William Bowles – Essays
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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
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Information Clearing House Archives: 14-19 April 2004
19 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 -10 DAYS … AND STILL NO… Continue reading
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No Justice? No Peace! By William Bowles
Such was the cry I heard in South Africa in pre-1994 days and on innumerable occasions since. A reader wrote me and castigated me (somewhat) for allowing my emotions to get the better of me in my last essay. Rather, he said, I should be supplying analysis, a view with which I wholeheartedly agree. Well… Continue reading
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Information Clearing House Archives: 8-13 April 2004
13 April 2004 — Information Clearing House [From the Archives. I’ve been archiving ICH digests since 2003. Unfortunately, an unknown number of the links are now dead, so I can’t guarantee that the link will take you where you want to go. WB] 369 DAYS … AND STILL NO WMD FOUND IN IRAQ. === Robert… Continue reading
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Pundit’s Paradise By William Bowles
Once more, in Iraq, the entirely false notion is promulgated of a civil war, a civil war moreover, that is only being averted by the presence of an occupying army! Where does this nonsense come from and on what is it based? Continue reading
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The Power of the Press – to reorder reality By William Bowles
Well you wouldn’t know it from all the tributes to the tenth anniversary in the media, that within two days of the Rwandan tragedy, the US knew not only what was going on but who did it and where and when they did it. The report from the invaluable National Security Archive released via a… Continue reading
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Soldiers of misfortune: One story, two takes By William Bowles
So went the headline in the Independent on 1 April 2004 and the story (penned by ‘anti-war’ journalist Robert Fisk) occupied the entire front page and ran onto page 2. The four Americans, described by Fisk in the article as “contractors” were actually mercenaries or Private Military Contractors who worked for Blackwater Security Consulting and… Continue reading
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US Foreign Policy: A Mystery to the Media? By William Bowles
Okay, so what’s the deal? Why won’t the corporate media tell us what’s going on? Why do I have scrabble around the Internet looking for answers? Why won’t my local print, tv and radio tell me why, yet again, the US is orchestrating a coup d’etat against Venezuela? Continue reading
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Book Review: Friends, Washingtonians and Countrymen… By William Bowles
What an irony. For decades the left has been talking of the US as an empire, identifying the ring of military bases that surrounded the former Soviet Union and China, its destabilisation and overthrow of countries that defied US power; the Cold War and the nuclear arms race, also instigated by the US; its control… Continue reading
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Just the facts Ma’am, just the facts By William Bowles
If nothing else, the farce surrounding Andrew Gilligan’s/Dr David Kelly inadvertent revelations concerning British government’s dissembling and lying over the invasion of Iraq has revealed the true nature of what the British establishment likes to foist on an unsuspecting public as ‘objective’ journalism. But what is objective journalism and is there such an animal? Continue reading
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Whose culture is it anyhow? By William Bowles
26 March 2004 Despite a background and involvement in the arts for most of my life, I rarely, if ever write about such things here on I’n’I (although for another side of me, check out the now defunct MusicSA). Well that’s about to change not only because the arts and especially music, are a part… Continue reading
