British Foreign Secretary\u00a0Boris Johnson\u00a0has suggested the UK could join US military action against the Syrian government without parliamentary approval. Johnson said he and PM Theresa May agreed that in the event of another chemical attack by the Assad regime, it would be hard for the UK to refuse any request to join military action.<\/p>\n
No evidence has been provided that the Syrian government was responsible for the recent attack. If anything, as with the previous alleged chemical weapons attack<\/a> in 2013, available evidence and logic would suggest it is the\u00a0US-backed<\/a>\u00a0terror groups trying to topple the government\u00a0that are responsible<\/a> and that the situation is part of the psych-ops being used to rally Western public support for direct military action against the Syrian government.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, speaking on BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme,\u00a0Johnson said<\/a>:<\/p>\n “If the United States has a proposal to have some sort of action in response to a chemical weapons attack, and if they come to us and ask for our support, whether it is with submarine cruise missiles in the Med or whatever it happens to be, in my view, and I know this is also the view of the prime minister, it would be very difficult for us to say no.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It appears the decision to bypass parliament and press ahead has already been made. Indeed, he continued by implying parliament might indeed be sidelined in the push to attack Syria. Asked if any UK strikes against\u00a0Syria\u00a0would need parliamentary approval, Johnson said:<\/p>\n \u201cHow we exactly implement that would be for the government and for the prime minister to decide. But if the Americans were once again forced by the actions of the Assad regime and they asked us to help, it would be very difficult to say no.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, has rejected such action\u00a0by stating<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need unilateral action. We need to work through the UN, but above all we need to bend ourselves totally to getting a political settlement in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Johnson has gone out of his way to portray Corbyn as weak and indecisive on military questions:<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a real risk that the government of a very great country could be handed over to a guy who has been hostile to Nato all his political career … who would disarm us of nuclear weapons, and a guy who has said he would not advocate a shoot-to-kill policy in the event of an Islamist terrorist putting innocent people\u2019s lives at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n He adds that Corbyn as PM would be \u201ccalamitous\u201d in an \u201cage of uncertainty\u201d with growing threats from Russia, North Korea and Islamic terrorism.<\/p>\n Johnson says:<\/p>\n \u201cIn recent years we have seen an increase in the global tally of deaths from wars. We and our allies face threats from countries with a nuclear weapons capacity, and from those trying to acquire that capacity…\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time for many years, some countries are trying to change European borders, not by agreement, but by force. And, as we have seen across Europe in recent months, we face a continued battle against terrorism and the hateful ideology of Islamic extremism.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Highlighting Corbyn’s refusal to consider using the nuclear deterrent, he argues:<\/p>\n \u201cThere can be no more important task for a Government than to keep people safe \u2013 and we must be prepared to do everything necessary to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Boris Johnson reading from the neocon script<\/strong><\/p>\n Before proceeding, if Johnson and others wish to attack Corbyn for his rejection of nuclear weapons and play some kind of point-scoring morality game, is it he and not Corbyn who is placing humanity in danger; it is he and not Corbyn who should think long and hard about the implications of threatening millions (or billions) with nuclear annihilation<\/a>; it is he and not Corbyn who should consider\u00a0his dangerous anti-Russia rhetoric that is helping to push the world closer towards a nuclear precipice.<\/p>\n There is no evidence linking the Syrian government to the recent chemical weapons attack, yet Johnson follows the lead of the Trump administration and its false narrative that has used that incident to intervene in Syria in an attempt to sway the war in favour of its terror groups.<\/p>\n Former US marine\u00a0Ken O’Keefe<\/a>\u00a0says you have to be a bought-off \u201cprostitute\u201d or \u201cthe dumbest of the dumb\u201d to believe the narrative coming out of Washington (humanitarian intervention to \u2018protect\u2019 people from Assad) that the US really cares about the lives of ordinary citizens. The US-led West and its allies in the Middle East set out to destabilise Syria and remove Assad from power, which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians. Although the corporate media like to portray the whole situation as constituting a \u2018civil war\u2019 and Western intervention being based on \u2018humanitarian\u2019 concerns, it is clear by now that the US is waging a ‘dirty war’<\/a>\u00a0to destroy Syria for\u00a0geostrategic gain<\/a>.<\/p>\n Johnson is one of those \u201cprostitutes\u201d O’Keefe speaks of. Like a toy monkey, he beats on cue the false narrative<\/a> coming from Washington\u2019s neocon regime about Syria, \u2018Russian aggression\u2019 and Putin\u2019s desire to reshape Europe.<\/p>\n We have seen an increasing tally of deaths due to various wars and the worlds is more unstable, as Johnson notes. What he fails to admit is the US and its client states, including Britain, have been responsible for the conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. US imperialist wars of aggression have resulted in death and destruction and failed states. Johnson misrepresents the situation by attempting to hide the reasons for US militarism behind a fragile<\/a>\u00a0narrative of Islamic terror (which undoubtedly exists but which should be regarded within the machinations of US empire and attacks on Islamic dominated countries), evil dictators and Russian aggression.<\/p>\n Johnson also throws in the North Korean \u2018threat\u2019 for good measure despite the fact that small country has been involved in a rearguard action against a very real and\u00a0overwhelming US threat<\/a>\u00a0for decades. The US has already decimated that nation once.