The Link and The Lies

July 18th, 2005 at 21:18 Björn Hallberg

Tony Blair has been seen pulling rabbits and anti-terror laws out of his hat at prime time. Largely unopposed until Chatham House stepped forward.

In the most politically sensitive finding, Chatham House, which used to be known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, concludes there is “no doubt” the invasion of Iraq has “given a boost to the al-Qaida network” in “propaganda, recruitment and fundraising”, while providing an ideal targeting and training area for terrorists. “Riding pillion with a powerful ally has proved costly in terms of British and US military lives, Iraqi lives, military expenditure and the damage caused to the counter-terrorism campaign.”

This finding runs counter to the line from Downing Street, which has sought to detach Iraq from the London attacks.

On Saturday, Tony Blair said the fanatics who struck in London and launched other attacks around the world were driven by an “evil ideology” rather than opposition to any policy, and that it would be a “misunderstanding of a catastrophic order” to think that if we changed our behaviour they would change theirs.

Jack Straw also does his best to refute the rather obvious.

Mr Straw rejected a report by a respected independent thinktank on foreign affairs, the Chatham House organisation, which found that a key problem in the UK for preventing terrorism is that the country “is riding as a pillion passenger with the United States in the war against terror”.

“I’m astonished that Chatham House is now saying that we should not have stood shoulder to shoulder with our long-standing allies in the United States,” Mr Straw told reporters before chairing an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

“The time for excuses for terrorism is over,” he said. “The terrorists have struck across the world, in countries allied with the United States, backing the war in Iraq and in countries which had nothing whatever to do with the war in Iraq.”

Chatham House and another think-tank, the Economic and Social Research Council, said the situation in Iraq had given “a boost” to the al-Qaida network’s ability to recruit and raise money.

Straw is grasping for the blast in Turkey of course. Except for the fact that it’s not likely the same group or even a group tied to the largely illusory “al-Qaida.” Turkey maintains that this was the work of Kurdish guerrillas. Groups that rightly oppose a heavy-handed treatment of Kurds in Turkey even if their methods are sometimes questionable. Just like whoever was behind the bombs in London. There is a cause, make no mistake. To revel in terms like “evil” and imply that these people are impossible to reason with is a grave mistake. But it is theirs to make. It is difficult to say if these are outright lies or plain stupidity however. Probably both. At any rate it shows an even greater disregard for the facts as any terror attack, according to Straw, apparently is aimed at the same thing. Not so unlike in the 60s and 70s when a group within the US government, lets call them budding neo-cons, came up with the notion that all “terrorist groups” in the world were funded and organized by the Soviet Union. It didn’t matter where they were or for what ideals they fought. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop here.

If Britain wants to get itself out of this fix, they must realize that they have gotten themselves into one. They must confess their sins as it were and work to better themselves. But that is unlikely to happen. Too much is at stake. Too much power is up for grabs and if one drops the ball, another will score.

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