Histomat: Adventures in Historical Materialism

'Historical materialism is the theory of the proletarian revolution.' Georg Lukács

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Good News from Iraq, part 94.


British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells is currently in Iraq and has given an interview to BBC Radio 4.

'People describe Iraq as a mess...but it is a mess that can't launch an attack now on Iran; a mess that won't be able to march into Kuwait; it's a mess that can't develop nuclear weapons. So yes it's a mess but it's starting to look like the sort of mess that most of us live in.'

Well that is good news. What a relief Iraq can't 'launch an attack on Iran' eh? Now Iranians have only got to worry about being attacked by er, the United States of America. But whose bothered by those guys?

And thank goodness Iraq can't 'develop nuclear weapons'. I mean, what civilised nation in the world would want to waste billions of pounds on weapons of mass destruction that could be spent on things that people need like schools and hospitals? (Oh, apart from the US, UK, Israel, France, Russia, etc. etc.)

Yes, the new Iraq is really starting to 'look like the sort of mess that most of us live in' in Britain. Their rulers are puppets of the Americans - and our rulers are puppets of the Americans. Their public services are being privatised and sold off to greedy multinational corporations - and our public services are being privatised and sold off to greedy multinational corporations. Well done Tony and New Labour.

A Blairite against 'swivel-eyed right wing Americans'.

Kim Howells also dismissed recent complaints by conservative figures in the US, like Francis Fukuyama, who were now critical of the war on Iraq:

'I would never take my guidance from swivel-eyed right-wing Americans and I'm surprised that anybody ever did. I do not look to them to continue the fight for democracy and to rebuild a nation in Iraq any more than I would look at some left-wing loony...this is a job that has to be done; these are the materials we have got to deal with; and they are great materials. We've just got to get on with it now.'

Yes, if there is one thing that the Blair Government has consistently done, it is that it never took any guidance from 'swivel-eyed right-wing Americans'. I am surprised as well that anyone ever did look for guidance from such people around the Project for the New American Century when it came to the fight for democracy and nation building in Iraq. Thank goodness that instead we went along with clear sighted Americans like Dick Cheney. Nothing wrong with his vision is there? Yes, by joining together with people like Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton and George W Bush in invading first Afghanistan and then Iraq, the British Government truly rejected the right wing lunatics around PNAC and kept their ideas confined to the margins of politics. We truly do now have the 'great materials' at hand we need to 'get on with the job'. Perhaps soon the whole Middle East will be the 'mess' that we currently see in Iraq and everyone will live happily ever after.

Edited to add: Respect MP George Galloway now has a Radio show on TalkSPORT on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Tonight he is discussing the West's new plans for a war on Iran...

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2 Comments:

At 9:08 pm, Blogger Ed said...

"I would never take my guidance from swivel-eyed right-wing Americans"

That might be the funniest thing a New Labour cabinet minister has ever said.

However, Howells seems to sense that he's straying onto unsafe territory and swerves back on Blairite platitude territory in the last part of the quotation:

"this is a job that has to be done; these are the materials we have got to deal with; and they are great materials. We've just got to get on with it now."

A technocrat speaks. Of course questions of value are not appropriate for the Blairite here -the job we are doing is the only job we could be doing (it has been scientifically proved by independent experts I should think) and there is no room for debate. Everything is a given. The materials we have and the job we have to do. We have, of course, just got to get on with it.

 
At 11:40 pm, Blogger Snowball said...

Yes, we all just have to just 'muddle on' through, as we always do in such sticky situations.

 

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