The Coalition of the Wailing

CVPoTIVW4AAxlZoThis about the legitimacy of the British State, how it operates and who it represents.

Here we are, impotent and unable to change the course of a British military state; unrepentant, incoherent and high on war. They will bomb away despite the opposition of the voice of sanity from the SNP and some few Labour voices. The history books won’t record the vote as ‘not in our name’, but this will give impetus, as Iraq did before, to the new independence movement to come.

Make no mistake, this is a moral and humanitarian disaster.

The year started badly. Here are the Parliamentarians listed on the final guest list and seating plan for the Annual Defence Dinner (ADS) (3 February 2015). which include: Brian Donohoe, Gemma Doyle, and Margaret Curran. Where are they now? They could have stood proudly by their colleagues on the green benches tonight. They could have stood, as Hillary Benn, with the deepest or irony, secured the House of Lords place his father went to court to reject. The MPS for Raytheon and BAE are sadly departed.

Of course, we’ve been here before.

As depleted uranium shells rained down on Iraq, the Scottish people could take pride in the fact that the weaponry has been developed and tested in and around the Solway Firth for the past twenty years. We simply couldn’t have brought them this level of liberatory democracy if we hadn’t already tried it out at home.”

The emotional argument has been made with great success, most noticeably by Hillary Benn MP, but the military and strategic argument has failed. Key figures in the military and upper echelons of the Tory party remain unconvinced. These are people who take a cold strategic view, and are just incredulous that it adds up at all.

Labour is in tatters. But never matter, that’s been true at least since Bono’s new Wing-Man led him to oblivion, several much more important issues stand-out. Here are some unresolved questions:

Who is going to fight the ground war? What’s the exit strategy? What are the consequences of working with Assad? How do we work with Putin? Can anyone explain how the concept of  ‘Assad stepping aside’ works? How would we define success? What does it do to further peace? It’s an incoherent shambles unmitigated by the fact that the Kurds, who should be our allies, are being bombed by the Turks, who are also our allies.

This is an intervention based on wishful thinking and disinformation. It’s British politicians oozing bombast and exceptionalism. I predict Corbyn, whatever else you think of him, will be proven right within weeks if not days and whilst politicians on both sides scrabble about for political advantage he at least stands as a man of principle. This is about British symbolism and identity, it’s not about Syrian people. It’s a war-urge objected to by the likes of Max Hastings, Peter Oborne and the Foreign Affairs Committee in which it’s okay to slander and smear considered opposition.

We will now see a carefully coordinated campaign, not of bombing, but of media propaganda.

History repeats itself. And the unrepentant unreconstructed rump of amnesic New Labour enthusiasts should remember the Iraq catastrophe and how the media treated it all:

“Like it or not, this was in our name. Remember that as your hand marks the cross for Tony next year – whether it’s fear of the revenge of Tory Middle England with the UKIP, or the Trots with their dangerous school-lunch-socialism motivating your bout of dubious self-preservation at the ballot. It’s the end of the news the night of the England-Turkey game. We needed a funny little story to cheer us up after all that serious investigative reporting that’s come before. What’s it to be tonight? A dog in a tree? A really big pie in Guernsey? A man who found a budgie in his pizza? No. Tonight it was ‘Little Ali’. Ali Ismail Abbas – you might remember him, we killed his mum Azhar who was seven months pregnant, his dad, his ten-year old brother Abbas and thirteen other members of his family and blew his arms off. Then we got all doe-eyed and Princess Di-Memorial about it, so we flew him over to Britain. Like a latter-day freak show he was soon doing the rounds, and got a new pair of arms courtesy of the ‘big-hearted readers’ of the Daily Mirror.”

That it was thought impossible to distinguish before between Tory and Labour front benches used to be dismissed as a joke, a student-politics cliché. Now it’s a painful reality. We can expect war-porn in bucketloads in the coming days. In fact it’s kicked off already as gushing Unionist scribes acclaim Scotland’s military role in the attack. As RAF Lossiemouth fighter jets are on standby, this is what the reality of ‘pooling and sharing’ looks like. Just remember: Stronger Together, Safer Together. Repeat it softly to yourself as they take off.

Comments (43)

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  1. Andrew Wilson says:

    magnificent piece; you have excelled yourselves, and caught perfectly the awful irony of what the blood hungry Unionists have done to us all.

  2. June Maxwell says:

    You make some poignant remarks Mike, but get yourself a proof-reader the grammatical slips spoil the flow.

    1. Chris Welton says:

      Yeah Mike, straighten your tie and tuck your shirt in!
      Geez, June, things tough at school today?

