William Bowles – Essays
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This business of politics By William Bowles
I’n’I started life rather informally when I started writing articles for Information Clearing House in March 2003. Then, due to an initial financial donation from a reader of my essays on ICH, I was able to start up this Website in August 2003. The rest as they say, is history. Continue reading
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Keep your eye on the ball By William Bowles
The Berg decapitation video appeared at a very fortuitous time for the imperium, of that there can be no doubt. But unusually, the unfortunate Berg has disappeared off the video screens as quickly as he appeared when one would have thought that his horrific execution would have been milked for all its worth by a… Continue reading
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Welcome to the Hall of (Daily) Mirrors By William Bowles
For decades the ruling class has pretty well had things ‘under control’. It could rely on an electorate dosed to the eyeballs on anti-communism with liberal lacings of racism, a side dish of xenophobia followed by a dessert of crumbs from the well-stocked larder of the capitalist way of life. Live now, pay later. Continue reading
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Psy-Ops? By William Bowles
Already, there are questions surrounding the death of Nicholas Berg portrayed in the notorious video and supposedly committed by Al Qu-eda’s #2 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Of course, we have no proof that ‘Al Qu-eda’ committed it let alone Zarqawi aside from the assertions that have come from the US authorities and what it says on… Continue reading
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The world – one year later By William Bowles
Like a runaway train, the ‘war on terror’ that must have seemed such a good idea at the time, has taken on a life all its own that now threatens to crash into the imperial terminus. Continue reading
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The immoral low ground By William Bowles
9 May 2004 “Saddam a “presentable young man” with “engaging smile,” “Let’s “do business,” said British Embassy in 1969.”” “”The goal has never been to win the Olympic high jump in democracy,” Paul Wolfowitz “That strategic objective, of a free, democratic, de-Baathified Iraq, is grandiose, and unattainable…. It’s just a matter of time before we… Continue reading
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The Ties That Bind By William Bowles
By now it should be clear that the photos published in the Daily Mirror last week, were a deliberate attempt to deflect exposure of the real and horrifying level of murder, torture and abuse inflicted on the Iraqi people. Not only since the occupation, but for past thirteen years of sanctions and bombings that resulted… Continue reading
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Mind Your Language! By William Bowles
The issue of who is an actual fighting soldier has been thrown into sharp relief by the enormous numbers of ‘private military contractors’ or PMCs hired to do the work of the state-employed soldier in Iraq, the former Yugoslavia and in Afghanistan. Continue reading
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CHAFF By William Bowles
4 May 2004 Chaff is the stuff they toss out of helicopter gunships and other aerial killing machines to try and fool ground-to-air missiles and other assorted bits of materiél that gets fired up-up-and-away at them. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but if you toss out enough of the stuff, the odds of… Continue reading
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Of cluster bombs and piss: two sides of the same coin By William Bowles
The ‘tradition’ of pissing on the enemies of the empire has a long and ignoble history. British troops, when faced with Ghandi’s non-violent resistance to the colonisers, recognising that murdering them didn’t work, took to pissing on them instead, in order to get them to move from the vast sit-down demos the Indian anti-colonial movement… Continue reading
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Information Clearing House Archives: 28-30 April 2004
30 April 2004 — Information Clearing House [From the Archives. I’ve been archiving ICH digests since 2003. Unfortunately, an unknown number of the of the links are now dead, so I can’t guarantee that clicking on a link will take you where you want to go. WB] 1 YEAR -20 DAYS … AND STILL NO… Continue reading
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‘These are the times that try men’s souls’ By William Bowles
Taken together with the Reagan-era ‘Low Intensity Warfare’ piloted in the war against the Sandinista government that kicked off in 1979 as well as the covert war supported by the CIA in Angola (in collaboration with Apartheid South Africa) and elsewhere, the ‘war on terror’ doctrine rather than being a response to terrorism is merely… Continue reading
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Propaganda and Reality: The media’s onslaught on our senses and sensibilities By William Bowles
The BBC this morning on Radio 4 (28/04/04) carried two reports on the (ongoing) US attack on Fallujah. One by an ’embedded’ reporter with all that that means and the other, an interview with US commanding officer Brigadier-General Kimmitt, who informed us that attacks on the city were performed using “incredibly precise weapons system” that… Continue reading
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Information Clearing House Archives: 20-27 April 2004
27 April 2004 — Information Clearing House [From the Archives. I’ve been archiving ICH digests since 2003. Unfortunately, an unknown number of the of the links are now dead, so I can’t guarantee that clicking on a link will take you where you want to go. WB] 1 YEAR -18 DAYS … AND STILL NO… Continue reading
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Rumbling in the Ruling Ranks By William Bowles
Much play has been made over the statement by 52 former UK diplomats accusing the government of an “illegal” occupation of Iraq and of doing a volte face over Israeli occupation of Palestine. But before the anti-war posse get all worked up over it, it’s wise to check their statement a little more carefully before… Continue reading
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What’s Left (of the Left) or the politics of desperation By William Bowles
26 April 2004 In a column entitled “What’s Left” by Stephen Gowans, Gowans advocates voting for Bush in order to keep Kerry out. His reasoning goes as follows: “There are, then, two choices this November. You can vote, or not vote. If you don’t vote, there’s a chance the militarist, war criminal, Hitler-like Kerry will… Continue reading
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‘K’ Metamorphoses into ‘G’ By William Bowles
Just think about Blunkett’s secret court and how it operates behind closed doors, with the accused allowed to see neither the ‘evidence’, the charges nor to cross examine their accusers and all of it under the pretext that revealing the sources or their accusers might reveal information damaging to the state. It’s a no-win situation,… Continue reading
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Betwixt and Between By William Bowles
Much play has been made of Blair’s abrupt turnaround over the referendum on the new constitution for the European Union, with talk about it being a diversion from Iraq and/or the realisation that with the collapse of the Iraq adventure, Blair needs to re-insinuate the UK back into the ‘heart of Europe’. But what are… Continue reading
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Truth and Consequences By William Bowles
In this age of instantaneous and interlinked communications, dominated by a handful of powerful (and interconnected) media/communications companies, the power of the press to shape our knowledge let alone our opinions has taken centre stage in the struggle ‘for hearts and minds’ as the US political pundits put it during the epic struggle of the… Continue reading
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“I simply say to you” By William Bowles
20 April 2004 “All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those toward whom it is directed will understand it…. Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 