Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Oh what a phony war

Over the last few years the phrase, "War Against Terror" has become oh so chic for politicians to trot out whenever they want to send more young men and women to die far from home, or restrict hard fought for human rights and freedoms that we can no longer take for granted, in support of an agenda most don't truly really understand.

People like Tony Blair and George W. Bush gave impassioned, untruthful, fear mongering speeches about the evil of terror with a fervor that would make a Welsh Baptist minister drop his collection plate in a fit of envy. Now they are no longer in power, they seem to have forgotten all about it as Bush pushes an American agenda in Haiti, and Blair does what he has always done, push his, "what's in it for me" agenda in the Middle East, a region the British cocked up in the first place.

In fact, a lot of things have been conveniently forgotten when it comes to supporting, financing and arming terrorists, such as the Bush Mafia's connections to the bin Laden family and Klan Kennedy's support of the IRA while they waged a terror campaign against America's future senior partner in the Coalition of The Blackmailed.

What they don't tell you, is that the War Against Terror, (do I hear a choir of ten thousand Christian Soldiers from up above?) is rather elitist. It is only waged on behalf of the self proclaimed, "Good Guys" - the west.

You don't hear too many western leaders rushing to the aid of those being terrorized every day by the likes of the Lords Resistance Army for example.

I can think of no other organization that is so barbaric and yet receives little or no mainstream media attention. Devotees of the opinion formers such as Fox News, CNN and Rupert Murdoch, would probably think it was a branch of the Salvation Army anyway (in fact, it was once called the United Holy Salvation Army." Not one of those fashionable wars you see. No percentage in it for leaders - or celebrities to get their photos in the paper raising money that will only be diverted anyway, as it was in Ethiopia when Saint Bob Geldof stuck his nose in and then soon forgot about when Ethiopia became less fashionable. Sorry Bob old chap, but a group of rock stars of dubious talent, grouped around microphones pressing headphones against their lugholes while adopting pained expressions as fake as a Victorian DVD player, did not improve the lives of Ethiopians as much as it improved your unjustified reputation as Geldof Of Africa.

Have you ever heard of Joseph Kony? Possibly you have - but the average John or Jane Doe in the street, would not have a clue, although they could more or less trot out the names of several nominated by the West as presenting a danger to the Good-Guys.

To put it politely, Kony is one evil son-of-a-bitch.

He has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 33 charges, 12 counts are crimes against humanity, which include murder, enslavement, sexual enslavement and rape. There are another 21 counts of war crimes which include murder, cruel treatment of civilians, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, pillaging, inducing rape, and forced enlisting of children into the rebel ranks.

The LRA, has abducted an estimated 30,000 children and displaced 1.6 million people

Have you heard any recent or current Western leaders clamoring for action against either Kony or the LRA? How many times have you heard the name Kony compared to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

The people of Uganda, Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo know his name. They know the fear, the mutilations, the forced slavery his followers inflict upon the defenseless.

The War Against Terror is a phony war, fought on behalf of those of us who live in the West, and who go about our everyday lives with hardly a thought given to suicide bombers or car bombers - unlike the civilians in countries where this phony war is being fought out on our behalf under false pretences. They, like those countries inflicted with the scourge of the LRA, face such fears every single day because of the actions of those of questionable integrity, thousands of miles from the streets of Baghdad or Kandahar.

And please don't tell me we are safe because of the immoral invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq - what risks there are, have spawned home grown terror cells as a result of such action.

The War on Terror will only be a real war, when it is fought on behalf of all those who suffer at the hands of the likes of Kony - not just for the benefit of one demographic or one society.

Related i On Global Trends article
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Lord's Resistance Army: 697 adults and children abducted during massive LRA campaign


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