Who wants Permanent War?

Make changes? “Yes we can” declared the new President Obama after the weary years of George W. Bush who embroiled the US in unending combat. Now he has been censured by the House of Representatives for embarking in one war too far. Libya.
Bush stated: “we will attack you if we believe you will attack us”, and Obama has endorsed such a sentiment. In UK Blair gave his full support and now Cameron appears even more gung-ho with “I’ll do the talking, you do the fighting” when defence chiefs wanted to know where the money was coming from in our supposedly straitened economy.
Where are the pressures to keep the bonfire alight. Here’s a suggestion. War is big business and governments have been in the habit of increasing the role of civilians in conducting their conflicts. Of course our elected representatives will fight for us won’t they? Not if the revolving door continues its merry way offering lucrative contracts to ex-politicians, government officials and army chiefs! How well the arms industry fared under Bush is not a secret.
Whereas there is clear opposition to Obama over Libya, where is such a restraint on Cameron and co? We understood the UN mandate for NATO action to be limited and certainly did not include “regime change”. To make their mark it seems that successive prime ministers since Thatcher have felt it necessary to be blooded using the Churchillian comparison. Blair outdid Thatcher in many ways like privatisation of public services. Her Falklands adventure pales into insignificance alongside Blair’s. Cameron still has a long way to go. God help us all.


Further reading: these people want to see more and more bombing. John Bolton. He’s still around and has a fan club apparently!

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