William Bowles – Essays
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Information Clearing House Archive December 2003 Part 4
December 2003 — Information Clearing House Index December 2003 Part 4 Date: 21 Dec 2003 19:19:16 -0000 233 DAYS … AND STILL NO WMD FOUND IN IRAQ. === Saddam was held by Kurdish forces, drugged and left for US troops : Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by… Continue reading
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Collective-selective amnesia By William Bowles
Self-censorship? Yes sometimes. A shared worldview? Yes sometimes. Heavy debts? More likely. Self-delusion? Even more likely. Amnesia? Absolutely necessary. A collective and selective amnesia, for without it how could the illusion be maintained? Continue reading
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Gearing up for war on the world’s poor By William Bowles
The UK government has just issued a White Paper on the reorganisation of the armed forces. It advocates a complete transformation of British military power in what can best be described as a mini ‘Project for the New American Century’. Geoff Hoon, the Minister of Defence has made it quite clear that the UK will… Continue reading
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Reverting to Type By William Bowles
Fisk’s headline is “This dictator will continue to haunt Iraq”. But it should have read “In spite of Saddam’s capture, the occupation will continue to haunt Iraq”. By making Saddam the focus of his ‘humanity’ Fisk reveals the hypocrisy of the liberal mindset, that finds it convenient to focus on the individual rather than on… Continue reading
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The ‘Old School’ on the Pirates By William Bowles
What connects Saddam Hussein to Zbigniew Brzezinski? Well aside from the fact that Hussein can be considered one of Brezinski’s former ‘assets’, they both belong to the ‘Old School’, the era of the Cold War, and they both represent a world that no longer exists but which both must be wishing, did. Yet both in… Continue reading
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Imperialism considered as a one-night stand By William Bowles
What kind of imperialism is this ‘new imperialism’ of the ‘neo-cons’? Is it truly a ‘one-night stand’ as the Economist described it, or was that just supercilious English snobbery manifesting itself? And indeed if they’re right, what kind of portent is it for the planet when so much power is in the hands of such… Continue reading
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Pundit’s Progress By William Bowles
On BBC Radio 4 (10/12/03) a panel of pundits prognosticated on the progress (or otherwise) of the invasion of Iraq. One, whose name I failed to catch, commented that the USUK invasion of Iraq was probably the biggest foreign policy disaster since Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union before “finishing off” Western Europe. The… Continue reading
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Samarra: Claim and counter-claim By William Bowles
The mass media carries what I suppose can be called a ‘worldview’ through which events are filtered of which the ‘war on terror’ is a prime example. There’s not a single mass media outlet that doesn’t buy into the idea that the ‘war on terror’ is a ‘response’ to the acts of terrorists. Not a… Continue reading
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Take nothing you read for granted By William Bowles
Press coverage, right across the board has consistently misrepresented and distorted the shootout between guerrillas and the US occupation forces in Samarra, not only down to the number of dead and injured, but who exactly they were, how the confrontation occurred and what happened afterward. Continue reading
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The Sunni versus Shia Myth By William Bowles
Much that has been written about the ‘division’ between the Sunni and Shia in Iraq is not only a total distortion of the demographics of the Iraqi population, it also feeds into the propaganda campaign of ‘divide and rule’ tactics that even opponents of the war and occupation can fall into the trap of accepting… Continue reading
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The things they say By William Bowles
The state’s representatives – with the able assistance of ‘objective’ journalists – first deceive themselves before deceiving the rest of us, or so it would seem if one listens to their ‘earnest’ pronouncements on the ‘progress’ of the occupation of Iraq. In the month of November occupation forces and their mercenary assistants, suffered their highest… Continue reading
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Nothing to fear but fear itself By William Bowles
9/11, Pearl Harbour, ‘Red Scares’, Tonkin Gulf, the Miners Strike, ‘terrorism’, ‘subversion’, ‘Them’, ‘It’, ‘aliens’, ‘paedophiles’, epidemics, it’s a long list, indeed an endless list of fears, some real but most are inventions. All exploit what we fear most – the unknown, that in the final analysis resolves into what the future holds, the ultimate… Continue reading
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Back in the USSR By William Bowles
The ‘evil empire’ is no more. The end of an era and the start of a new one? Not exactly, as the events of the past decade or more testify, for whatever one’s views of the Soviet Union and the various socialist ‘flavours’, it can hardly be said that the world is either a better… Continue reading
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More, or rather, less on the ‘Civil Contingencies Bill’ By William Bowles
Amazing isn’t it, a bill which if passed, that along with the 2000 Terrorism Act, pretty well entrenches total state control over the citizen, barely gets a mention in the media. The BBC in its News at One programme yesterday (25/11/03) didn’t even mention it as being included in Queenie’s speech. Later, on PM News… Continue reading
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Law ‘n’ Order By William Bowles
Marx saw the state as ‘whithering away’ with the building of communism (as opposed to the state under socialism, which is a kind of ‘interim stage’ between capitalism and communism). Moreover, Marx was quite specific about it. Under communism, the state becomes a government of ‘things’ as opposed to a government of people. Continue reading
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Weapons, Media and Politics – an evil ‘axis of interests’ By William Bowles
Carlyle is a who’s who of the right-wing elite both here in the UK and over the pond in the US, with former Prime Minister John Major as a director, George Bush Snr and his Secretary of State, James Baker, as advisers, and it’s headed by Frank Carlucci, Ronald Reagan’s Defence Secretary. Continue reading
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Intel – al-Qu’eda – The War on Terror: Destroying the Myths By William Bowles
24 November 2003 Several related issues on my mind on this grey, London morning as I contemplate the latest ‘news’, scan the headlines and peruse my (overflowing) mailbox and all are, in some way, related (except the weather). Continue reading
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The Police State is Here By William Bowles
As predicted here, the government is introducing its own version of the Patriot Act. Innocuously entitled the “Civil Contingencies Bill” if passed it abolishes civil rights of all kinds under the cover of the ‘war on terror’ and an “emergency”. And was Cooper’s ‘innocent’ remark made in the light of the fact that he knew… Continue reading
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Book Review: Getting to the meat of Skull & Bones By William Bowles
What constitutes a conspiracy? Well first off by definition it should be a secret. According to the chapter by Ralph Bunch, ‘Secrecy and our constitution: Whom do they serve?’ conspiracies are factions, minority factions that see all non-members of the conspiracy as opponents and their secrecy is to prevent all opponents from even knowing of… Continue reading
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Report from Propaganda Central By William Bowles
22 November 2003 “The West wakes up to the extent of Al-Qu’eda’s reach – franchised by Al-Qu’eda” That was how Channel 4 News opened up last night’s broadcast (21/11/03). But I must say I’m impressed as it pretty well sums up the relationship between the imperium and Osama’s global ‘franchise’. Osama is the New World… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 