Monday, October 08, 2007
The Brown Ultimatum posted by Richard Seymour

Gordon Brown: too chicken to have an election, but big enough to attack Iran. It seems that he has given Washington guarantees that he will help them attack Iran "if the Islamic republic orchestrates large-scale attacks by militants against British or American forces in Iraq, according to senior Pentagon officials." Now, Iran has been alleged to have been doing this for years, which means that the casus belli is already prepared. In fact, General Petraeus is issuing one of these daily green lights this morning.
Obviously, no one was buying the 'nuclear threat' stuff, but probably not because people are unconvinced of Iran's desire to have nuclear weapons - I suspect that the real reason is because even if you believe that the acquisition of nuclear power stations is the precursor to developing a nuclear weapons capacity, few are convinced that this has anything to do with annihilating Israel or committing genocide or any of the other atrocious scenarios offered to febrile imaginations. So, the excuse is that they're infiltrating Iraq. It is a signal of how depraved and deranged our political culture has become that we don't find it funny anymore when the occupiers of Iraq affect outrage at other foreigners stirring up violence inside Iraq. Especially given that it is public knowledge that the United States government, through the CIA, is orchestrating terrorist attacks inside Iran, protecting its enemies in Iraq and arming its regional foes to the teeth. At any rate, with the propaganda already prepared and moulded, and with the CIA and US death squads running rampant all over Iraq, the bombing could come very soon indeed.
Brown's offered excuse for not holding the election until 2009 is that he wants the opportunity to lay out his 'vision for the future' before standing for election. So far, the vision includes massive international violence, domestic wage cuts, creeping privatisation, vindictive attacks on the young, more prisons, cuts to public services, national chauvinism, and three cheers for the British Empire. So, I'll see you at the antiwar demo this afternoon.
Labels: gordon brown, iran, iraq, occupation, US imperialism