Impotence in the face of impunity? By William Bowles

29 February 2012

A fellow writer tells me that she feels overwhelmed by events and I feel the same way. An awful sense of deja vu that we have as much chance of stopping the march to total war as they had in the 1930s. Except that this time it will not be us citizens of Empire who are on the receiving end of Western industrial-scale murder and pillage. The world’s first colonial world war, with the haves pitted against the have-nots. As I have remarked before, without a non-capitalist alternative to not only reign in some of the ‘excesses’ of capitalism but also curtail its relentless expansion, the world is essentially defenceless.

Are we living in a fool’s paradise? By William Bowles

21 December 2011

Well 2011 has been nothing if not eventful but frankly, in spite of all the #Occupy this and #Occupy that, it’s not been a good year for us progresssives or the planet. The Empire acts with increasing, not decreasing impunity, desperate now to try and keep ahead of events lest events take control of it.

The BBC: NATO’s media partner-in-crime By William Bowles

25 October 2011

Well they’ve finally silenced Muammar Gaddafi, the man the BBC calls “an oddball until the end”. The manner of his capture and death seems not to bother the BBC but then who cares about ‘oddballs’?

What is going on in Libya? By William Bowles

29 August 2011

29 August 2011

Some Tweets on ‘African Mercenaries’

J0nblaz @al_Jamahiriya @journalist92 This what we mean by Black Libyans being pursued & executed by NATO rabble terrorists! goo.gl/tkaDP

MikePrysner Rebels are correct; many Black Africans being lynched in #Libya were “hired by #Gaddafi.” They’re called immigrant workers, not mercenaries, about 3 hours ago

Welcome to the world of terrorist television By William Bowles

4 August 2011

“Nato has attacked a Libyan state broadcaster in the capital, bombing three satellite dishes in Tripoli, saying the channel instils hatred.” — ‘Libya unrest: Nato bombs state broadcaster‘, BBC News 30 July 2011

At first when I heard this I couldn’t believe my ears. What a pathetic excuse for killing people but then desperate times demand desperate measures. The Empire is in disarray!

The Left has lost its way over Libya By William Bowles

26 July 2011

In an essentially excellent piece Sarah Flounders ‘Libya: Demonization and Self-determination‘, near the beginning under the sub-head ‘What should be the response to this terror?’ she writes:

“Unfortunately, a minority of groups or individuals who present themselves as opponents of war spend more time cataloguing Gadhafi’s past real or alleged shortcomings than rallying people to respond to this criminal, all-out U.S. attack. Their influence would be small, except that it coincides with the opinions of the U.S. ruling class. Thus it is important to thoroughly answer their arguments.”

Russia Today: A new kind of media? By William Bowles

2 July 2011

Is Russia Today a sign of things to come in the world media order?

A global, digital media cuts both ways or as they say ‘what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander’. The arrival of The Real News Network, Democracy Now! and grtv for example demonstrates what can be done, even on a shoestring budget. But to get onto the global media circuit still requires big bucks in spite of all the talk about ‘convergence’ and ‘citizen journalism’.

Syria/Libya versus Bahrain: A BBC factoid By William Bowles

23 June 2011

Facts are wonderful things, ignore them at all cost:

“Was the decision taken [by NATO] that killing civilians here would save others elsewhere?” — ‘Libya: Funerals fuel controversy over Nato airstrikes‘, Jeremy Bowen, BBC News Website, 22 June 2011

When I first heard this report by Bowen on 22/6/11 I couldn’t believe my ears! Here is the much vaunted objectivity of the BBC revealed for what it’s worth, nothing, nothing at all. Does Bowen really listen to what he himself said? Kill little children here so that these little children won’t kill people elsewhere?

William Hague: Following in Churchill’s footsteps By William Bowles

16 June 2011

“I do not understand this sqeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes.” — Winston Churchill in 1920 when referring to Iraqi tribes people.

Now let me get this straight: In order to save civilian lives (the infamous ‘Right to Protect’), the Empire, through its Rottweiller NATO, not only deindustrializes Libya but it also causes a mass exodus of refugees hundreds of whom drowned and many thousands more were left stranded, attacked and abused. The Pirates attempted to assassinate Gaddafi but succeeded in killing women and children instead. The Pirates bomb educational infrastructure, communications, power, agriculture and terrorize the population from the air and sea with the combined military might of the most powerful countries on the planet. So this is what humanitarian intervention looks like?

Empire Games – but who writes the rules? By William Bowles

12 June 2011

The Western left’s abdication, nay abandonment of principles that go to the heart of the socialist liberation project has been long in the making, decades even and made all the more obvious by the left’s take on events in Libya and now Syria. Critiques of the ‘humanitarian, socialist interventionists’ came thick and thin but for the most part the fundamental question of why the left had abandoned its historic mission has not been asked.