'Age of Empire'

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BLAIR'S BRITAIN WANTS A RETURN TO 'AGE OF EMPIRE'
by Rashmee Z. Ahmed
TIMES OF INDIA, 28 March 2002
With comments by Jared Israel
[Posted 2 April 2002]
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Robert Cooper is a top foreign policy advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Indeed, he was Britain's man at the Bonn meeting that set up the new Afghan government.

This powerful member of the foreign policy establishment recently published a pamphlet with a forward by Prime Minister Blair. The pamphlet has caused quite a stir because in it, speaking too openly, Cooper calls for a 'return' to imperialism:

"Just like in the old empire, Western countries would have to deal with 'old-fashioned states outside the postmodern continent of Europe with the rougher methods of an earlier era - force, pre-emptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary to deal with those who still live in the nineteenth century...'"

So let's get this straight. Is Cooper saying that in "the old empire" in the 19th century the West had to contend with outrageous and aggressive behavior by peoples in other lands? Is that the idea?

What splendid doubletalk. Worthy of George Orwell.

Was it China which, in the 19th century, invaded Britain to force the British government to accept imported opium which was poisoning the British population? (After Britain won a glorious victory in the Opium Wars, thus forcing China to enrich British merchants at the expense of the Chinese population's health, the US and France demanded and got from China the same right to import the poisonous stuff. Vast fortunes were built on this gangster trade.) (1)

Was it Congo that took over the territory of Belgium and slaughtered ten million residents? (The public justification was religion. The real reason: to steal Congo's ivory and rubber.) (2)

Was it the Philippines that conquered the US (to save it from Spain, of course) or the American Indians who slaughtered most of the white population and then banished the rest to barren lands? (7)

Was it Afghanistan that three times waged colonial wars on British soil in what it called a "Great Game" to use the strategically located British Isles as a strategic base for the control of Europe?

And as for the current period:

* When the British government publicly claimed to oppose Slovenia's violent secession from Yugoslavia, while privately shipping the secessionists 5 million pounds worth of military communications equipment, was that not "deception"? (3)

* What has the bombing and economic strangulation of Iraq for the past decade by the US and Britain amounted to, if not a continuous "pre-emptive strike"? And why have the US, Britain and Germany got Russia entirely surrounded now, with former Soviet Republics taking part in NATO war games and US or NATO troops in Georgia, Central Asia, Poland, the Baltic region and the Balkans if not in preparation for "pre-emptive attacks" on Russia and her allies? (4)

* Did Yugoslavia commit the gravest crime possible under international law by launching aggressive war against the territories of the US, Britain and Germany? Did Yugoslav planes bomb schools in Berlin, oil refineries in New Jersey, hospitals in London or auto factories in Detroit? For that matter, did Yugoslavia attack any other country? Ever? (8)

* Did Afghanistan recently team up with the US and other countries to bomb and invade England, including London, following which illegal attack Robert Cooper, a top adviser to the Afghan King, helped set up a new "independent" British government in London?

* And regarding Robert Cooper's amazing remark that one standard should be applied when dealing with the "post-modern" West and another when dealing with the "pre-modern" rest, let me ask this: When Blair's former Foreign Secretary, Robin Cooke, told the Western public the outright lie that during Slobodan Milosevic's Martin Luther King-type speech in Kosovo in June 1989, Milosevic spread "ethnic hatred under the cloak of nationalism" - when Cooke told this lie, was he not following the dictates of the earliest and perhaps greatest theoretician of postmodernism? (5)

I am speaking here of course of Mr. Humpty Dumpty, who was quoted, (back in the 19th century) in the book, 'Through the Looking Glass,' (chapter 6) as follows:

"'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'"

Challenged with the response, 'The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things,' Mr. Dumpty replied as follows:

"'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which [of us] is to be master -- that's all.' (6)

And the same holds true regarding Mr. Cooper's doubletalk. His real point is: the US, England and Germany are to be master. Just as they were in the 19th century.

BLAIR'S BRITAIN WANTS A RETURN TO 'AGE OF EMPIRE'

Reprinted from TIMES NEWS NETWORK [THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2002 10:01:29 PM]

Tony Blair has provoked alarm and concern within his own party and in several Western capitals by allowing his chief foreign policy advisor to call for a "new imperialism" to re-order the post-September 11 world.

The call for a "defensive imperialism", with Western countries, particularly Britain and the European Union intervening abroad to restore order, comes in a pamphlet that has a foreword by Blair himself.

Blair's advisor, Robert Cooper, who represented the British government at the Bonn talks that produced the interim Hamid Karzai administration in Afghanistan, is known to have heavily influenced the British prime minister's foreign policy thinking.

Just three months ago, Blair used the high-tech, but hugely symbolic venue of Bangalore in the former British Raj to speak of his vision for Britain as a "force for good in the world".

Cooper, who argues for a "post-modern" apartheid-like duality of laws and systems to deal with "ourselves and the premodern world", says the West will have to employ "double standards".

He said that like the old empire, Western countries would have to deal with "old-fashioned states outside the postmodern continent of Europe with the rougher methods of an earlier era - force, pre-emptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary to deal with those who still live in the nineteenth century..."