  3. Alan Webster says:

    Just what I needed to read this morning,sanity in contrast to the dreaded MSM

  4. James Dow says:

    If you are judged by the company you keep, then England and Turkey form a perfect union.

  5. Alf Baird says:

    This decision is essentially taking Scotland to war against the will of the Scottish people, which was reflected in the votes of our elected representatives, and by public opinion. If this is not a sufficient ‘trigger’, what is?

  6. David MacGille-Mhuire says:

    June
    Perchance a proof-reader for your good self, too?

    Me, too, no doubt:)

    Reasonable article otherwise if Bella-ish in its hand-knitted jumper style of “radical” analysis.

    Another Brit war launched based on a false premise with the spawn of BritNat Benn coming out of his Tory closet to assist the war-mongering Tories and lend a hand to the mass imperialist murder now happening to complicit BBC World News cheer-leading (as I watch in Japan: Tory spokesman now talking about this taking years: Fallon, I believe, who is hedging about the question of sending in boots and lauding Benn’s Brutus-like speech).

    Time and circumstances, including the BritLab Blairite treachery in strolling through the voting lobby with their comrade Tories, make it imperative that the citizenry of Scotland abrogate the Union Treaty asap.

    I suggest that a gubbing of the Unionist in the up-coming Holyrood elections will speed up this process; the local council version, seal it.

    Thank you all, always, for this forum for debate.

    Best
    Daibhidh

    1. What’s a hand-knitted jumper style of “radical” analysis?

      1. Jim Bennett says:

        Presumably, it’s an analysis crafted through love, care and very personal dedication to the final product!

        1. tartanfever says:

          Crikey, the immediate picture in my head was David Torrance sporting one of his ‘G-G-Granville’ efforts a la David Jason in Open all Hours.

          However, for your benefit Mike, just think ‘Hipster’.

  7. David MacGille-Mhuire says:

    June
    Error heads-up: “Unionists” not “Unionist”.

    My excuse (?), the budgies patrolling my keyboard and editing as they walk.

    Best wishes to you all from Japan!

    PS I am guy fond of hand-knitted jumpers and treasure a Ness in Lewis one.

  8. bill fraser says:

    Not in our name-exactly.But what can we do about it We are subject to any whim emanating from the powers that be at WARminster .Full independence is the only way.Bring it on!!

  9. Jac Gallacher says:

    Feeling disempowered and voiceless again that same feeling I had post Indy Ref, sad beyond belief wanting to avoid anyone who condones this action and can’t turn on the TV or Radio.

  10. AAD says:

    Listen to Alex Salmond’s speech from yesterday. Even after his words of one syllable explanation of why we should not join in the bombing Cameron, Benn and their baying followers went on to vote for disaster. Which of these sorry excuses for representatives of their constituents has investments in the arms industry? They are a morally bankrupt crew.

  11. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

    General Wesley Clark revealed that he had a conversation with Neo Con Zionist Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon in the 1990s, ” We’re going overthrow 7 Arab nations, they are Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, SYRIA and finally Iran.” Wolfowitz was also a member of a think tank called Project for a New American Century, to continue America’s hegemony over the World, quote ” to get full spectrum, over land, sea, air and the internet, one needs a new Pear Harbour,” and 6 months later 9/11 happened, what a coincidence, eh ? Wickedness in high places I think the phrase is.

  12. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

    The Elephant in the room that’s never mentioned is Israel.The Oded Yinon Plan was a 1980s Israeli document to break up the Arab nations, make them vassal puppet states so that they won’t threaten Israel, but not only that but to depopulate them as well as we can see in Syria, dumping them in Europe, killing two birds with one stone, the destruction of the Arabs and to cause a conflict between the Christians and muslims. The two blue lines on the Israeli flag represent the Nile and the Euphrates, that’s their dream, a greater Israel

  13. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

    Why doesn’t ISIS, IS, ISIL, the latest one is Daesh, or what ever the ruling elites call it this week attack Israel, after all ISIS is a couple of miles away from Israel ? is it because ISIS = Israeli Secret Intelligence Service ?

  14. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

    ”Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US “Created” ISIS As A “Tool” To Overthrow Syria’s President Assad” http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-23/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-us-created-isis-tool-overthrow-syrias-president-assad

  15. john young says:

    Never one mention of our “close ally”/stalwart NATO partner Turkey,s involvement on the side of Isis/Daesh,never a mention about destroying the oil supply route or the money trail,never a mention that Russia alone has been attacking the above and received scant if any support from the West.The real threat is the USA/Israel has been for a long time now but we follow slavishly,Isis/Daesh created by both of them with the collusion of the Saudis another ally.

