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BLAIR ADVISER WANTS A RETURN TO
'AGE OF EMPIRE'
by Rashmee Z. Ahmed
TIMES OF INDIA, 28 March 2002
With comments by Jared Israel
[Posted 1 April 2002]
=======================================
A FEW THOUGHTS...
Robert Cooper is a top
foreign policy advisor to British Prime Minister Tony
Blair. Indeed, he was Britain's man at the Bonn meeting
that set up the new Afghan government.
This powerful member of
the foreign policy establishment recently wrote a
pamphlet with a forward by Prime Minister Blair. The
pamphlet has caused quite a stir because in it, speaking
too openly, Cooper makes the following argument:
"Just like in
the old empire, Western countries would have to deal
with 'old-fashioned states outside the postmodern
continent of Europe with the rougher methods of an
earlier era - force, pre-emptive attack, deception,
whatever is necessary to deal with those who still
live in the nineteenth century...'"
So let's get this straight.
Is Cooper saying that in "the old empire" in
the 19th century the West had to contend with outrageous
and aggressive behavior by peoples in other lands? Is
that the idea?
What splendid doubletalk.
Worthy of George Orwell.
Was it China which, in the
19th century, invaded Britain to force the British
government to accept imported opium which was poisoning
the British population? (After Britain won a glorious
victory in the Opium Wars, thus
forcing China to enrich British merchants at the expense
of the Chinese population's health, the US and France
demanded and got from China the same right to import the
poisonous stuff. Vast fortunes were built on this
gangster trade.) (1)
Was it Congo that took
over the territory of Belgium and slaughtered ten million
residents? (The public justification was religion. The
real reason: to steal Congo's ivory and rubber.) (2)
Was it the Philippines
that conquered the US (to save it from Spain, of course)
or the American Indians who slaughtered most of the white
population and then banished the rest to barren lands? (7)
Was it Afghanistan that
three times waged colonial wars on British soil in what
it called a "Great Game" to use the
strategically located British Isles as a strategic base
for the control of Europe?
And as for the current
period:
* When the British
government publicly claimed to oppose Slovenia's violent
secession from Yugoslavia, while privately shipping the
secessionists 5 million pounds worth of military
communications equipment, was that not "deception"?
(3)
* What has the bombing and
economic strangulation of Iraq for the past decade by the
US and Britain amounted to, if not a continuous "pre-emptive
strike"? And why have the US, Britain and Germany
got Russia entirely surrounded now, with former Soviet
Republics taking part in NATO war games and US or NATO
troops in Georgia, Central Asia, Poland, the Baltic
region and the Balkans if not in preparation for "pre-emptive attacks" on Russia and
her allies? (4)
* Did Yugoslavia commit
the gravest crime possible under international law by
launching aggressive war against the territories of the
US, Britain and Germany? Did Yugoslav planes bomb schools
in Berlin, oil refineries in New Jersey, hospitals in
London or auto factories in Detroit? For that matter, did Yugoslavia attack any
other country? Ever? (8)
* Did Afghanistan recently
team up with the US and other countries to bomb and
invade England, including London, following which illegal
attack Robert Cooper, a top adviser to the Afghan King,
helped set up a new "independent" British
government in London?
* And regarding Robert
Cooper's amazing remark that one standard should be
applied when dealing with the "post-modern"
West and another when dealing with the "pre-modern"
rest, let me ask this: When Blair's former Foreign
Secretary, Robin Cooke, told the Western public the
outright lie that during Slobodan Milosevic's Martin Luther King-type
speech in Kosovo in June 1989,
Milosevic spread "ethnic hatred under the cloak of
nationalism" - when Cooke told this lie, was he not
following the dictates of the earliest and perhaps
greatest theoretician of postmodernism? (5)
I am speaking here of
course of Mr. Humpty Dumpty, who was quoted, (back in the
19th century) in the book, 'Through the Looking Glass,' (chapter
6) as follows:
"'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty
said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what
I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'"
Challenged with the response, 'The question is whether
you can make words mean so many different
things,' Mr. Dumpty replied as follows:
"'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty,
'which [of us] is to be master -- that's all.' (6)
And the same holds true regarding Mr. Cooper's
doubletalk. His real point is: the US, England and
Germany are to be master. Just as they were in the 19th
century.
That's all.
-- Jared Israel
BLAIR'S BRITAIN WANTS A RETURN TO 'AGE
OF EMPIRE'
by Rashmee Z. Ahmed
Reprinted from TIMES NEWS NETWORK [THURSDAY, MARCH 28,
2002 10:01:29 PM]
LONDON
Tony Blair has provoked alarm and concern within his
own party and in several Western capitals by allowing his
chief foreign policy advisor to call for a "new
imperialism" to re-order the post-September 11 world.
The call for a "defensive imperialism", with
Western countries, particularly Britain and the European
Union intervening abroad to restore order, comes in a
pamphlet that has a foreword by Blair himself.
Blair's advisor, Robert Cooper, who represented the
British government at the Bonn talks that produced the
interim Hamid Karzai administration in Afghanistan, is
known to have heavily influenced the British prime
minister's foreign policy thinking.
Just three months ago, Blair used the high-tech, but
hugely symbolic venue of Bangalore in the former British
Raj to speak of his vision for Britain as a "force
for good in the world".
Cooper, who argues for a "post-modern"
apartheid-like duality of laws and systems to deal with
"ourselves and the premodern world", says the
West will have to employ "double standards".
