There is just no easy answer

Been discussing withdrawal from Iraq on t r u t h o u t

There are yards and yards of comment and debate to read. Everyone is agreed that it was a dumb idea to invade Iraq, can't imagine what made them do it in the first place, just didn't think, seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time. The question is, should the US/UK just pull out, or should we pull out and ask some other poor sucker to go in and keep the peace for us?

This is my 2p worth

OK so we can't stay 'cos we provoking the insurgents, but Bush won't leave 'cos he went there for the oil; he could cling onto the oilfields and ask the UN please to do the peacekeeping in the bits that he doesn't want but the UN won't do that 'cos they haven't the manpower or the inclination given the way Bush spoke to them before the war, so there isn't a way out so we better stay but we cant stay cos we is provoking ... (return to the top)

Life and Death over Jordan's stream...

Only sewage keeps the Jordan alive Guardian, International News, March 9), but it does not have to be like this. Everybody can understand that the natural world is our common inheritance. If a community or an industry draws on that commons, natural justice requires that they pay their neighbours for the common goods that they lose out on. Tradable water usage quotas would figure here, causing money to flow from Israelis to the Jordanians and Palestinians, given that the Israelis have a higher water usage. More importantly, the increased cost of water would stimulate effective water conservation measures.

The sewage problem is solved by simply requiring that the intake for any settlement is sited downstream of the discharge pipe. This would stimulate development of non-water based sewage systems. The environment in the Middle East is a life and death matter today, not tomorrow. If they fight over water and other environmental resources, it will mean death. If they co-operate in ensuring that the Middle East environment has the capacity to carry its human population, the very co-operation will divert energy, attention and resources away from the conflict that looms there, and will mean life.

Will this be reported in the papers?

Anti-Nuclear Protesters from across the country are locked on to a 25 foot mock Trident nuclear Submarine outside the Scottish Parliament today. They are raising awareness of the UK’s obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to get rid of Trident. There are 17 people inside the submarine locked on including a member of the Scottish Parliament Rosie Kane MSP. They began their protest at 10.15 this morning. A number of MEPs have come outside the parliament building to show their support. There have been no arrests as yet although the protests will not move until their Trident submarine has been dismantled – symbolising the dismantling of the real Trident subs.

Give me Liberty or Give Me Civil Disobedience

The British Government is acting to remove ancient civil liberties with its Control Orders Bill. It is ironic that it is the unelected House of Lords that is acting as the main opposition to this dangerous step towards a police state - but their resistance can only be short lived and partial.

Public opinion, sadly, seems not to be too bothered about it, thinking that it will help to keep them safe from the terrorist bogey man.

They are ignorant that the evidence of the "intelligence" community (which will be the trigger for the Control Order) may come at least in part from places like Uzbekistan, where 99% of people taken to court are sent to prison, and 90% of prisoners are tortured.

They are ignorant of the fact that most people (including me, sorry folks) will, sooner or later, tell their torturers what they want to hear.

So if I treat an Uzbekistani patient, and then she is arrested here, and sent to Uzbekistan as a secret "rendition", and under torture remembers that I am politically active, and names me as a terrorist sympathiser, this "intelligence" could put me under a Control Order. Fanciful? Yes, but we live in times when politicians are acting out their fantasies on a daily basis.

So this legislation is an attack on our civil rights. It is intolerable.
We in the Social Forums, Greens, progressives, socialists, Quakers and liberal minded people need to consider how far we are prepared to take our opposition in terms of civil disobedience. I look with envy at the mass demonstrations they have had in the Ukraine, and now the Lebanon and also Kuwait. And I look back at the old Poll Tax demonstrations. If only we could have that here, over the Control Orders...

Realistically, and sadly, British society has not yet reached the rebellion point over this issue. But we, in the vanguard, should begin to think in these terms. What should we do if public opinion suddenly catches on?
Where should we demonstrate? In London, or in every town throughout the land? The success of the recent demonstrations seems to depend on the fact that they do not pack up and go home at 5 pm. How do we accommodate that? How will people drink, eat, stay warm, and relieve themselves?
Is there any other action that we could take, ourselves, to move things forward? How about the mini strike, 9 - 9.15 on Monday mornings, gathering in the neighbourhood square, or even around the office water dispenser?

Could we even link our demonstrations with peaceful demonstrations In Iraq and Palestine calling for removal of occupying forces?

Please debate, and copy/paste and pass this message on to your friends an colleagues, amended or unamended; if it gets widespread dissemination and discussion, it will eventually get back to Government, and even this may be enough to make them see political sense, and abandon their plans to tear up the civil liberties won through the suffering and campaigning of preceding generations.

Held back

Just back from the Green Party (England and Wales) Conference in Chesterfield. It was a sobering conference, with messages about the human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, condoned by the US and UK, by considerations of population and conflict, and updates on Peak Oil. The main problem for me personally was that the Index of Governance Motion was referred back (of which more later). As usual, the real conference was conferring with people. A chance exchange with Brian Leslie just before the Review led to 30 minutes of frantic scribbling, with the following result:



HELD BACK



Unutterably sad
they burnt the ash tree
there, where it fell
because they could not
find a way to use its
strength.


Unutterably sad
they burnt those creatures
stinking, in piles
because they would not
use the means they had to
cure.

Unutterably sad
Uzbekistan screams
under the lash
because the dark lord
wants land, to launch his
strike.

Unutterably sad
that mathematics
- a body count -
is not a subject
to which we, we may give
thought

Unutterably sad
that those who love life
should so fall prey
to operators
who hold us all back with their
lies




(c) Richard Lawson
Chesterfield 07-03-2005