William Bowles – Essays
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New Year, New Challenges By William Bowles
1 January 2004 In theory at least, the arrival of the New Year is time for a change, a clear-out of the old to make space for the new, so I thought I’d start by clearing out this page. However, I’m a firm believer in tradition, so no radical changes in layout or look except… Continue reading
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The voice of the imperium squeeks By William Bowles
This is a critical period for the imperium. Stretched to breaking point with widespread dissaffection amongst its troops on the ground after only nine short months, the Bush clique is faced with a genuine dilemma as well as a rapidly approaching election. Continue reading
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The war on everything By William Bowles
There is a direct correlation between imperialism’s increasingly desperate economic state and its urge to go to war, only now it’s declared war on the entire planet, a sure indication of capitalism’s inability to deal with its inbuilt and rapidly escalating contradictions. Consider the wars it has declared over the past 100 years: the ‘war… Continue reading
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Mantras of mass deception By William Bowles
26 December 2003 Someone wrote me and asked if I knew when the phrase ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ was first used. A little research produced UN Resolution 687 that demanded that Iraq destroy its WMDs following the Gulf War: 3 Apr 1991 Security Council resolution 687 (1991), Section C, decides that Iraq shall unconditionally accept,… Continue reading
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May you live in interesting times By William Bowles
So goes the Chinese curse and nobody can say that 2003 hasn’t been an interesting – and for many – a cursed year, not the least of which has been the 25 million or so Iraqis, cursed with being ‘liberated’ by a desperate imperialism on the rampage. Barbarians seems somehow an inadequate description. Continue reading
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As things fall apart… By William Bowles
All in all, the new year brings with it an imperium in disarray faced with a mountain of problems; political, economic and military, none of them solvable if it maintains the current trajectory of increased repression at home and the inability to launch more diversionary adventures abroad. Perhaps its proxy Israel will be let off… Continue reading
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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
The New Dark Age 