  16. bringiton says:

    The impression I got from watching the “debate” was that Cameron could have spun any story about the need for bombing and he would have got the result he wanted.
    Too many MPs still have the imperial mindset and consider England to be an important world player who needs to be seen doing important things.
    Even John McCain,an American republican says that Cameron’s bombing effort is only a token gesture which will make little or no difference to the outcome in Syria.
    So,that is what they voted for…..a token gesture,which says all we need to know about the state of the UK,reduced to tokenism and empty rhetoric.

  17. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

    What I want to know is where did ISIS get all those dozens and dozens of Toyoto white pick up trucks ??? Secondly ISIS are all dressed from head to toe in black, like Ninja fighters with only their eyes showing, could be anybody, CIA ( Crooks In Action ) Mossads motto ” By deception we make war.”

    1. nodrog says:

      Some time ago the US asked Toyota that question. Not sure if they got an answer.

      1. Valerie says:

        The 5 mile convoy of Daesh oil trucks, visible from space, but not it seems, to American bombers, come from America. Seems as the fracking boom there went tits up, nearly new oil trucks were bought in huge quantities, and shipped out of Houston.

        As Russia has made significant progress in bombing in only 6 weeks, and the yanks are stealing Russian footage of bombing, to show back home, more folk are digging!

        America have been bombing Syria for 14 months, and White House stooge now saying they didn’t want to bomb these oil convoys into Turkey -‘causing environmental damage’

        You couldn’t make-up this shit, poor Syria, and now we are complicit in this charade

        I suggest going to Global Research and Common Dreams. Both sites have a myriad of items from a wide range.

  18. john young says:

    I think I read somewhere that they were ordered from one of the gulf states possibly Qatar,in an almost treeless semi dessert Isis/l seem to be able to openly drive throughout this expanse unhindered despite the efforts of the USA,they can identify the the smallest item on a wanted terrorist and with a drone take him out,yet we are to believe that they cannot attack and destroy columns of fighters convoys of oil tankers,yet people in this country accept and believe this drivel,it tells you that it,s not just elected leaders that appear to have selective views people just don,t see past the rags or the broadsheets,to my knowledge no one in the media has ever asked pertinent questions,the populace are just as bad.

    1. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

      Mark Twain quote ” It’s easier to deceive people than to convince them that they’ve been deceived.”

    2. nodrog says:

      Some interesting information pops up if you google – ISIS Toyota Trucks.

  19. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

    I read somewhere that ISIS has $500 million dollars, where did they get the money from ? On 9/11 Donald Rumsfield said the Pentagon had misplaced $2 Trillion dollars, as you do, must’ve fallen down the back of the sofa, join up the dots.

  20. Gordon says:

    The spectre of Daesh’s use of rape, execution, and extortion keeps rearing its ugly head, promoted by our PR man extraordinaire, the Prime Minister. The secret services, he claims, have foiled 7 terrorist attempts in the last year. (Repeat ad nauseam – that should scare them!). The tabloid-reading public swallow this hook, line and sinker, without even questioning why it hadn’t heard of any trials and sentences. The claim is that only the intelligence services have kept us safe.
    Bombing Syria is the ‘right thing to do’. That will stop them in their tracks. Only then will the executions, rape, suicide-bombing, and barbarism be stopped. Hellish they are, but are the killing of thousands who may be left dismembered for hours before death, the creating of malformed births and cancers by the use of DU, or the leaving of orphans any better?
    The claim will go out that we had done nothing to deserve the British deaths in Tunisia – except piloting the drones from Lincolnshire. That Paris had done nothing to deserve the attacks on that city – except bomb Daesh sites in Iraq. That Russia had done nothing to deserve the downing of their passenger jet – except start bombing Daesh in Syria. Cameron has covered his back already by claiming that Daesh has not hit us yet, only because of our strong security and intelligence forces. I.e. if they do it after our bombing – it will not be because we have (illegally) bombed Daesh in Syria.
    If any British citizen is killed in retaliation for this, I and many others will put the blame on Hillary Benn and the other proponents of this fiasco.
    One difference I have noticed between the Islamic ‘terrorists’ and the western allies is that in all of their terrorist attacks in 9/11, 7/7, RENFE rail in Spain, Paris, few if any children were killed. They were all adults either at work, commuting or socialising. We don’t know what we’re hitting from a great height. The drone operators do, however, referring to children as ‘fun-sized terrorists’ and ‘cutting the grass before it gets too long’. More like sowing more grass seeds!