He said that like the old empire, Western countries
would have to deal with "old-fashioned states
outside the postmodern continent of Europe with the
rougher methods of an earlier era - force, pre-emptive
attack, deception, whatever is necessary to deal with
those who still live in the nineteenth century..."
The pamphlet, which contains a thoughtful essay on
Hindu, Muslim and Christian identity by Amartya Sen, is
published by the Foreign Policy Centre, set up by Blair
and of which he remains the patron.
The document continues a theme that analysts describe
as increasing assertiveness by the British government.
Just 48 hours ago, British foreign secretary Jack
Straw declared that "the UK is not a superpower, but
we have continuously shown that we play a pivotal role.
We can - and do - make a big difference. Our challenge is
to stave off the Afghanistans of the future".
Straw's comments came soon after Geoff Hoon, the
defence minister, warned that the UK would not flinch
from retaliatory nuclear strikes against Baghdad.
Even as commentators expressed surprise and alarm at
the very public neo-imperial ambitions of Blair's
Britain, sections of his own party dismissed the prime
minister's foreign policy advisor as a maniac.
One outspoken MP, opposed to widening the war on
terror to include Iraq, suggested that "the Russian
Tsarina was better advised by Rasputin than the Prime
Minister is by this maniac. To claim that the need for
colonialism may be as great as in Victorian times is
extraordinary".
But a spokesman for the Foreign Policy Centre told
this paper the call for a new Western imperialism may
have been "misread".
(c)opyright Times of India 2002. Reprinted for fair
use only.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=5191650
***********************
Further Reading:
***********************
(1) You can read about
the Opium Wars at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/heroin/opiwar1.htm
(2) On the genocide of
10 million in Congo, see 'Eyewitness To Hell,'
at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/russell.htm
(3) When Slovenia and
Croatia threatened to secede from Yugoslavia in 1991, the
British Foreign Office publicly called for maintaining
the integrity of Yugoslav borders. But the covert policy
was quite different, as demonstrated by one piece of that
policy which has been brought out in the open. Reports
the London Guardian: "Eight days before Slovenia
became the first area to break from the unified
Yugoslavia in 1991, a British firm delivered
communications equipment to the Slovenian forces to help
them fight the Serb-led Yugoslav army. The revelation
that this deal was approved by the Conservative
Government will embarrass former Foreign Secretary
Douglas Hurd." (Guardian, May 28, 2000, British deal
fuelled Balkan war by Blaz Zgaga and Antony Barnett)
http://google.com/search?q=cache:eHxhMl2XkMEC:www.guardianKosovo.co.uk//Story/0,2763,319362,00.html+%22Eight+days+before+Slovenia+became%22&hl=en
This military equipment sale, which you
will note took place with government approval, told the
Slovenians: pay no attention to our protests. Go ahead
and secede.
(4) Regarding the
encirclement of Russia, see 'Why Does Washington Want Afghanistan?' by Jared Israel, Rick Rozoff and Nico
Varkevisser at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/afghan.htm
(5) Slobodan
Milosevic's 1989 speech at Kosovo Fields was very
important at the time. As you will see when you read it
at
http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/milosaid.html
Milosevic celebrates the Serbs' refusal to accept
mistreatment and, at the same time, he calls on all
ethnic groups to fight for multiethnic unity. In fact he
says multiethnic unity is the strength of Serbia and a
requirement for Yugoslavia's survival. That is why I call
it a 'Martin Luther King-type speech.'
But don't take my word. Read the speech. And
read Professor Francisco Gil-White's article which proves, in case after case, that the
mainstream media has deliberately lied about the speech,
just the way British Foreign Secretary Robin Cooke lied
about it.
To read Professor Gil-White's article,
'Media Misrepresentation of Milosevic's Words: A
Review of the Evidence,' go to
http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/gw.htm
(6) FOOT-IN-MOUTH
DEPARTMENT.
Here's an excerpt from a (London) DAILY MAIL
article about Mr. Cooper's pamphlet on foreign policy:
DAILY MAIL (London)
March 29, 2002 Pg. 37
The new colonialism; Blair aide calls for return to the
empire
By Graeme Wilson
ONE of Tony Blair's key advisers sparked outrage
yesterday by calling for a new era of imperialism.
Foreign Office mandarin Robert Cooper said a form of
colonialism was needed to bring order to an unstable
world.
This colonialism, modelled on the Roman Empire and the
EU, could offer citizens 'some of its laws, some of its
coins and the occasional road', he said. The civil
servant, who has been seconded to Downing Street to
advise the Prime Minister on foreign policy, said the
threat of global terrorism could force the West to
respond with 'defensive imperialism'.
His comments were greeted with anger and astonishment by
Labour backbenchers, who argued that colonialism involved
'invasion, occupation and pillaging other people's wealth
and assets'.
MPs have already declared their overwhelming opposition
to British involvement in a war against Iraq.
They are concerned because Mr Cooper, who represented
Britain at the Bonn talks to form Afghanistan's new
government, has played a prominent role in Downing Street
since September 11.
[End excerpt from Daily Mail ]
Here's My Question: Do all these MPs
really disagree with what Cooper wrote? Or are some of
them perhaps upset because they like to talk anti-imperialism
while doing imperialism (as in "humanitarian bombing")
and now Mr. Cooper has given away the Game?
(7)
The great American author, Mark Twain, wrote scathingly
about the US assault on the Philippines. For links to
these writings, go to http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/twain/
8) During the NATO bombing in spring
1999, autoworkers at the huge Zastava Plant in Serbia occupied their
factory buildings to protect the machinery with their
bodies. To find out what happened, read 'We did not
believe they would bomb us,' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/car.htm
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