3 Comments »

1. Indeed: we should shut up and wait until the appointment has gone through and it’s too late to do anything about it.

   Mind you, it’s hard to see how the World Bank policies could be any worse than they are now, and appointing a man with his record will remove all vestage of credibility. Which may be an improvement.

   Comment by Julian Todd — 18 Mar 2005 on 2:21 am | Link

2. Wolfowitz gets his mention.

   The Ballad of S.Hussain

   in the dim & distant eighties
   well before the last hurrah,
   the wicked people of Iran
   had ditched their saintly Shah.

   with forty million fervent
   Shia Muslims on the boil
   the West preferred the Sunnis
   to be managing the oil.

   & Rumsfeld came to Baghdad
   in nineteen-eighty-three:
   "would you think of standing up to
   Ayatollah Khomeini;

   "this letter from our President
   tells all there is to say.
   Ronnie & the Pentagon
   will back you all the way.

   "all the arms & money
   that you could ever need,
   & patriotic principle,
   & where that fails, there\x92s greed."

   they cosseted, supplied him
   they armed him to the teeth,
   lauded & hero-worshipped him;
   they stoked his self-belief.

   the CIA approved him
   a golden boy was Saddam;
   they gave him a list of lefties
   & straightaway he shot\x92em.

   he wanted something nuclear –
   "right here! inside the gate?"
   (it stayed; UN inspectors found it,
   nineteen ninety-eight.)

   "we know you don\x92t mean any harm,
   – though if perchance you did
   be sure we\x92d come & get you
   & screw down your little lid.

   "you\x92d like to use a chemical?
   we wouldn\x92t make a fuss –
   this gink is fighting on our side
   he\x92s just like one of us!

   "what\x92s he doing that\x92s out of place?
   we\x92d really like to know –
   didn\x92t we use agent orange
   not so very long ago?"

   they didn\x92t throw their hands up,
   they didn\x92t roll their eyes,
   they didn\x92t point a finger
   at "evil undisguised."

   they didn\x92t turn their face away
   they never mentioned guilt –
   & they didn\x92t just encourage him
   they backed him to the hilt.

   Kuwait

   Iran-Iraq fought eight long years;
   about a million died –
   the West was very happy
   that Saddam was on on its side.

   he asked Ambassador Glaspie
   how the US ranked Kuwait,
   said she "we\x92ve no position there."
   thinks he: "well well! why wait?…"

   & then they turned against him
   for taking them at their word.
   (ought one credit diplomats?
   now now, don\x92t be absurd.)

   they made themselves a demon –
   no finer to be had;
   & they killed a hundred thousand
   in the bombing of Baghdad…

   & with Kuwait set "free" once more
   the human rights abuses
   were twice as monstrous as before
   (Amnesty has its uses.)

   The Brits: their Ersatz Outrage.

   so who first bombed civilians?
   it\x92s there in white & black:
   not the wicked Germans but
   the British in Iraq.

   not only rebel towns, but ones
   who didn\x92t pay their taxes
   they bombed. who were these pioneers?
   Britishers, not Nazis;

   nothing like a load of bombs
   to make the meek feel meeker!
   the Germans copied that approach
   years later at Gernika…

   (turn on the full Churchillian blast –
   the greatest Brit inscribes:)
   \x93about using poison gas against
   uncivilis\xE8d tribes,

   \x93I frankly cannot understand,
   my dear old Colonel Gossage,
   why you should feel so squeamish!\x94 (\x93what?
   who? me sir? not a sausage!\x94)

   lies for King & Country
   \x93it was never about oil –
   white man\x92s civilising burden,
   missionary toil!

   \x93those promises to Arabs,
   that guarantee to Kurds?
   quoth Hamlet to Polonius
   words words words…

   \x93some manageable emirates –
   partition off Kuwait;
   & those bits beside the ocean
   no more than six or eight.

   \x93let\x92s put a King in Baghdad –
   we\x92ve got this Faisal fellow;
   his brother\x92s in Trans-Jordan,
   we put him there: Abdullah.

   \x93they\x92d better vote him in to show
   a democratic bent –
   say popular approval runs
   at ninety-six percent.\x94

   that was how they ran things back
   in 1933.
   something somewhat similar
   went on in Germany.

   but this was done by our chaps
   & New Labour is the heir –
   who better to defend it than
   the ethical Mr Blair.

   Corporate Control of Media

   when Atta\x92s magic passport
   came floating from the sun –
   did they know who they were looking for
   before the deed was done?

   it\x92s like the magic bullet from
   Lee Harvey Oswald\x92s gun
   they said caused seven wounds
   in one swift blow – not one by one.

   it turned up on the trolley
   they were wheeling Connally on;
   what could have caused this mayhem?
   it piped up \x93I\x92m the one!\x94…

   the journalists can see all that.
   so why no scrutiny?
   if they really cared for justice they
   would surely mutiny.

   but then they get these ukases
   & memos from on high.
   \x93tell it how we want it or
   you lose your job!\x94 – (or die.)

   so who owns all the media
   since 1996?
   four or five conglomerates – or
   at the outside six.

   even the fabled BBC
   in the U.K. (call it Uck):
   beautifully modulated
   platitudes & muck.

   \x93Israelis kill a dozen Pales-
   -tinians\x94 – no news.
   \x93two settlers die\x94 – another fearsome
   outrage against Jews!

   what Bush & Blair are saying
   now, twists & contradicts
   the conclusions just arrived at by
   the UN\x92s man, Hans Blix;

   & when Blix tells the press-corps
   how his words have been distorted,
   it simplifies the whole thing if
   they leave him unreported.