The pamphlet, which contains a thoughtful essay on Hindu, Muslim and Christian identity by Amartya Sen, is published by the Foreign Policy Centre, set up by Blair and of which he remains the patron.

The document continues a theme that analysts describe as increasing assertiveness by the British government.

Just 48 hours ago, British foreign secretary Jack Straw declared that "the UK is not a superpower, but we have continuously shown that we play a pivotal role. We can - and do - make a big difference. Our challenge is to stave off the Afghanistans of the future".

Straw's comments came soon after Geoff Hoon, the defence minister, warned that the UK would not flinch from retaliatory nuclear strikes against Baghdad.

Even as commentators expressed surprise and alarm at the very public neo-imperial ambitions of Blair's Britain, sections of his own party dismissed the prime minister's foreign policy advisor as a maniac.

One outspoken MP, opposed to widening the war on terror to include Iraq, suggested that "the Russian Tsarina was better advised by Rasputin than the Prime Minister is by this maniac. To claim that the need for colonialism may be as great as in Victorian times is extraordinary".

But a spokesman for the Foreign Policy Centre told this paper the call for a new Western imperialism may have been "misread".

(c)opyright Times of India 2002. Reprinted for fair use only.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=5191650

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Further Reading:
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(1) You can read about the Opium Wars at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/heroin/opiwar1.htm

(2) On the genocide of 10 million in Congo, see 'Eyewitness To Hell,' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/russell.htm

(3) When Slovenia and Croatia threatened to secede from Yugoslavia in 1991, the British Foreign Office publicly called for maintaining the integrity of Yugoslav borders. But the covert policy was quite different, as demonstrated by one piece of that policy which has been brought out in the open. Reports the London Guardian: "Eight days before Slovenia became the first area to break from the unified Yugoslavia in 1991, a British firm delivered communications equipment to the Slovenian forces to help them fight the Serb-led Yugoslav army. The revelation that this deal was approved by the Conservative Government will embarrass former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd." (Guardian, May 28, 2000, British deal fuelled Balkan war by Blaz Zgaga and Antony Barnett)
http://google.com/search?q=cache:eHxhMl2XkMEC:http://www.guardianKosovo.co.uk//Story/0,2763,319362,00.html+%22Eight+days+before+Slovenia+became%22&hl=en

This military equipment sale, which you will note took place with government approval, told the Slovenians: pay no attention to our protests. Go ahead and secede.

(4) Regarding the encirclement of Russia, see 'Why Does Washington Want Afghanistan?' by Jared Israel, Rick Rozoff and Nico Varkevisser at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/afghan.htm (English)
http://www.dewaarheid.nu/wereldcrisis/washington_afghanistan.htm (Nederlands)

(5) Slobodan Milosevic's 1989 speech at Kosovo Fields was very important at the time. As you will see when you read it at
http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/milosaid.html
Milosevic celebrates the Serbs' refusal to accept mistreatment and, at the same time, he calls on all ethnic groups to fight for multiethnic unity. In fact he says multiethnic unity is the strength of Serbia and a requirement for Yugoslavia's survival. That is why I call it a 'Martin Luther King-type speech.'

But don't take my word. Read the speech. And read Professor Francisco Gil-White's article which proves, in case after case, that the mainstream media has deliberately lied about the speech, just the way British Foreign Secretary Robin Cooke lied about it.

To read Professor Gil-White's article, 'Media Misrepresentation of Milosevic's Words: A Review of the Evidence,' go to
http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/gw.htm

(6) FOOT-IN-MOUTH DEPARTMENT.
Here's an excerpt from a (London) DAILY MAIL article about Mr. Cooper's pamphlet on foreign policy:

DAILY MAIL (London)
March 29, 2002 Pg. 37
The new colonialism; Blair aide calls for return to the empire
By Graeme Wilson

ONE of Tony Blair's key advisers sparked outrage yesterday by calling for a new era of imperialism.

Foreign Office mandarin Robert Cooper said a form of colonialism was needed to bring order to an unstable world.

This colonialism, modelled on the Roman Empire and the EU, could offer citizens 'some of its laws, some of its coins and the occasional road', he said. The civil servant, who has been seconded to Downing Street to advise the Prime Minister on foreign policy, said the threat of global terrorism could force the West to respond with 'defensive imperialism'.

His comments were greeted with anger and astonishment by Labour backbenchers, who argued that colonialism involved 'invasion, occupation and pillaging other people's wealth and assets'.

MPs have already declared their overwhelming opposition to British involvement in a war against Iraq.

They are concerned because Mr Cooper, who represented Britain at the Bonn talks to form Afghanistan's new government, has played a prominent role in Downing Street since September 11.

[End excerpt from Daily Mail ]

Here's My Question: Do all these MPs really disagree with what Cooper wrote? Or are some of them perhaps upset because they like to talk anti-imperialism while doing imperialism (as in "humanitarian bombing") and now Mr. Cooper has given away the Game?

(7) The great American author, Mark Twain, wrote scathingly about the US assault on the Philippines. For links to these writings, go to http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/twain/

8) During the NATO bombing in spring 1999, autoworkers at the huge Zastava Plant in Serbia occupied their factory buildings to protect the machinery with their bodies. To find out what happened, read 'We did not believe they would bomb us,' at http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/car.htm

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