It would help if people writing about the refugee crisis put it into context. The Middle East is an unstable area, there have long been tensions between Shias and Sunnis to say nothing about the fact that the place is not exactly the home of democracy. In addition, however, the behaviour of Western powers in the area starting (well whenever you like but let’s say) with
has to be included in any meaningful writing about the tragedy of the refugees and the migrants. It would also help if the West acknowledged its mistakes and its crimes and furthermore admitted that the driving force behind its actions in the Middle East today (as with imperialism always), is money. In today’s circumstances, concerns about oil supplies and the need for arms manufacturers to keep making profits are the critical factors. Everyone recognizes the importance of the oil industry to our standard of living and the need for security of oil supplies but it is not necessary to engage in savage violence anywhere to secure oil supplies. What has changed, even since the 1960s/70s, is the extent to which the arms industry in the West has got out of control. President Eisenhower, himself a former soldier, recognized the need to curb the Military Industrial Complex, which I have always believed was behind the Kennedy assassination (and which is why no US President since then has dared to challenge it), and his words of warning have come home to roost.
Although views like mine could be construed as coming from the broad left (or at least the peace movement, which I have supported all my life), they are not really. The refugee/migrant crisis is not a left, right or centre issue or even a peace movement issue. It is a critical issue resulting from the fact that Western states have lost control of hugely powerful interests to which they gave birth (such as the arms industry – TTIP is another example). If Western states don’t regain control over those interests the consequences for the West itself will be huge (and, frankly, deserved).
The treatment of religious minorities in the Middle East should be evidence enough of the nature of the challenge we face and who the bad guys are. The arms industry couldn’t care less if their bombs are killing Christians, Moslems, Hindus or Presbyterian Buddhists! (Remember Milo Minderbinder in Catch-22?) The arms industry is completely amoral and its only interests are sales and profits. Most people in the West are not (that) amoral and if the media joined up the dots the people of the West would see the scale of the challenge we face to get these vested interests under control. Even if public opinion does turn against the arms industry, however, it won’t be plain sailing. The arms industry, the drugs trade and the sex industry (including, it has to be said Hollywood, the theatre and, up to a point, the mainstream media), supported by the banking industry (governments know that genuine efforts to curb the activities of drug traffickers, for example, would seriously damage the banking industry) represent the very depths to which humanity can sink. They are today’s equivalent of the people William Wilberforce tackled and defeated. The arms industry is legal, the sex industry is legal in part and the drugs industry is tolerated. The banks are also legal and are backed up by private and public sector regulators, many of whom, like the bankers and no doubt even some of the arms peddlers, are respectable, church going people. Respectable church-going people some of them may be but try taking them on! It will be a long hard slog. Wilberforce did it with the slave trade and another Wilberforce (Pope Francis?) is needed now.
So, it is not just a case of identifying illegality (the drugs trade) or the amorality of the arms trade. Western society has become deeply corrupted by much of what has gone on since WW2 and, in particular, since the Swinging Sixties, and is now very decadent. Unfortunately, however, because of the link between the activities of the arms (in particular) industry and our standard of living, not all commentators, in particularly conservative commentators, are prepared to say what has to be said. For conservatives (much more than for the left), class loyalties predominate. Pope Francis is possibly a key player in this. Will he call it as it needs to be called or will he play the game? I think he will play the game. I think he is playing the game.
So, how do you get conservative leaders and opinion formers in the West to break their class loyalties and challenge the vested interests (with or without the help of the Pope)? Until that happens, calling for Christian enclaves in the Middle East (does that mean everyone else is fair game?) or saying we will only admit Christian refugees to the EU is neither here nor there. The problem is here, in our world, not in the Middle East or North Africa. The West is where the bad guys are and they are every bit as wicked as Hitler and the Nazis.
