Armed Forces Bill

D84

Well-known member
Holy crap! I'm reading this post about the recent sentencing of Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith for refusing to serve in Iraq because of the invasion's illegality where I just noticed this quote from the Independent :

The effect of this ruling on soldiers who take a similar stand in the future could be even graver. The Armed Forces Bill - now going through Parliament - will impose harsh penalties, including life imprisonment, on soldiers who refuse to take part in military occupations.

A little-known section introduces a new tougher definition of desertion so that soldiers who intend to avoid serving in a “military occupation of a foreign country or territory” can be imprisoned for life.

New Labour are out of control... It sounds as though they're planning more wars and atrocities... How much more obvious could they make it?
 
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corneilius

Well-known member
only you .....

Theyare planning more wars. Tony Blair in a conference with BIG business recentl made the statement that "we are facing a clash of civilisations" and has implied that the clash is between those who oppose democracy (ie: Muslims and Terrorists) and those who espouse freedom and democracy (The UK and USA). In his speech he said that this would be a long struggle.

He is off the rails, and the plan to nuke Iran is fully underway. They are obviously trying to rush to move the laws ahead so they can quash any dissent, by criminalizing all who oppose them.

They know that they will not survive the next elections in two years time (even though there is no effective opposition, the parties are all equally involved) as public opinion is now very much against the war on terror, the use of nuclear weapons etc, and angry at the lies, the kow-towing to corporate interests and so on.

Think of it, if the LARF bill had gone through they'd have been able to institute a draft for the military.

he US has already had all school records made available to the Selective Service Board in preparation for this.

These are the real reasons behind recent Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, the ID card bill, the tagging of Asylum Seekers, the recent attempt by Lord Falconer to imply that the lords function is to rubberstamp parliaments decisions after making minor ammendments to bills, the recent statements by John Reid and Jack Straw that the Geneva Convention is out of date and needs to be scrapped/replaced.

And if you look at what is happening in South America, where the people and governments are beating back the corporates (recently in Bolivia, Bechtel were forced to settle a 50 million pound case they brought against the Bolivian Government, who had chucked them out of Bolivia for raising the price of water, after the WTO had earlier forced the Bolivian Government to privatise the water back in 2000 and gave Bechtel the contract. The settlement was for 30 cents, yes thrity cents! It can be done!)) Chavez is doing the same - he nationalised the oil industry.... you will see that we can stop these madmane, but only if we work together, in huge numbers. The madmen know this and it's a bit like a race, as to who will get there first.

So the order of the day is to understand what is happening, to articulate an alternative, one that works and has real meaning to people at the community level. Start now, speak to people, send info out. Start with your street. Leaflet every house on your street. People around you need to know that you, that someone cares enough to be active. That will help them break their hypnosis.

The alternative is to sit around and moan and complain and wait for the hammer to fall, which it will most certainly do if that is the limit of y/our involvement. Or to party like mad, to pretend it is not happening. Such is life in the 21st Century.
 
D

droid

Guest
corneilius said:
They <i>are</i>y planning more wars. Tony Blair in a conference with BIG business recentl made the statement that "we are facing a clash of civilisations" and has implied that the clash is between those who oppose democracy (ie: Muslims and Terrorists) and those who espouse freedom and democracy (The UK and USA). In his speech he said that this would be a long struggle.

He <i>is</i> off the rails, and the plan to nuke Iran <i>is</i> fully underway. They are obviously trying to move the laws ahead so they can quash any dissent, and criminalize all who oppose them.

Since when did the 'spear carrier' plan the war? Britain hasnt acted unilaterally, or taken the lead in any major conflict since Suez (Argentina hardly counts). Blairs tired rhetoric is designed purely to give the impression that he actually has a policy other than riding the US's military coat-tails wherever they may drag him... in that respect he's not unlike every prime minister since the 50s...

*OT - The majority of forums use BB code or [Square brackets] for tags... or else you could use the buttons below 'font' in the reply pane... :cool:
 

corneilius

Well-known member
UK is culpable - in full - it's not about quantity, it's qualative

I get from history, from the literature of dissent, and from other sources, such as anthropology, psychology and welfare - a reasonablely wide read knowledge - how deeply interpenetated the UK and USA power elites are with each other, and apart from the illusion provided by nationalism, they are one block of power.

The Bank of England has US ownership. The Federal reserve Board has UK ownership. Both are private NGOs, more or less. The NYE SE is planning to make a bid for the London Stock exchange, of which they are already major shareholders.

Corporations are webs of power that combine, exercising control over national governments, local councils and education (universities and now secondary schools).

Blairs cabinet lied, Bushs' cabinet lied, both their assemblies bought the lie, knowing they were lies, thus all who enabled that decision are culpabale for the 200,000+ deaths, the maimings, the use of depleted uranium. They are one in this responsibilty. That is the only sane perspective as I see and feel it.

Those who use violence, in response and otherwise, on the other sides are culpable too, and must also made accountable, yet it is to us to first address our side of the story, and that means our political and corporate leadership, and the structures that allow them to behave like this, and to hold all to account.

I will of course remember to use the text tool-bar in future.
 
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