This morning in his interview on BBC Gordon Brown gave the impression of someone living in a different world from the rest of us. Defending the international markets, ignoring the prospects of a potential world economic downturn and refusing to condemn the grotesque greed exhibited by the recent huge city bonus payouts demonstrated a politician living in a political bubble of electoral tactics rather than appreciating the real threats of climate change, world economic and political instability and growing inequality. Nothing better illustrated this divergence from the real world than his references to Iraq.
Gordon Brown and the Downing Street spin machine are desperately trying to present last night's evacuation of 500 British troops from Basra Palace as part of a planned process of withdrawal from Iraq.
Let's be absolutely clear. The British troops are being drawn back to the base at the airport because it became increasingly impossible to sustain them in central Basra in the face of continuous attacks by insurgents as they lay siege to the British positions. As one Labour member of the Defence Select Commiittee put it, the Palace could only be kept supplied by the British by "nightly suicide missions."
By any military standards this withdrawal is a humiliating defeat for those politicians, including Gordon Brown and his cabinet colleagues, and the military that dragged our country into Bush's invasion of Iraq without due regard to the consequences for both the Iraqi people and serving British troops. It should not be forgotten that the price of their arrogant folly has so far been the lives of 160 British personnel and at least 650,000 Iraqis. When questioned about the next stage of his policy for Iraq, instead of acknowledging that the only option is urgent withdrawal altogether Brown went into a bizarre promulgation of the need for an economic development forum in the area as though he was dealing with the need for economic development in the North East of England and not in a country that to most observers and the Iraqi people themselves is little short of experiencing a civil war.
Get real Mr Brown. Stop pretending that this is anything other than a retreat and withdraw the troops now altogether.
20 Comments:
This is the first stage of withdrawal John. It is simply too damaging for the Government to label it as such.
Fingers crossed all our troops are home by the end March 2008 the majority by Xmas.
The common view inside the army now is that Iraq is 'unwinnable' whereas Afghanistan may not be. The government will see a dividend in withdrawal from Iraq in that they can commit more resources to that other theatre.
Brown has many failings but perhaps we should acknowledge the moves currently underway in Iraq seem to be putting some clear water between us and Bush's foreign policy.
Last few days we have even seen General Sir Mike Jackson C in C of UK forces in Gulf War Two attacking US post war policy, Whilst Sir Mike has his autobiography to promote it seems lots of bad news all at once for the Americans.
Stand by for recriminations from Washington.............
So, you are in favour of this withdrawal, are you not?
Who funded the printing of Labour Herald?
Brown is utterly infuriating. It is evident we are retreating from Iraq, but he simply can't admit that and just withdraw the troops completely. How many more mothers and fathers will have to grieve the death of their sons or daughters in this warzone that they should never have been in?
How many more lives does Brown think his pride and 'image' are worth?
Geezer, how can it be "damaging" for the Govt to come clean and admit the truth which, as you say, has been made apparently clear by the highest-ranking officers in the Army. As someone else just said, how many more lives have to be lost so Brown can spin it the way he wants to and not lose face.Frankly, if he did withdraw the troops now, he would be a national hero.So let's get on with it.
I meant "patently clear.".......
Clearly is was during Blair's tenure that the Iraq debacle took place and as a result of the unknown content of a conversation between him and Bush some years ago.
Gordon Brown was the Chancellor that diverted the additional funds needed by the MOD to enable them to wage war although of course this still led to the procurement of substandard equipment which undoubtedly cost British lives but that is another story.
Brown was also complicit under the label of collective cabinet responsibility, others at that time when invasion looked certain chose to leave the Government rather than be a part in it.
For Brown to come out and say that withdrawal was now underway would be for him to admit defeat which in turn would make him look weak. Lets not forget the rumours about an early election rumble on and as we know given his minute management strategy he will not do anything to weaken his position for such an election.
What really gets my goat is he had the audacity yesterday to mention he was later this year to publish a book telling the stories behind the actions of British famous VC winners. No doubt he will pocket the royalties from that same book whilst he was also responsible for denying the MOD sufficient funds to buy equipment to protect out troops in the warzone.
And as predicted the recriminations did commence last night. Bush felt the issue so important he had to 'drop in' to Iraq on his way to the Far East.
Then to make a speech blatantly setting out how America will not cut and run until the situation is stable was clearly intended as a dig at our withdrawal policy.
In time this situation will turn into another Vietnam and they will be chased out. It also probably spells the beginning for the end for any special relationship we are supposed to have had with the Americans......
Bush is clearly hacked off with GB which is good. But I'm utterly sickened by his latest appointments, Daily Mail mentality and lack of respect for the labour movement.I would not have believed it possible until very recently.
Who is writing this jingostic crap for Brown? For every VC winner ( no disrespect to theit bravery) there are thousands of corpses buried in the fields of France.Young men who died meaningless deaths in the First World War.