- the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and moving on to,
- the carve up of the Ottoman Empire between Britain and France after WW1,
- the understandable but utterly wrong decision to create a Western state out of Palestine in 1948 (Israel will probably survive as long as its predecessor, the Crusader state, did),
- the appalling treatment of the Palestinians by Israel supported by the West since 1948,
- the Western coup in Iran in 1953
- the foolish decision to invade Afghanistan after “9/11”. Although that atrocity conferred no right on the US to invade anyone, if they had to pick a state it should have been the state where most of the bombers came from – Saudi Arabia
- the savagery (and illegality) of the West’s actions in Iraq since 2003,
- Britain and France’s decision to get rid of Gadaffi in the 00s probably to protect arms sales to what they (foolishly) thought might be a post Gadaffi democracy (the Russians and the Chinese will never fall for that one again; I was surprised that they fell for that stunt), and
- whatever you’re having yourself!
has to be included in any meaningful writing about the tragedy of the refugees and the migrants. It would also help if the West acknowledged its mistakes and its crimes and furthermore admitted that the driving force behind its actions in the Middle East today (as with imperialism always), is money. In today’s circumstances, concerns about oil supplies and the need for arms manufacturers to keep making profits are the critical factors. Everyone recognizes the importance of the oil industry to our standard of living and the need for security of oil supplies but it is not necessary to engage in savage violence anywhere to secure oil supplies. What has changed, even since the 1960s/70s, is the extent to which the arms industry in the West has got out of control. President Eisenhower, himself a former soldier, recognized the need to curb the Military Industrial Complex, which I have always believed was behind the Kennedy assassination (and which is why no US President since then has dared to challenge it), and his words of warning have come home to roost.
Although views like mine could be construed as coming from the broad left (or at least the peace movement, which I have supported all my life), they are not really. The refugee/migrant crisis is not a left, right or centre issue or even a peace movement issue. It is a critical issue resulting from the fact that Western states have lost control of hugely powerful interests to which they gave birth (such as the arms industry – TTIP is another example). If Western states don’t regain control over those interests the consequences for the West itself will be huge (and, frankly, deserved).
The treatment of religious minorities in the Middle East should be evidence enough of the nature of the challenge we face and who the bad guys are. The arms industry couldn’t care less if their bombs are killing Christians, Moslems, Hindus or Presbyterian Buddhists! (Remember Milo Minderbinder in Catch-22?) The arms industry is completely amoral and its only interests are sales and profits. Most people in the West are not (that) amoral and if the media joined up the dots the people of the West would see the scale of the challenge we face to get these vested interests under control. Even if public opinion does turn against the arms industry, however, it won’t be plain sailing. The arms industry, the drugs trade and the sex industry (including, it has to be said Hollywood, the theatre and, up to a point, the mainstream media), supported by the banking industry (governments know that genuine efforts to curb the activities of drug traffickers, for example, would seriously damage the banking industry) represent the very depths to which humanity can sink. They are today’s equivalent of the people William Wilberforce tackled and defeated. The arms industry is legal, the sex industry is legal in part and the drugs industry is tolerated. The banks are also legal and are backed up by private and public sector regulators, many of whom, like the bankers and no doubt even some of the arms peddlers, are respectable, church going people. Respectable church-going people some of them may be but try taking them on! It will be a long hard slog. Wilberforce did it with the slave trade and another Wilberforce (Pope Francis?) is needed now.
So, it is not just a case of identifying illegality (the drugs trade) or the amorality of the arms trade. Western society has become deeply corrupted by much of what has gone on since WW2 and, in particular, since the Swinging Sixties, and is now very decadent. Unfortunately, however, because of the link between the activities of the arms (in particular) industry and our standard of living, not all commentators, in particularly conservative commentators, are prepared to say what has to be said. For conservatives (much more than for the left), class loyalties predominate. Pope Francis is possibly a key player in this. Will he call it as it needs to be called or will he play the game? I think he will play the game. I think he is playing the game.
So, how do you get conservative leaders and opinion formers in the West to break their class loyalties and challenge the vested interests (with or without the help of the Pope)? Until that happens, calling for Christian enclaves in the Middle East (does that mean everyone else is fair game?) or saying we will only admit Christian refugees to the EU is neither here nor there. The problem is here, in our world, not in the Middle East or North Africa. The West is where the bad guys are and they are every bit as wicked as Hitler and the Nazis.
No comments :
Post a Comment