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BLAIR:FOR LABOUR’S SAKE GO!

by Daphne Liddle

THE PRESS last Friday was speculating that Blair might opt for a snap general election in October. It would be a big risk. Blair’s popularity has plummeted over the Iraq war, continuing privatisations, university top-up fees and foundation hospitals.

But from Blair’s point of view, it could be his only chance of political survival. The Iraq war issue is not going to go away and every time it comes up again, Blair’s standing grows weaker and weaker.

Three world leaders staked their political careers on supporting Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq: Blair, Aznar in Spain and John Howard in Australia. Aznar has already gone.

Next November Bush will face his electorate and his prospects are not looking good. If Bush loses Blair will be in a very difficult position.

He too will be discredited and find it very difficult to forge a working relationship with Kerry, the Democrat challenger. Blair has burned his bridges with France, Germany and most of the European Union to follow Bush blindly. He will be left isolated internationally.

Bush’s own prospects of survival took a nose-dive last week after former White House security adviser Richard Clarke revealed that Bush signally ignored warnings of the activities of Al Qaeda in the run-up to the 11 September attacks.

Clarke, who served at the White House for 10 years under five different presidents, said the hijackers would “probably have been caught” and “there was a chance” the attacks could have been prevented.

In his newly published memoir Against All Enemies he states that Bush and his chief adviser Donald Rumsfeld had been “obsessed with Iraq”.

This bears out what American investigative journalist Greg Pallast said in his book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Pallast wrote that when FBI agents investigating Al Qaeda tried to warn Bush they were ordered to stop their investigations.

In its early days, Al Qaeda was funded by the United States who trained its followers to attack and subvert socialist Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden was the financier of this group. From one of the largest feudal Saudi families he had many very wealthy contacts who had very close business ties with the US oil barons – including the Bush family.

Pallast wrote: “According to insiders, FBI agents had wanted to check into two members of the bin Laden family, Abdullah and Omar, but were told to stay away by superiors – until 13 September 2001. By then, Abdullah and Omar were long gone from the US.”

He also wrote: “After Bush took office there was a major policy shift at the National Security Agency. Investigators were ordered to ‘back off’ from any inquiries into Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks, especially if they touched on Saudi royals and their retainers. That put the bin Ladens, a family worth a reported $12 billion and a virtual arm of the Saudi royal household, off limits for investigation.”

pandered

Pallast points out that the Clinton government also pandered to Saudi interests over security and surveillance but, “Where Clinton said, ‘Go slow’, Bush policymakers said, “No go”. The difference is between closing one eye and closing them both.”

He then described how the bin Laden family had helped to bail out some of Bush’s failing business enterprises.

These allegations are going to dominate the run-up to November – especially since Bush chose to make the “war on terrorism” and “homeland security” the basis of his election campaign. And it will do nothing for Blair’s political standing.

Bush came to power on the back of electoral fraud, especially in Florida – a crucial state where thousands of black voters were illegally told they could not vote. Most of them probably would have voted for Gore.

Bush is unlikely to surrender power without more efforts at cheating. The Democrats cannot let him get away with it again. It’s going to be a dirty and prolonged campaign with an uncertain outcome. Again, this will reflect very badly on Blair’s political judgement in tying his own fate so closely to Bush’s.

If Blair does go for a snap election in October, he risks his huge majority or even losing the election altogether.

If he hangs on until next year and Bush is defeated in November, the chances of Labour winning an election with Blair as leader diminish rapidly.

But if Blair goes, a new leadership might – if they distanced themselves far enough from Blair’s mistakes – restore Labour’s credibility.

Blair seems unlikely to volunteer to step down for the sake of the party, he values his own career far more. The Parliamentary Labour Party, the unions and the constituency parties must force him out, or face the danger of a return to the nightmare of Tory government.