  21. Blair paterson says:

    I honestly believe that America and Britain are being run by Israel i mean our foreign policy is nothing like what the British people want the only winners in all of these wars has been Israel or am I wrong?

    1. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

      In 1916 the First World War was at a stalemate, there was talk of a peace plan, the Rothchilds stepped in , they wrote a letter to the foreign minister Balfour ( the Balfour Declaration )” if Britain helps to establish a jewish state in Palestine, we with our influence will get America into the war on Britain’s side.” So the war dragged on for another two years and millions of more Europeans died.

  22. john young says:

    Of course Israel/USA are behind this ask who benefits most Israel through the dis-memberment of it,s near hand enemies the USA and other armaments maufacturers.Everyone should watch RT news where you might at least get a clearer picture.The Keiser report and his guest both claim that the City of London is the laundering capital of the world controlling successive governments,he was particularly scathing about Blair/Broonie saying as his guest did that Blair should be tried in this country for crimes against humanity,what a horrible man he is.Both him and Bush have some cheek to say that Assad is a monster,when both of them have been guilty of far greater war crimes killing many more people.

  23. Alf Baird says:

    WWI: The media create a frenzy for war; our elites sanction it; the arms industry supply it; and the bankers finance it. Little has changed. Except the people are now a bit more educated.

    1. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

      General Smedley Butler, America’s highest decorated soldier wrote a very famous book in the 1930s ” War is a Racket. He realized that he was fighting not for America but for the bankers and oil corporations. Incidentally as a side note, a forgotten footnote in American history, America’s Ruling Elite wanted to have a coup and overthrow FDR, the man they chose to be dictator was Butler, unfortunately for them they picked the wrong man, he grassed them, but instead of being all arrested and put on trial for treason, it was all quietly forgotten. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

      1. Fed up with the Lies and Propaganda of the London Media Industrial Complex says:

        The Right-Wing Plot to Overthrow FDR 1934 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTdx6vEUtIA

  24. J.A.B. says:

    This appeared on the Guardian’s online front page on Monday night for about an hour before it was gone:
    http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/01/us-military-expeditionary-force-isis-iraq-syria#img-1

    Bearing in mind that the RAF has been quietly bombing for months, read this exchange in Tuesday’s debate:
    Hansard 2 December, col. 327:
    Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP): The Prime Minister will know how members of my party feel when it comes to fighting and dealing with terrorism, and for that there will always be support, no matter where terrorism raises its head. The motion states that

    “the Government will not deploy UK troops in ground combat operations”.

    If it becomes necessary at a later date to do that, will he guarantee that he will come back to this House to seek approval for that?

    The Prime Minister: This is something not only that I do not want to do, but that I think would be a mistake if we did it. The argument was made to us by the Iraqi Government that the presence of western ground troops can be a radicalising force and can be counterproductive, and that is our view. I would say to the hon. Gentleman, and to colleagues behind me who are concerned about this issue, that I accept that this means that our strategy takes longer to be successful, because we rely on Iraqi ground troops in Iraq, we rely on the patchwork of Free Syrian Army troops in Syria, and in time we hope for Syrian ground troops from a transitional regime. All of that takes longer, and one of the clear messages that has to come across today is that, yes, we do have a strategy, and although it is a complex picture and it will take time, we are acting in the right way.

    Cameron does NOT answer the member for North Antrim’s question, but wiggles and swerves. Boots on the ground: before, or after Christmas?

  25. arthur thomson says:

    What interests me about this post is that you feel compelled to reinforce the notion of Corbyn as a good guy and I wonder why.

    Corbyn is supposedly the leader of the Labour party, the largest party of opposition at Westminster. He is presented with a situation where the Tories are hell bent on bombing another country. So what action does he take? He allows a free vote for Labour MP’s in the knowledge that a large number of them will vote with the Tories. He effectively abdicates his responsibility as the leader of the opposition. He knows the price that will be paid by innocent Syrians but he can’t stir himself to raise hell on behalf of these people. He makes no apparent effort to join forces with other potential opposition groups to fight the Tories. Consequently he ends up presenting his case, his personal/individual case, as if he was a backbencher and it is treated as an irrelevance.

    It saddens me to write these things about Corbyn because he seems to be a basically decent, if blinkered, man who finds himself right out of his depth. But he has to take a major share of the responsibility and the blame for the debacle that unfolded at Westminster yesterday. He was a failure and his failure has bloody consequences. He went down like a lead balloon. And being proved right – that the bombing will be counter productive – simply shows that he was as aware as any other normal person of the potential consequences of his failure but he didn’t have it in him to put up a meaningful fight.

