WgS
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V. Arnold,
Bullying, hate speech, gun and racial violence, wars and acts of aggression almost all of these perpetrated by men not by women. So when you say “the human race has been infantilized; especially in the U.S.” don’t include women. We aren’t the ones running around starting all this shit.
Here’s a definition for you: “Patriarchy is a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence.” – Bell Hooks
So before you run around picking on people (women, disabled people, anyone different from you), stop and ask yourself one question, “Are you being a douchebag?”
When the answer is clearly “yes”, an adult apologizes for his action and makes amends
Good day, V. Arnold.
There was a 2,600,000 word report released by Sir Chilcot last month that will probably take some time to read properly (should anybody else attempt it). In it, so far, are a lot of facts, comments, quotes, questions and opinions about events leading up the March 2003 US/UK invasion of and subsequent regime change in Iraq.
It’s well worth noting that Tony Blair introduced a proposal to the EU in 2003 attempting to establish “transit processing centers” and “regional protection zones” for migrants entering Europe. At that time, immigration issues didn’t appear to be nearly as spectacular as today. The number of EU asylum-seekers at that time was about 463,000, many from Kosovo and Albania. As Tony Blair made several comparisons between Kosovo and the then-proposed invasion of Iraq, it’s reasonable to think he may have given consideration to the possible generation of more refugees should the conflict became protracted. While the 2003 British immigration center plan was rejected, the Guardian reported the then-UK Immigration Minister as stating that a program similar to the Blair plan would likely be implemented in the future anyway.
“Central to that idea is that the centre itself would be close to somewhere, which at the moment is a country where there are significant numbers of people feeling that they have to flee persecution one way or the other.
“And being closer to them would make that easier for them and prevent traffickers being able to sell their service to people in the way that they do at the moment.”
Fast forward to August 2008, when Italy signed a treaty with Libya The Treaty of Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation between the Italian Republic and Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (the ‘Friendship Pact’) Under this deal, Italy and Libya agreed to work together to intervene with attempted boat migrations from Libya and North Africa. According to Human Rights Watch, Italy’s subsequent forced return of asylum-seekers to Libya in 2009 was a refoulement and against international law. The ‘Friendship Pact’ was entered into on the same day the arms embargo against Libya was lifted and was funded in a 50/50 split between Italy and the EU —amounting to $5 billion in compensation to Libya. From the POV of Berlusconi’s government, the interdictions appeared to be successful in that numbers of migrants arriving in Sicily and Sardinia fell by 55% for the first 6 months of 2009.
The recent EU/Turkey deal certainly resembles the Italy/Libya pact albeit with some modifications including scale. There are some important questions hanging in the air at this time. For instance, is Erdogan’s Turkey as dangerous for asylum-seekers as Gaddafi’s Libya was? What about reports of attacks in Tripoli against refugees who are also members of the LGBTQ categories? What about Frontex? What is their role and how should they be held accountable for human right’s violations, particularly at armed borders?
So far, I haven’t seen any planning that varies much in perspective or approach from those set out at the onset of the destabilization of the Middle East. The objectives are always similar:
* Warehouse asylum seekers as far from the Eurozone as possible.
* Send migrants back (even to potentially dangerous areas) as a deterrent.
* Soften tone to and offer incentives for cooperation to difficult states when they are strategically valuable.
* Overplay the threats posed by immigration.In the last instance, the British press repeatedly states that fears about immigration were the primary drivers behind the Brexit vote. However, most of the current waves of asylum seekers weren’t heading to the UK. In fact, the UK has this really steady, nonfluctuating almost flat-line curve of asylum seeker applications. Indeed, it was the lowest percentage of all EU countries receiving asylum applications. So, the immigration is the propaganda but it’s certainly not the true driver of the movement.
In another little interesting tidbit from the earlier referenced Guardian article from 2003, EU rejects asylum camps plan
Today the leaders of the 15 member states, joined by those from the 10 accession states who join next May, are debating the EU constitution, EU-US ties and European security. […]
As the EU leaders took official receipt of Valéry Giscard D’Estaing’s 220 page draft constitution for Europe, Mr Blair agains stressed the “red lines” of British veto he vowed to retain.
He told British reporters at the summit: “There are certain issues we have to be very careful about: there is no way Britain is going to give up our independent sovereign right to determine our tax policy, foreign policy, defence policy and our own borders,” he said.
“There is nothing we will agree to that will put any of that at risk.”
I highly recommend this video as a guide for understanding the media’s role in American politics.
Mission Accomplished
What has been the cost of the wars? In terms of global political and economic stability, civilian lives particularly in the Middle East, international human rights, civil liberties and national sovereignty…
Tony Blair had a plan introduced in 2003 to set up ‘transit processing centers’ outside the EU to ‘warehouse asylum seekers.’ There was even a prototype camp built in Croatia before the plan was shot down by Sweden, France and Belgium, but idea appears to have been ‘out of sight, out of mind.’
The reason it seems there’s little difference between the wealthy elite of the right and left is because they’re both aiming for essentially the same outcomes (hegemony) using the same tactics (lies, cronyism, aggression). The only difference are the props and storylines they dress use to stage the drama.
Outstanding.
The last sentence was especially prescient
Whatever it decides to do, it seems safe to presume that Britain might well steal some of the limelight away from Greece and Italy in the not too distant future.
It didn’t look good then and looks even worse today. I wonder how long it will be before Britains would-be leaders stop thinking dog-eat-dog and realize they need to do something very, very different and soon?