The Iraq issue is not going to go away, for Bush, Blair or John Howard. Even voters taken in by war propaganda can now see the increased dangers of terrorist reprisals it has provoked.

unpopular

The loss of civil liberties in the name of increased security is very unpopular, especially as it does not work. In Spain, compulsory ID cards failed to prevent the Madrid bombings.

And there is another ghost still haunting Blair. The Government has decreed there will be no proper inquest for Dr Kelly, leaving more people than ever convinced he was murdered to stop him saying more.

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Editorial

Playing with fire in Gaza

THE COWARDLY assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin by the Israelis is yet another despicable Zionist crime against the Palestinian Arabs. The Israelis may well call the killing of the spiritual leader of Hamas “targeted assassination”. To the rest of world it is simply cold-blooded murder.

The order to kill this wheel chair-bound old man came from General Sharon in Tel Aviv but there can be no doubt that it was approved by his master in Washington. The murder of the Palestinian Islamic leader was simply to strike terror into the hearts of the Palestinian Arabs and break the will and determination of the Palestinian uprising.

Time and time again the Zionists have resorted to terror to try and crush the Palestinians. From Israel’s foundation in 1948, born from massacres and the expulsion of a million Palestinians from their homes, to the continuing brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, terror has been the order of the day in the Zionist entity. The fact that it doesn’t work still hasn’t registered with the Israelis or the American imperialists who ultimately pull all the strings in Tel Aviv.

Zionist apologists, a dwindling band outside the United States, bleat on about Israel’s “right to exist” but what is that legitimacy based on? Surely not on the United Nations that created the State of Israel but whose later resolutions are routinely ignored by Israel and US imperialism? It can’t be based on the international laws Israel has flouted from its inception through the mass theft of Arab land and its denial of Palestinian rights.

No, it is based on the “right of conquest” and the military might of the United States that arms Israel to the teeth so that it can do the bidding of imperialism throughout the Middle East.

Sheikh Yassin joins the tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who have been martyred in the cause of freedom. His death will fuel new anger and determination amongst the Arabs, who will never give up their legitimate right to freedom and their right to return to their homes in Palestine.

And in Kosovo

The blame for the upsurge in racist violence in the Nato-occupied Yugoslav province of Kosovo lies plainly with the imperialists. The Nato forces who used Kosovo’s Albanian nationalist leaders as pawns to establish this imperialist protectorate in the heart of the Balkans have regularly turned a blind eye to the actions of Serb-hating fanatics whose looting, killings, bombings and drug-trafficking go on seemingly without hindrance.

The Serbian government is now calling for partition to protect what’s left of the Serb minority in Kosovo. That now may be the only solution.

Taiwan too

Taiwan is a relic of the Cold War. This offshore Chinese island was occupied by General Chiang Kai-shek’s troops during the Chinese civil war that ended with the communist victory in 1949. But though the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949, General Chiang maintained the pretence of the “Republic of China” on the island and a seat on the UN Security Council until 1971, under the protection of the American Pacific fleet.

General Chiang has long gone and his Kuomingtang (KMT) party is now in opposition in the island it so long dominated. Only a tiny handful of states, minor puppets of US imperialism, continue to recognise the myth of the “republic” and realistic circles in Taiwan including the modern KMT accept the reality of People’s China and the need for reconciliation. China has proposed a “one country, two systems” solution for the breakaway province that has worked admirably in Hong Kong and Macao. But a group of reactionary Taiwanese politicians are threatening to proclaim the island’s “independence” – an action that Beijing has repeatedly warned will lead to war.

Separatist leader “president” Chen was re-elected by the narrowest of margins hours after being shot in an attack that the KMT say was a stunt designed to help Chen in the polls. The opposition is demanding a recount and the crisis continues.

What has made Chen so brave these days? If it wasn’t for the might of the US navy, he wouldn’t have dared move down the road of confrontation with the Chinese government.

Throughout the world American imperialism is stoking the flames of war in their drive to establish world domination. The peoples of the world demand independence, peace and justice. Their demands must be met.

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