Tied In Knots
Here is what the STWC had to say as the murderous events in Paris unfolded and although the post has since been taken down the mindset of STWC supporters is clear - the victims had it coming and that western countries are to blame for the behaviour of Islamic terrorists.
Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East
Without decades of intervention by the US and its allies there would have been no 'war on terror' and no terrorist attacks in Paris.
A witness said he heard one of the gunmen tell their captives: 'It's the fault of Hollande, it's the fault of your president, he should not have intervened in Syria.
We, the West, overthrew Saddam by violence. We overthrew Gadafy by violence. We are trying to overthrow Assad by violence. Harsh regimes all – but far less draconian than our Saudi allies, and other tyrannies around the world.
What has been the result of these interventions? A hell on earth, one that grows wider and more virulent year after year.
Without the American crime of aggressive war against Iraq – which, by the measurements used by Western governments themselves, left more than a million innocent people dead – there would be no ISIS, no “Al Qaeda in Iraq”.
Without the Saudi and Western funding and arming of an amalgam of extremist Sunni groups across the Middle East, used as proxies to strike at Iran and its allies, there would be no ISIS.
Let’s go back further. Without the direct, extensive and deliberate creation by the United States and its Saudi ally of a world-wide movement of armed Sunni extremists during the Carter and Reagan administrations (in order to draw the Soviets into a quagmire in Afghanistan), there would have been no “war on terror” – and no terrorist attacks in Paris tonight.
Again, let’s be as clear as possible: the hellish world we live in today is the result of deliberate policies and actions undertaken by the United States and its allies over the past decades.
It was Washington that led and/or supported the quashing of secular political resistance across the Middle East, in order to bring recalcitrant leaders like Nasser to heel and to back corrupt and brutal dictators who would advance the US agenda of political domination and resource exploitation.
The open history of the last half-century is very clear in this regard. Going all the way back to the overthrow of the democratic government of Iran in 1953, the United States has deliberately and consciously pushed the most extreme sectarian groups in order to undermine a broader-based secular resistance to its domination agenda.
Why bring up this “ancient history” when fresh blood is running in the streets of Paris? Because that blood would not be running if not for this ancient history; and because the reaction to this latest reverberation of Washington’s decades-long, bipartisan cultivation of religious extremism will certainly be more bloodshed, more repression and more violent intervention. Which will, in turn, inevitably, produce yet more atrocities and upheaval as we are seeing in Paris tonight.
I write in despair. Despair of course at the depravity displayed by the murderers of innocents in Paris ; but an even deeper despair at the depravity of the egregious murderers who have brought us to this ghastly place in human history: those gilded figures who have strode the halls of power for decades in the high chambers of the West, killing innocent people by the hundreds of thousands, crushing secular opposition to their favored dictators – and again, again and again – supporting, funding and arming some of the most virulent sectarians on earth.
And one further cause of despair: that although this historical record is there in the open, readily available from the most mainstream sources, it is and will continue to be completely ignored, both by the power-gamers and by the public.
Now the STWC diatribe conveniently ignores that 9/11 and the attack on America preceded the war in Afghanistan, but who cares because all they really care about is their own narrow political agenda which is completely black and white with the western world typecast as the bad guys.
Here's what I had to say about Jeremy Corbyn standing down as Chair of STWC soon after he became the new Labour leader, but Jezza seems to be on good terms with his old chums because, according to media reports, he's going to Stop the war's Christmas party!
Car Crash Corbyn (22/09/15)
I find it impossible to stop writing about Jeremy Corbyn at the moment because every two minutes the new Labour leader makes a dog's dinner of something to other.
Having acted as Chair of the Stop the War Coalition for the past four years, Jezza suddenly decides to stand down just at the point where STWC gets embroiled in a public row over its decision to publish a poem which describes the Queen as a 'criminal'.
Now I don't know about anyone else, but I would have expected Jeremy to say a word or two about this in his resignation letter, especially after announcing that henceforth he will be singing 'God Save the Queen' at future public events, as lustily as the next loyal subject.
Now I don't know about anyone else, but I would have expected Jeremy to say a word or two about this in his resignation letter, especially after announcing that henceforth he will be singing 'God Save the Queen' at future public events, as lustily as the next loyal subject.
I am sure you all understand the reasons – it is now my job to lead the Labour Party, including in the struggle for peace and international justice, and that is demanding my undivided attention.
I have been proud to be Chair of the Coalition for the last four years. It represents the very best in British political campaigning, and its cause of opposing war, upholding civil liberties and resisting Islamophobia will remain my cause.
I hardly need to say. In stepping down as Chair, I want to make absolutely clear my continuing solidarity with the Coalition and its work against wars of intervention.
I believe the amazing campaign over this summer which has seen me elected Leader owes something to the spirit and struggles of Stop the War since 2001.
I hardly need to say. In stepping down as Chair, I want to make absolutely clear my continuing solidarity with the Coalition and its work against wars of intervention.
I believe the amazing campaign over this summer which has seen me elected Leader owes something to the spirit and struggles of Stop the War since 2001.
I look forward to having a proper hand-over event when it can be arranged in the near future – I gather my proposed successor is my predecessor, Andrew Murray and I wish him, Lindsey German and all delegates a successful conference. We remain united for peace.
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Leader of the Labour Party
