A history lesson By William Bowles

25 December 2011 — Strategic Culture Foundation

I don’t remember much about my high school years. Some of the highs (few in number) come back to me but it was mostly lows which probably explains why I don’t remember much. It’s not that I was dumb, I just had no motivation, but I was interested in history, jazz and politics (thanks to my parents) and even won a prize for a history essay as well as starting up the school’s first jazz appreciation society (not appreciated by the school I might add, the head of music tore down my posters).

An Epoch of Rest By William Bowles

17 September 2009

“It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which shall be worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to do; and which shall be done under such conditions as would make it neither overwearisome nor over-anxious.” — William Morris, ‘Art and Socialism’.

William Morris’s News from Nowhere, his future history of a ‘return’ to an idealized vision of a pre-capitalist society, part feudal, part agrarian socialism, I read when I was a teenager, and perhaps oddly, I also read it as a science fiction story.

No place to run, no place to hide By William Bowles

29 December 2008

So much has been written about the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip and by people with a far greater understanding of the reality of it than I, nevertheless I feel impelled to put pen to paper not only about our collective indifference to the wholesale slaughter being carried out in the name of the ‘chosen people’ but to the media’s ‘coverage’ that has been nothing short of scandalous and especially the BBC’s.

The BBC back-peddles big time or how to completely rewrite history before the ink’s even dried By William Bowles

29 October 2007

Question: When is a Plan not a Plan?

Answer: When the Plan is not a Plan, Plan

The BBC is currently flighting a programme in two parts entitled ‘No Plan, No Peace – the Inside Story of Iraq’s Descent into Chaos’ (28 and 29 October on BBC1).

Way back and many times inbetween I have asserted that there was never meant to be a plan (at least in the generally accepted sense of the word) and indeed in 2003, the Bush regime stated that deposing Saddam was never about ‘nation-building’:

‘To make it clear that a post-war U.S. military operation in Iraq is not a nation-building exercise, the Bush Administration should state that the U.S. military will be deployed to Iraq to secure the vital U.S. security interests for which the campaign is undertaken in the first place. Specifically, these war aims should be to:

‘Protect Iraq’s energy infrastructure against internal sabotage or foreign attack to return Iraq to global energy markets and ensure that U.S. and world energy markets have access to its resources.’ – In Post-War Iraq, Use Military Forces to Secure Vital U.S. Interests, Not for Nation-Building by Baker Spring and Jack Spencer. Backgrounder #1589, September 25, 2002 www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/bg1589.cfm%00

(See also Independence Day by William Bowles – Sunday, 4 June, 2006 www.williambowles.info/ini/2006/0606/ini-0419.html)

The lights are on but is anyone home? By William Bowles

8 September 2003

Bush the smaller made his pitch to the nation over the weekend to “save civilisation” from terrorism and told us that the “frontline” was now Iraq. So Saddam disappears not only literally but also figuratively to be replaced by the generic ‘threat’ that has been the real core of the propaganda since 9/11. And in a complete volte face, Bush the smaller now wants the UN to take on its “responsibility” to pay for the war unleashed on the world by the USUK imperium.

Between Iraq and a hard place By William Bowles

20 August 2003

The latest bombing in Iraq of the UN headquarters has, understandably, put the frighteners on the USUK alliance. For not only does it up the anté, it puts the USUK on the spot.

Remembering Vietnam William Bowles

7 July 2003

My, what short memories we have. In 1954 the French colonialists got their arses kicked by the Vietnamese at Diem Bien Phu and thus began US imperialism’s mission in stemming the ‘red tide’ in South East Asia. But even before the French defeat, the US had been supplying the French with weapons and logistics support as part of its Cold War strategy directed against the USSR and China.

While the US crows, Iraq resists By William Bowles

14 June 2003

The USUK would have us believe that those Iraqis who are now fighting back against occupation are the ‘remnants’ of Saddam’s regime. Yet what evidence is there for this assertion? The bottom line is none, aside from leaflets, one of which is apparently a message from Saddam. But aside from the leaflets, there’s not a single shred of evidence to support the idea.