    Now, it may be that Corbyn has a cunning plan to undermine the red tories in his party and this shambles was somehow part of it but I am going to assume that is not the case. Because if it is the case then he is not even a man of principle.

    1. Hi Arthur – I didn’t feel compelled to reinforce anything, but I think the view that Corbyn has taken is broadly correct, and that therefore he will be proven right. I don’t think Corbyn has a ‘cunning plan’, I think he is 100% ideological and hasn’t a pragmatic bone in his body. Other politicians might swerve and slither to achieve their ends. Corbyn won’t and it is at turns both amazing and appalling. In terms of the issue of the free vote he was – and is – damned either way. He has a mass party at his feet with a parliamentary party around his neck.

      1. Gordon says:

        Corbyn did the right thing in allowing a free vote. It has highlighted all the Labour MPs who voted for the bombing – all the ones who are likely to want to see the back of Corbyn as leader. It is all recorded in Hansard, which the electorate can consult and make up their own minds whether they want their standing MP to continue. It was a Neolib filter.

  26. Yaahoo, skittish yiddish says:

    Thank you Turkey for giving Putin the perfect opportunity to deploy the S400 missile defence system, simultaneously rendering the Israel air force impotent in regards to any future bombing incursions in Syria or Iran. This is the most significant event to date.
    I am still awaiting the war that big boy Yaahoo threatened if the S400 was deployed, bit of a problem there when the opposition is not basically unarmed civilians. come on big boy Yaahoo, go wrestle the bear, I dare you. But beware you might lose more than a foreskin.

    1. douglas clark says:

      Which may, or may not be as good as it says on the tin. I recall Patriot having expectations similar to S400.

      It was a bit shit, if I recall correctly.

      Has the S400 system been tested anywhere? Not to my knowledge. Let us see if it is as good as the Russians say it is.

  27. arthur thomson says:

    Thank you for responding to my comment regarding Jeremy Corbyn.

    I agree with the point you make re his issues with his party and all I have observed of him suggests that he is driven by ideology. I am not at all convinced, however, as to his integrity.

    If you take a look at his record with regard to Scotland he is quite clearly ideologically opposed to any notion of meaningful Scottish self-government and he has ducked and dived to undermine it. I won’t go on and on, suffice to say that I see him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

    I conclude that Corbyn deliberately subordinated the threat to innocent people in Syria to the furtherance of his political party. That would be consistent with the perspective of an ideological socialist. Rather than seeking to galvanise a broad based coalition of independently minded people to promote common interest – a coalition that could have included Tories who opposed the bombing – he pursued a path that centred on the furtherance of the interests of the Labour party. As such he is no better and no worse than most of his ‘honourable friends’ in Westminster.

    There are those in Slab and on the left in Scotland who see Corbyn as a potential magnet to draw people towards a new dawn of enlightened Labour control. I am concerned, therefore, that we should dispel, not reinforce, the myth of Corbyn as a champion of the people. He is just an unreformed old time Labour hack who presents in the London version of a cloth cap image. And he is trading unscrupulously on the vulnerability of people in rUK who are sick of right wing politics but have nowhere else to turn to. His apparently gentle manner is just a lure.

    As I see it, Corbyn would sell his Granny for his ideological beliefs – history shows us that that is what ideological socialists all over the world have actually been prepared to do. People of Scotland beware.

  28. Alex Beveridge says:

    I don’t always agree with everything you say Mike, but I think this article is one of your best.

  29. Fagpaper says:

    NOT IN MY NAME’S – IS IT REALLY CHRISTMAS?
    Lyrics misdirected by fagpaper

    ‘It’s decision time there’s no need to be afraid
    at Christmas time heads hang in shame at divisions made
    And in our world of plenty can we really let this slide
    raise your hand around the world it’s decision time.

    Yes raise your voice
    shout above the other ones
    “NOT IN MY NAME WILL YOU EVER USE YOUR GUNS!”

    There’s a world outside your window
    a world you cannot see
    obscured by secret circles
    and total tyranny
    and the Christmas bells that ring are merely ringing out a game well tonight I’ve made my choice Not in my name

    And they won’t let you know the truth again this Christmas time
    The greatest gift you get this year is lies
    there is no caliphate
    it’s an expanding Zion state
    Is it really Christmas time at all?

    Not in my name
    rise above everyone
    don’t be afraid
    or they’ve already won

    Free the world
    Let them know what’s going on Free the world
    (Wake them up or we are gone)

    Free the world
    let them know what’s going on free the world
    let them know what going on
    x5

    “Please, one and all, feel free to use/adapt to fit personal messages of ‘not in my name”

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