<\/p>\n What Johnson is serving up to the British public is the same old recipe of lies and hypocrisy that his predecessor\u00a0William Hague offered<\/a>\u00a0and what current Defence Secretary\u00a0Michael Fallon excels in<\/a>. The aim is to try to keep the majority of the public on board with the dangerous \u2018great game\u2019 the US is playing to secure its stated objective of remaining the dominant global force and weakening\/destroying Russia. Washington will not allow multipolarity and aims to crush any perceived threats (not least the undermining of dollar hegemony)<\/a>\u00a0to its global supremacy.<\/p>\n From Ukraine and Syria to Libya and Afghanistan, the US is involved in geostrategic wars and conflicts, which, aside from resource plunder, are increasingly fuelled by a crisis of capitalism: war and militarism are the defining features<\/a>\u00a0of advanced capitalism as it increasingly struggles to find much profit in little else.<\/p>\n When you have nothing else to offer the public – only living under the tyranny of a dying capitalism – repeating the mantra \u2018there is no alternative\u2019 and instilling fear is all that\u2019s left. And, if it is not about Putin or some other made up threat, it is about Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n When your policies have already jeopardized national security by inflicting terror on other countries; when you have already sold the economy to the lowest bidder and have attacked welfare, unions and livelihoods; when you have allowed massive levels of tax evasion\/avoidance; when you and your neoliberal policies have allowed national and personal debt to spiral; when you have driven up the cost of living by handing over public assets to profiteering cartels; when you have flittered away taxpayers money to banks; when you allowed the richest 1,000 people in the UK to increase their wealth by 50% in 2009 alone while you impose \u2018austerity\u2019 on everyone else \u2013 then what else can you offer but to roll out a good old dose of fear mongering about Corbyn simply because you have no actual argument?<\/p>\n Conservative Party hypocrisy and crony capitalism<\/strong><\/p>\n Although certainly not exclusive to the Conservative Party, given how New Labour operated, hypocrisy and crony capitalism come natural to it. Millionaire Owen Paterson, a sitting MP and former environment, food and rural affairs minister, was a member of David Cameron\u2019s cabinet of millionaires. The Conservatives have been for decades waging a war on working people in the UK, which is currently sold as ‘austerity’.\u00a0And the outcome has been predictable.<\/p>\n See\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0about rising food poverty and increasing reliance on food banks in the UK.\u00a0See\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0about the five richest families in Britain being worth more than the poorest 20%.\u00a0See\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0about one third of Britain\u2019s population being in poverty.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0this report<\/a>, almost 18 million people cannot afford adequate housing conditions; 12 million are too poor to engage in common social activities; one in three cannot afford to heat their homes adequately in winter; and four million children and adults are not properly fed (Britain\u2019s population is estimated at 63 to 64 million).<\/p>\n Welfare cuts have\u00a0pushed hundreds of thousands below the poverty line<\/a>\u00a0since 2012, including more than 300,000 children.<\/p>\n But Paterson really feels the pain of the poor \u2013 in faraway lands that is. He will even travel around the world to\u00a0attend conferences<\/a>\u00a0to shout about his concern for the poor on behalf of transnational agribusiness interests. His indifference to poverty in the UK is in marked contrast to his concern about the poor abroad. The indifference suddenly becomes transformed only when there is an opportunity to line the pockets of the global agritech companies.<\/p>\n Then there is Liam Fox who belongs to Theresa May\u2019s cabinet.\u00a0Writing in\u00a0The Guardian<\/a>, George Monbiot describes how a discredited Fox has been central to cementing firm links with US corporate interests via The Heritage Foundation. The story Monbiot outlines is one of Fox\u2019s associations with US banking, oil, agribusiness, pharmaceutical and tobacco interests which have pursued an ultra-conservative economic agenda based on deregulation and the capturing of legislative processes.<\/p>\n Monbiot notes that The Heritage Foundation is now at the heart of Trump\u2019s administration.\u00a0Under Theresa May, the trade treaties that Fox is charged with could plug the UK into US food and environmental standards, which tend\u00a0to be lower than Britain\u2019s and will become lower still if Trump gets his way.<\/p>\n Monbiot concludes that this is part of what Brexit was about: European laws protecting the public interest were portrayed by Conservative eurosceptics as intolerable intrusions on corporate freedom. Taking back control from Europe means closer integration with the US. The transatlantic special relationship is based on political and corporate power. That power is cemented by the networks\u00a0Fox\u00a0helped to develop.<\/p>\n Aside from Paterson and Fox, there are many other examples that could be provided to highlight the hypocrisy and grubby backroom deals that the Conservatives excel in, not least the ongoing privatisation<\/a>\u00a0of the NHS. The unaccountable, interlocking directorate of financial-corporate interests that are driving the neoliberal agenda in Britain are many and are deeply embedded<\/a>\u00a0within the Conservative Party and more generally within the corridors of Whitehall power.<\/p>\n Jeremy Corbyn Britain’s best hope<\/strong><\/p>\n Corbyn offers an alternative that challenges the \u2018Washington consensus\u2019.\u00a0He stands on an anti-war and anti-austerity platform, is committed to investing in the public sector, wants to get rid of Britain\u2019s nuclear weapons and says he wants to renationalise profiteering public sector utilities.<\/p>\n Jeremy Corbyn is a credible alternative to the current crop of mainstream politicians – whether Blairite Labour, Conservative or Lib-Dem – not just because of what he says but because of the reactions he elicits from this bunch of discredited and corrupt pro-austerity, pro-war, pro City of London\/Wall Street, union-bashing, welfare cutting handmaidens to the rich that have ruined the economy and have helped to devastate countries across the globe with their penchant for militarism.<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n