   Powell of My Lai

   that little \x91anthrax\x92 phial which
   the Secretary showed
   \x91could cause\x92 untold destruction…
   some explanation\x92s owed.

   the one that did the damage
   – so the Bureau told the press –
   originated in the old
   American Mid-West.

   the one that did the damage came
   from Iowa State at Ames;
   so \x91good cop\x92 Colin Powell\x92s playing
   very bad cop games.

   but what should we expect from one
   deputed to deny
   that Charlie Company massacred
   the children of My Lai.

   then it was Major Powell
   first took the public eye
   & every word he uttered
   was a demonstrable lie.

   so now he talks of \x91terror,\x92
   & a \x91poison factory\x92
   & \x91links to Al Qa\x92ida\x92
   (which only he can see)

   weapons of mass destruction &
   an \x91imminent nuclear threat\x92
   are we to swallow all he says?
   yes sir! right on! you bet!…

   the Al Qa\x92ida outfit is
   no more than five years old,
   so \x91decades of collusion\x92
   is imaginative, bold.

   Saddam\x92s link to Al Qa\x92ida
   had been forcefully denied
   by Pentagon, by CIA,
   by British MI5.

   it \x91foundered,\x92 that relationship,
   it sank – no ifs nor buts.
   Islamists & Ba\x92athists
   – hated each other\x92s guts.

   Bin Laden told his followers
   \x91according to Islam
   it would be quite all right to kill
   the infidel Saddam!\x92

   (imagine Blair saying \x91Dubya
   has to go – & that\x92s official!\x92
   hardly the sort of comment that
   would keep their friendship special –

   though when they talk & Bush suggests
   he bow his head to pray, it\x92s
   thoughts like that run through his head –
   he\x92s too polite to say it…)

   there are no nuclear weapons
   – the Pentagon knows that –
   & he hasn\x92t any rockets
   for the nukes he hasn\x92t got.

   as for the \x91poison factory\x92 run by
   Ansar al Islam
   (Kurdish fundamentalists –
   enraged against Saddam)

   they asked reporters in next day –
   empty rooms, bare walls,
   no plumbing… & no \x91smoking gun,\x92
   no factory at all.

   the State Department spokesthing held
   that \x91poison factory\x92
   would have to stand, since faute de mieux,
   \x91I can\x92t retract,\x92 said he,

   in a moment of rare insight,
   & speaking from the heart:
   \x91it\x92s not a description of the fact
   but more a term of art!\x92

   o holy mother of us all!
   so that\x92s what speech is for!
   he\x92s hit on a magic formula
   to send the world to war.

   what a public relations coup!
   that takes the golden biscuit.
   a casus belli! fight for art!
   it\x92s worth a chance! let\x92s risk it!…

   a dozen worse dictators,
   seven real nuclear powers,
   resolutions scouted by
   illicit occupiers?

   let not a lucid vision mock
   investigative toil;
   the chessboard has been well described
   this war is about oil,

   say Rove, Brzezinski, Rumsfeld, Cheney,
   Wolfowitz & Feith.
   they wrote it – all can read it,
   it\x92s not like it was Fate!

   & if a half a million
   get blown to kingdom come,
   the \x91West\x92 will save its living standards,
   not like some.

   Bush\x92s Last Word to the Children of Iraq

   you\x92ve got them hidden somewhere –
   doesn\x92t matter what you say,
   so it\x92s no good your pretending –
   gonna get you anyway!

   but we\x92ll bomb with that compassion
   that democracy holds dear –
   & we wouldn\x92t change our mind
   for all the oil in North Korea.

   Then & Now

   Hans Blix said \x93we need more time.\x94
   they couldn\x92t see what for.
   \x93our patience is exhausted!\x94 they
   let slip the dogs of war.

   \x93woof woof woof! bow-wow-wow-wow!
   & this will be the news:
   weapons of mass destruction – pow!\x94 –
   …let conscience not accuse

   because now the search is theirs, they haven\x92t
   found their sacred cow,
   & we hear them call for patience?
   \x93that was then & this is now!\x94

   \x93disarm\x94 becomes \x93regime-change\x94 –
   o it\x92s funny how it skews!
   when corporate ethics will allow it
   anything is news.

   \x93did anything surprise you –
   niggling doubts, unspoken fears?\x94
   \x93o don\x92t think that,\x94 says Tommy Franks,
   \x93this war\x92s been planned for years…\x94

   some German crowd did that before –
   \x92twas reckoned then a crime;
   a lot of them were hanged for it,
   the rest of them did time.

   that was then & this is now
   this ethic we may choose –
   Harvard biz-kids take a bow –
   & this shall be the news.

   this new shower claim exemption,
   & they\x92ve largely worked hush-hush;
   Wolfowitz & Cheney, Rumsfeld,
   Perle & Rove & Bush

   enjoy a civil status that
   puts them above the law;
   they\x92re purer than the angels
   when they plot their course for war.

   so one law for the Nazis &
   another for the Yanks –
   though their notions are quite similar,
   how best use guns & tanks –

   & reams of propaganda about
   \x93WMD\x94
   & bomb by day & bomb by night
   & bomb on live TV.

   it\x92s infotainment – crash-bang-pow!
   what channel would you choose?
   it\x92s worthy of the Chairman Mao.
   the masses will enthuse.

   the Big Lie beats the Little Lie.
   (will paper ink refuse?)
   & that was then & this is now –
   & this must be the news.

   Comment by Sydney Bernard Smith — 20 Mar 2005 on 8:07 am | Link

3. It would be impossible to stock all the unique colors that folks ask for on a regular basis. So instead we now offer a new and unique color every month.

   Comment by craps — 29 Jun 2006 on 4:49 pm | Link

---

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.