Saturday, January 02, 2010

John Major, Saddam, Blair - and what to do about dictators?

John Major on Today programme condemns Tony Bliar's argument that his Iraq war was justified because it removed Saddam.

Quite so.

But do we have to therefore just tolerate dictators, no matter what they do, because war just makes matters worse?

Green Party policy is to get the UN to report on the human rights performance of all states on a yearly basis, publishing the results, and bringing non-violent, legal pressure on the dysfuncitonal regimes. We are also going to vote at our next Conference (Feb 18-21) on means of bringing immediate non-violent pressure on the oppressive regimes.

More here.

2 comments:

Kaze no Kae said...

"But do we have to therefore just tolerate dictators, no matter what they do, because war just makes matters worse?"
Revolution from below. And that need not even mean bloodshed, if it happens suddenly enough - the masses are, after all, the masses, and can therefore take power simply by ceasing to defer to power.

DocRichard said...

Yes, but the critical mass thing has to happen. And it can be tough. Look at what Iran is going through. Look at what the SPG does to peaceful protesters.

I'm not being cowardly, just wanting to look at all the aspects.

Anyway, we can be working on the Index at the global end, and the bloodless revolution at the same time.

I stipulate bloodless. Otherwise it's me and my colleagues who have to do all the sewing up.