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Roger Warren Evans
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item0040D 706, 707 28 April 2003
E-mail from Chris Close from Northumberland Dear Roger The entire justification for this War was the destruction of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Poodle Blair needs now to tell us where they are - or is it the case that there was never anything to discover, and that this War was all about a failing economic regime in the USA, backed up by the UK - trying to punch a weight it has not possessed for many a long year? I share your thoughts about the correspondents you refer to (Rawnsley, Aaronovitch, Cohen) - but of course this war was about destroying any credible military challenge to Israel - who hold the purse strings of the world Banks. Now they are trying to turn on Syria, the only other Middle East country who might check Israel's expansion and the persecution of Palestinians. I do NOT support Sadman Hussein or any other dictator. But what I do recognise is that if you waged war against all the countries who flagrantly breached UN resolutions, then Israel should have probably been ahead of Iraq.No - this war was about convenience, money and the support of Israel. If no WMD are found, what tripe will Blair now utter to justify the slaughter of many innocent lives? Chris Close Social worker, social advocacy for the disadvantaged Northumberland ======================================== Dear Chris Good to hear from you, and thanks for responding – I suspect this form of exchange is more effective than the ever-chattering “chatrooms” – thanks for taking the trouble to write. For many people, the identification of “ Weapons of Mass Destruction” has become a new landmark, a new benchmark in the debate. I share your scepticism about this, but for a different reason. For me, it is not the crucial issue. Nor do I accept or concur with your view of the pro-Israel lobby, strong as it is. I do accept,though, that the strength of the US Israel lobby is an important factor in US domestic politics – there, the lobby-card is certainly of relevance. And my
view is that the Republicans are playing a
domestic political game.
Their imperialism abroad is an aspect of strategy at home. And it is
indeed about much more than oil. They are preoccupied with remaining at the
levers of power, maximising their opportunity to suborn the American
governmental system, and to give it an even more decisive skew in favour of big
business. They are
pursuing a classic Party strategy to secure Bush’s re-election
in November 2004. The Party is desperate to control the Presidency until
2009, and they will do anything to achieve that.
The Iraq War was in my view illegal whether WMD are now discovered or not. There was no UN authorisation. The Kuwait Resolution was manifestly exhausted, beyond resurrection. And there was no case arising from self-defence or the imminent threat of attack. The mere possession or “presence” of WMD did not – and never could have – justified unilateral initiating aggression. There was no lawful justification for this aggression. Blair found himself skewered upon his own personal commitment to Bush and to the United States , and was finally left with no convincing rationale upon which to rely. Yet he used the Royal Prerogative to take his country into war. That was an unlawful act in his part, whatever the outcome of the Commons "advisory" vote. The Royal Prerogative is vested in the Prime Minister, not the Commons.This was a trumped-up War, politically and militarily destructive, profoundly damaging to future world order, and one which will remain a dark stain upon the good name of Britain – whether WMD are found or not. Indeed, we must find a way of recording and declaring the truth of that illegality, for posterity and the purposes of reconciliation throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world. Roger Warren EvansDo you have anything to add? Drop me a line
28 April 2003 Pensions dire straits All EU countries face one gigantic, common problem. Not foreign policy, not George Bush, not "drugs", not immigration. It is the failure of their various systems for the provision of old age pensions. New UK data, published this week, shows that the private pensions "industry" is collapsing before our eyes, facing the impossible task of regaining saver confidence. Compulsory state systems are either too limited (UK) or too expensive (France, German, Italy) to meet the bill.
For the entire wellbeing of the modern economy turns on the strength of domestic demand [see Confidence is indivisible] And in all our private thoughts, there is the constant interplay of the forces of pessimism and optimism - each person carries in the mind a unique combination of characteristics tending towards pessimism or optimism, propensities which change with age, family situation and life circumstance. That is the key thesis of my own 1992 paper Multiple Differential Uncertainty - which is an analytical theme now coming into its own. And for adults, nothing is more corrosive of day-to-day confidence than the fear of impoverishment in old age. The only comparable fear is the ever-present fear of unemployment, which affects us all, at most ages: there, I have a different remedy to offer. The fear of old age indigence seems to me to be a universal human preoccupation - countered by a wide range of social institutions - familial, social, political, religious, financial. European society, if it is to thrive economically, must find ways of countering these fears. We all have a common interest in finding a political solution to this conundrum - because our markets are all increasingly interdependent. Worried Bavarians, worried Catalans, and worried Bretons, are a threat to all our livelihoods. Each country must, I accept, find its own politically and socially acceptable solution. But my nose tells me that this is a case for pragmatic, practical socialism. We will all end up avoiding any personal dependence upon stock-market performance, and look to our fellow-citizens (that is, the State) to assure us that our old age will not be impoverished. At today's values, every UK citizen should be given the state-backed assurance that the Old Age Pension will always be worth at least £150 per week, or £7,500 per year.
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