|
CounterPunch
February
20, 2003
A View from Iceland
What Price Relevance?
by IAN JONES
It has been clear to me and I suspect many others
that the Bush administration has been set on war in Iraq, at
least since Rumsfeld's let's make everyone we don't like responsible
and wipe them out speech in the wake of the trade centre
misfortune.
Since then Bush has allowed himself (albeit
reluctantly) to be persuaded to go to the UN to get international
sanction for a patently illegal act, the invasion of a nation
that poses no threat to the invaders. Bush and his coterie of
chicken hawks have since roundly abused and belittled the UN,
member nations, and heads of state by threatening irrelevancy
in the 'New World'. Similarly NATO and Europe (or at least certain
countries within Europe) have also been labeled as irrelevant
or about to make the leap to irrelevancy by listening to what
80% of their populations have to say.
Tony Blair has in recent days been warning
that those countries and people, seeking to drive a wedge between
America and Europe are "playing the most dangerous game
in international politics that I know". He also went on
to say "If you set up these rival poles of power between
Europe and America where people are being pulled one way or other,
I sincerely believe it is so dangerous for the security of our
world".
Given the tenor of these threats and
warnings by the two powers most rabidly seeking a war it seems
that irrelevancy as defined by them is a principled and thoughtful
stance against mass murder. It would seem that there is no way
to deflect America from pursuing her unilateral course of war
and expansionism and it is likely that Blair will follow only
to pay the ultimate political price and lose his job. To paraphrase
the Guardian, 'This will not alarm many in the Bush administration
many of whom are all too happy for a centre-left British government
to be hung out to dry'. However the distinction must be made
between separating Europe from America and separating Europe
from Bush & Co. When Bush was appointed President many and
perhaps most world leaders were appalled at having such a vacuous
fool to deal with as the leader of the worlds remaining super
power. Now many of those same leaders are prepared to let this
same, vacuous fool lead them into a war. This war will provide
more than enough reason (excuses) for terrorists to carry out
their odious trade in their countries. This is the cost of Bush's
relevance.
It is time for Europe the UN and the
rest of the world to consign Bush to the irrelevancy he so easily
ascribes to others. America will have her war, however there
is no reason for the rest of the world to indulge in the blood
letting, especially Tony Blair. Isolate Bush on the world stage
show him for lying, power mad, fundamentalist he is. Make him
stand alone!
As Richard Dawkins, an Oxford science
don, said "Mr Bush was just as much of a danger to world
peace as Saddam Hussein," adding: "It would be a tragedy
if Tony Blair were to be brought down through playing poodle
to this unelected and deeply stupid little oil-spiv."
Ian Jones
is an Australian who recently moved to Iceland. He can be reached
at: africa@simnet.is
Yesterday's Features
Steve Perry
Cowboy
Dreams:
War as Hollywood Western
Saul Landau
Cuba's
View of Bush's War on Terror: an Interview with Cuban VP Raul
Alarcon
Jason Leopold
The
Origins of Bush's Iraq War Drive: The 1998 Wolfowitz / Rumsfeld
Memo to Clinton
Lenni Brenner
Lerner
and the WWP:
The Ranting Rabbi Doesn't Speak for All Anti-War Jews
Anthony Gancarski
The Return of Gary Hart:
A Voice of Reason?
Gloria Bergen
Storm Warning!
Imperialist Gangs Stalk Planet Earth
David Krieger
Peace March: We Must Lead This Nation to a More Just Future
Tom Turnipseed
The Peace Movement in South Carolina
Alexander Cockburn
Messy Valentines: Rummy and Frank on the Intrepid
Website of the Day
Protest
Photos
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
February 15
/ 16, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Colin
Powell and the Great "Intelligence Fraud"
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
The Whole World is Watching
Edward Said
A Monumental Hypocrisy
Wouter Hijink
Report from Amsterdam
"War: Do Not Feed!"
Linda Heard
At Last! Proud to be British
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Taking a Stand on Iraq
Robert Fisk
The Case Against War
Lev Grinberg
Lessons from Israel
A War Without Legitimacy
Chris Floyd
Cold Fronts:
Bush War Profits
Ahmad Faruqui
Stepping Back from the Brink of War
Norman Madarasz
French Kisses from the Citizens of France
Adam Lebowitz
Scott Ritter in Tokyo
Kurt Nimmo
Bring Us the Head of Osama bin Laden
Forrest Hylton
The Revolt in Bolivia
Col. Dan Smith
Irrelevance and Credibility:
Bush, NATO and the UN
Wayne Madsen
The Lies of Tom Lantos
Ranjit Hoskote
The Invisible Modernities of the Islamic World
Emily Zitter-Smith
Who's Safe Now?
An American in Cairo
Rich Procter
Anybody Remember the Powell Doctrine?
Poets Basement:
Eliot
Katz, Scott Handleman, and Bruce Tomczak
Website of the Weekend
Anti-War
Posters
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|