5 February 1998 Edition
The Free World
By Laurence McKeown
There's a film just out, set in the USA, and starring Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman, about a woman who is making claims of sexual harassment against the President.
The media picks up on the story and the President comes under a lot of pressure to resign. (Does this sound familiar?) One of his aides decides that the best way to distract attention from the issue is to have a phoney war so he calls in a friend, a Hollywood producer, and they set about the task. The ``war'' is set in Albania. Newsreel footage shows all the usual paraphernalia of war including refugees fleeing from their homes. One young girl abandoning her village carries a black dog in her arms. Computer technology changes the colour of the dog to white, because the president ``prefers it to be white''.
A country and western singer (Willie Nelson) is even released from prision so that he can record patrioic songs for the American public to sing during this war. Eventually, one FBI official begins to twig that the war isn't for real and,..... and I'II say no more in case I spoil your enjoyment. In fact I'II say no more because I don't know any more about it.
The makers of the film must have leapt for joy when Monica Lewinsky appeared on the scene. (Talk about life imitating art.) You'd almost be tempted to believe that the film's marketing and promotion company invented her. I'm sure too that in the real world of politics some of Clinton's own advisers must be thinking like de Niro and saying that the time is right for a little war. After all there is no better way to distract attention from the more seamy (or is it steamy?) ongoings at home. Whip up a bit of national pride, or jingiosm.
Maggie Thatcher did it in the Malvinas. It began with sailors on the Belgrano being torpedoed as they sailed away from disputed waters. ``Gotcha'' read the headline in the next day's Sun newspaper while the shattered fragments of young bodies littered the waters of the south Atlantic.
At the moment the same blood lust is being deliberately stirred in the USA and, as with the last Gulf war, England is there to support its ally. Maybe Robin Cook also wants to divert attention from his domestic affairs. Like Clinton, his personal life and relations have been placed in the spotlight by a right-wing controlled media that has its own agenda, an agenda which coincides with the financial interests of the arms-producing companies. Yes, a war at the moment a war would suit a lot of people.
For those living in Iraq the thought of another war doesn't frighten them the way some would like to believe. They are already living with the hardships of the sanctions imposed upon them from the last round of hostilities. Incubators for prematurely born babies cannot be used because of a lack of proper equipment. Thread used for stitching wounds after childbirth is unavailable. These are but two of the effects of the US-led sanctions.
And that doesn't mean we have to like Saddam or agree with his policies, but let's not forget, he was the darling of the west just a few years ago. Money, arms and intelligence from the CIA flowed to his regime in abundance.
Embargoes are meant to cripple countries and get them to bend to the will of others. I'm sure it's more than a little coincidental that Britain's oil from the North Sea sells more and for a higher price when Iraq's is boycotted. Meanwhile, back home in the USA Karla Faye Tucker, having already served 15 years on death row, has gone into the history books as the first woman to be officially executed by the state of Texas since the civil war. Now there's progress for you. As Neil Young says ``Keep on rocking in the free world''.
There's a film just out, set in the USA, and starring Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman, about a woman who is making claims of sexual harassment against the President.
The media picks up on the story and the President comes under a lot of pressure to resign. (Does this sound familiar?) One of his aides decides that the best way to distract attention from the issue is to have a phoney war so he calls in a friend, a Hollywood producer, and they set about the task. The ``war'' is set in Albania. Newsreel footage shows all the usual paraphernalia of war including refugees fleeing from their homes. One young girl abandoning her village carries a black dog in her arms. Computer technology changes the colour of the dog to white, because the president ``prefers it to be white''.
A country and western singer (Willie Nelson) is even released from prision so that he can record patrioic songs for the American public to sing during this war. Eventually, one FBI official begins to twig that the war isn't for real and,..... and I'II say no more in case I spoil your enjoyment. In fact I'II say no more because I don't know any more about it.
The makers of the film must have leapt for joy when Monica Lewinsky appeared on the scene. (Talk about life imitating art.) You'd almost be tempted to believe that the film's marketing and promotion company invented her. I'm sure too that in the real world of politics some of Clinton's own advisers must be thinking like de Niro and saying that the time is right for a little war. After all there is no better way to distract attention from the more seamy (or is it steamy?) ongoings at home. Whip up a bit of national pride, or jingiosm.
Maggie Thatcher did it in the Malvinas. It began with sailors on the Belgrano being torpedoed as they sailed away from disputed waters. ``Gotcha'' read the headline in the next day's Sun newspaper while the shattered fragments of young bodies littered the waters of the south Atlantic.
At the moment the same blood lust is being deliberately stirred in the USA and, as with the last Gulf war, England is there to support its ally. Maybe Robin Cook also wants to divert attention from his domestic affairs. Like Clinton, his personal life and relations have been placed in the spotlight by a right-wing controlled media that has its own agenda, an agenda which coincides with the financial interests of the arms-producing companies. Yes, a war at the moment a war would suit a lot of people.
For those living in Iraq the thought of another war doesn't frighten them the way some would like to believe. They are already living with the hardships of the sanctions imposed upon them from the last round of hostilities. Incubators for prematurely born babies cannot be used because of a lack of proper equipment. Thread used for stitching wounds after childbirth is unavailable. These are but two of the effects of the US-led sanctions.
And that doesn't mean we have to like Saddam or agree with his policies, but let's not forget, he was the darling of the west just a few years ago. Money, arms and intelligence from the CIA flowed to his regime in abundance.
Embargoes are meant to cripple countries and get them to bend to the will of others. I'm sure it's more than a little coincidental that Britain's oil from the North Sea sells more and for a higher price when Iraq's is boycotted. Meanwhile, back home in the USA Karla Faye Tucker, having already served 15 years on death row, has gone into the history books as the first woman to be officially executed by the state of Texas since the civil war. Now there's progress for you. As Neil Young says ``Keep on rocking in the free world''.