There
is a word for this, its Empire. Most people think that the latest
unpleasantness will end with the dismemberment of an Islamic
terrorist network. Instead, it will extend to Africa. Why? Because
this is something he's been thinking about a long time, and
wouldn't it be so easy to provide just a few troops and just
a bit of foreign aid and some investment (only slightly subsidised).
Of course, the presence of our troops will be minimal, only
policing flash points and to provide training and some advice.
Quite how many flash points there will be and quite how far
the training and advice will extend is not mentioned. Nevertheless,
"all" Africa will be required to provide is to allow the structure
of their government to be decided in the West. Tony Blair may
think that this is different to late Victorian colonialism,
although (and this is the terrifying part) it assumes that he
even bothered to think about it at all.
To
take a slightly more concrete example:
It
[the international community] could, with our help, sort out
the blight that is the continuing conflict in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, where three million people have died
through war or famine in the last decade.
That's
right, sort it out. The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Does
he have any idea of what he is saying? As anyone who has spent
more than five minutes studying this conflict could tell you
it has been "sorted out" by the international community so thoroughly
that 3 million have died there. Angola and Zimbabwe on one side,
Uganda and Rwanda on the other. Of course, we could go back
a bit further and look at the last time the international community
"sorted it out". King Leopold was given the Congo as a personal
estate anything else would have given this to a big power
if he hasn't read history, he won't have read the Heart
of Darkness. If anyone wants a more concrete example of how
arrogance trumps experience, you'd be hard pressed to find it.
However,
rebuilding Africa is not enough for a man divorced from the
trifling constraints of reality. There is also a millennium
old religious divide to heal:
And
if we wanted to, we could breathe new life into the Middle
East Peace Process and we must.
The
state of Israel must be given recognition by all; freed from
terror; know that it is accepted as part of the future of
the Middle East not its very existence under threat. The Palestinians
must have justice, the chance to prosper and in their own
land, as equal partners with Israel in that future.
Now
call me a pedant; but when the conclusions are pre-stated then
there is not much of a process. Moreover, if one of the two
party's can’t be persuaded or bribed into supporting all the
conclusions (as it may fairly be pointed out they haven't so
far), how do we enforce it? Yes we, as in Britain. Of course,
if it was someone else I would just dismiss it as bluster
but remember this is the man who seriously suggests that we
put in a "Partnership for Africa" and has sent troops to Sierra
Leone.
However,
we really know about his sense of proportion and ability to
see things in the whole when we read this about Kosovo:
The
sceptics said it was pointless, we'd make matters worse, we'd
make Milosovic stronger and look what happened, we won, the
refugees went home, the policies of ethnic cleansing were
reversed and one of the great dictators of the last century,
will see justice in this century.
Ethnic
cleansing was reversed? Not for the Serbs, gypsies or Jews
who under the noses of the world's most powerful military alliance
were cleansed from their homes. Or the tinpot Milosovic who
was one of the century's greatest dictators, up there with Stalin,
Mao, Hitler, Lenin and Pol Pot? Now if he had any sense of history
I would say that that is just stupid, instead it is a mixture
of laziness and craziness. Of course, we will pass over the
fact that Milosovic was stronger thanks to our intervention,
and was actually toppled from within by forces that would have
moved earlier if we had not attacked their nation.
And
let's look at the latter day Issiah's latest quite frightening
take on Rwanda:
And
I tell you if Rwanda happened again today as it did in 1993,
when a million people were slaughtered in cold blood, we would
have a moral duty to act there also. We were there in Sierra
Leone when a murderous group of gangsters threatened its democratically
elected Government and people.
So
what about China's one child policy, Tony? Do we have a moral
duty there as well?
To
finish off, there is this gem:
We
will take action at every level, national and international,
in the UN, in G8, in the EU, in NATO, in every regional grouping
in the world, to strike at international terrorism wherever
it exists.
Like
bombing Serb civilians at 15,000 feet?
The
truly frightening thing about Blair is not what he stands for.
It is not even his total lust for power. What is frightening
about him is that he is insane. And he's in charge of the asylum.
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