The 655,000 estimated dead in Iraq ( must be many more now) fow wbicb we must take responsibility. Sorry to rant. But am so, so angry with Brown's wrong-headed, right-wing drift.
"Gordon Brown gave the impression of someone living in a different world from the rest of us."
I know someone else like that...
An article in the The Mail on Sunday by Craig Murry brought home to me (as if I needed it) what a complete and utter disaster Thatcher was. A paragraph from Craig Murry`s article below...
Craig Murry...
"On the face of it, Britain is better placed than most of the EU because very little of our natural gas comes from Russia and we have entered long-term contracts that tie up most of Norway’s production."
http://tinyurl.com/34ffzn
I wrote this...
This brought back memories of Thatcher standing outside No 10 saying this... "I have agonised over this decision but feel it is the best thing to do"... what she was referring to was the burning off off 20/25 years supply of britains north sea gas into the atmosphere. She said it was to expensive to store it (she wanted the money to give tax cuts to get re-elected). Norway on the other hand did spend the money to store their north sea gas and are now selling it to us.
Thatcher also closed down our world leading clean coal technology centre well she didn`t like miners and her friends in the nuclear industry didn`t want coal. Came across this the other day (how sad am I)...
Taken from House of Commons Publications and Records office...
"Jeff Ennis (Barnsley, East and Mexborough) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend recall that, in the early 1980s, this country led the world in clean coal technology, through the fluidised bed plant at Grimethorpe colliery power station in my constituency? That plant was funded by more than 20 countries, including America and Japan. Unfortunately, the facility was closed down by Mrs. Thatcher. Does he agree that this country continues to regret that decision to this day?"
"Huw Irranca-Davies: Indeed, and I am sure that all Members here will agree that we want to regain that lead in clean coal technology to take us forward through not only the next few years but the next few decades. The export potential is massive, but it will not happen without investment and prioritising clean coal and carbon abatement technology."
http://tinyurl.com/2hwzds
Craig Murry site...
http://tinyurl.com/7ttma
..and while the country's eyes are turned toward Basra, Brown is quietly dismantling the party political system that has served the UK for many years.
If Stalin had created Citizen Juries, what credibility would we have given them? Brown tells us :-
"Once nearly 84 per cent of people voted, 17 out of every 20.In the last general election it was less than 62 per cent, just over 12 in every 20.In the 1950s, 1 in every 11 people joined a political party.Today it is 1 in every 88. Once political parties aggregated views from millions. Now they need to broaden their appeal to articulate the views of more than the few. In 1987, nearly half the electorate identified "very" or "fairly" strongly with a political party; now only 1 in 3 does so. And twenty years ago four in 10 people trusted the government "to put the needs of the nation above those of political party". More recently it has been only one in five.
This is not because politicians are necessarily any less trustworthy or because they work less hard."
http://www.labour.org.uk/gordon_brown_-_ncvo?PublishKey=2064648f-2111-d2b4-fdf2-03a9244a5962
He is wrong here, it is because the membership no longer trusts the leadership to stick to the main principles of the Labour Party. He understands this fully and knows that he is about to move further to the right in the near future. So now he turns his back on his labour members and turns to the Tory thinkers for his support and to underpin/tick the box of his intentions.
I don't think I am going to pay an annual subscription to put Tories into power.
"Gordon Brown gave the impression of someone living in a different world from the rest of us."
Could it be that it is us that are living in a different world?.
Consider this...why is it so difficult for a working class person to go no further then the rank of Sergeant Major in the british army? the officer class is the preserve of the middle and higher class.
Why is it to get a top job in the city of London you MUST have gone to a fee paying independent school?.
Does anyone think that the elite will hand over the wealth,the power,the privilege that they have just because the voters say they should?. Harold Wilson found out the state of play. It could be that some in New Labour have just given up and accepted the status que as Harold Wilson did...
"WHO WAS PLOTTING AN ARMY COUP TO GET RID OF HAROLD WILSON?"
"THIRTY years on, Paul Routledge says it's time to name bigwigs who planned to overthrow an elected PM."
http://tinyurl.com/325mk2
"Britain: Documentary reveals plan for coup against Wilson Labour government—Part 1"...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/wil1-a19.shtml
Part 2...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/wil2-a20.shtml
Who knows what the truth is?.
"Gordon Brown is spearheading a campaign to build national health systems in some of the world's poorest countries that will help save millions of lives."
It would be a good idea to start one off here in the UK first.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6979436.stm
This tells the truth as if it were needed.
Will the U.S. (or the UK) ever leave Iraq?
The Bases Are Loaded...
http://www.blip.tv/file/274043
John; on the troops withdrawing to the Basra Airport what would have happened if you had been elected as Leader of the Labour Party instead of Gordon and then had been made Prime Minister? Might the logistics of the situation not have determined that your timetable (as distinct from your spin) would have turned out to be much the same as Gordon's at this stage? There are (as you show) other things he needs to be criticised for at the moment. But don't criticise him for "there but for the grace of God go I".
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