be published.

  1. Abulhaq says:

    A legitimate government was overthrown by coup d’état in Egypt. A legitimate government was overthrown by coup d’état in Ukraine. No government it seems is safe from the predations of US and Nato ambition. With men such as Blair and Robertson offering “advice” we would be well advised to stay clear of organisations with which they associate. It is in America’s interests to keep the ME, except Saudi Arabia and the Gulf regimes, divided and politically weak. Blair plays the US stooge with consummate ease. Popular democracy is not for Arabs. You simply can’t hack it you guys! Not unlike some people’s take on popular sovereignty in the Scottish context. Demented and malign.

  2. yerkitbreeks says:

    Don’t think anyone has listened to this stooge in the last five years.

  3. daibhidhdeux says:

    The lunatics have taken over the asylum, and Blair is their babbling UK shaman and spokesman.

    Time to bid them adieu.

  4. picpac67 says:

    Blair should not be at large to spout this rubbish. He should – along with many others – be serving a long sentence as a proven war criminal. And not just for Iraq. Many seem to ignore the fact that the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was also a war crime based just as much on lies as the occupation of Iraq. It is a pity that such an intelligent – and, one presumes, well-informed – commentator as Cockburn should continue to parrot the myth that the towers (three) were caused to collapse by the impact of planes supposedly hijacked by a bunch of incompetent Saudi pilots – for which there is as little evidence as for Saddam’s WMDs. Blair also has the blood of those who died on July 7, 2005 on his hands – ‘collateral damage’ of the phoney war on terror.

  5. gavin says:

    Blair, Brown and Mandelson, the triumvirate which created new Labour, the vehicle for promoting dodgy banking and City scams. Politics is money and money is politics in their world, where their pal, the Dirty Digger smoother their path to power. And they all got rich. Blair very rich.
    It was bad enough for us in the UK, but now Blair is involved in proffering his “services” to Sunni and Israeli interests where time and vengeance is measured in biblical terms. No wonder Iran wants a Nuke. If Israel could slip a bomb to the Saudi’s, it would.
    Hundreds of Brotherhood members sentenced to death—they operated for decades in a peaceful manner. That will now change.

  6. Padaruski says:

    Blair is the paid mouth-piece of the ultra-elite 1% in the world. He is a time-served puppet of the USA moneymen with blood on his hands. Perfect candidate: has indirectly killed so he can do it again. The irony is breath-taking that this man is a Peace envoy! Wow. The sad reality too with Ukraine is that we in the UK are now supporting a Neo-Nazi Right wing brutal and violent takeover of a democratically elected government and we are being sleep-walked into a very dangerous potential war with Russia in order that American Uncle Sam can be seen to face down Putin. Five billion dollars paid by the USA for the thugs who ran the coup-de-tat in Ukraine from last November through to the sniper killings in late Feb ( mercenaries no doubt paid by the US since the pattern was the same as the failed attempt to get rid of Hugo Chavez a few years ago). America should not be allowed to pay for a government changes in other nations then blame Russia for the chaos created by the interference of Uncle Sam’s greedy business mits.

  7. douglas clark says:

    Padaruski,

    “Blair is the paid mouth-piece of the ultra-elite 1% in the world. He is a time-served puppet of the USA moneymen with blood on his hands. Perfect candidate: has indirectly killed so he can do it again. The irony is breath-taking that this man is a Peace envoy!”

    No more so than Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace prize or a certain Cresidda Dick getting promoted after the murder of a Brazillian Electrician.

    We live in a world where bad is good and good is bad.

    It is how all careerist politicians and their chums survive.

Help keep our journalism independent

We don’t take any advertising, we don’t hide behind a pay wall and we don’t keep harassing you for crowd-funding. We’re entirely dependent on our readers to support us.

Subscribe to regular bella in your inbox

Don’t miss a single article. Enter your email address on our subscribe page by clicking the button below. It is completely free and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.