Among its recent military interventions, that which is focusing minds throughout the United Kingdom right now is its contribution to the campaign begun back in 2001, and led by the United States, in Afghanistan. UK armed forces have now left. And so have those of the US. The result is that the Taliban have taken control of much of the country and are now at the gates of Kabul. And that means there will be refugees. A lot of refugees.
All smirk and no action
As with Vietnam, as with Syria, as with Libya, as with Iraq: hundreds of thousands will be displaced, fleeing summary and perhaps fatal retribution. Those hundreds of thousands will soon be on the move, perhaps to neighbouring countries, as with the Syrians decanted into Jordanian refugee camps; perhaps to the borders and shores of Europe.
So, given the UK had a military presence in Afghanistan for the thick end of 20 years, there have already been calls for the country to grant asylum to some of those fleeing the advance of the Taliban. In an interconnected world, it is no longer possible to kick off a war halfway around the globe and then bodyswerve responsibility for the consequences.
But that, as journalist Daniel Trilling has discovered, is exactly what Benidorm holiday rep Home Secretary Priti Patel intends to do. “
Senior military sources say the Home Office is reluctant to give many of these people asylum because of the message it will send to other refugees”. She appears happy to leave the Afghans to their fate.
Why would she do that? Ah well. That stance is driven by two interlinked factors:
One, the need to be tough on immigration, an appeal to fear and hatred intended to keep the Tories’ poll numbers up, and
Two, the sure and certain knowledge that former Brexit Party
Oberscheissenführer Nigel “
Thirsty” Farage will be on her case if she wavers.
This, of course, implies that those voters who returned alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to Downing Street in December 2019 are mostly racist bigots who can be dog-whistled by Talking Tough Against Forrins. That’s the condescending, snobbish and elitist attitude that the Tories and their pals like to pin on the left.
While those on the left actually want to show a little humanity, exemplified by Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana: “
[Priti Patel’s] sheer cruelty & inhumanity is astonishing, especially given Britain’s key role in creating this crisis”. Philip Lee, who you can tell as he’s a doctor, added “
This attitude of Britain, that we can't help thousands of people in dire need, because someone whom we deem does not deserve that help might ‘slip through the net’, is a sickness”. Pundits and journalists in London and elsewhere agreed.
Ian Dunt from the
i Paper responded “
A sickening, disgraceful form of reasoning from a government department in a state of total moral disrepair”. Liam Thorp, political editor of the Liverpool
Echo, added. “
So the home office is going to betray people in desperate need of safety - because of a situation this country helped to cause - as it might encourage more people in desperate need of safety to come here. Shameful and morally bankrupt”.
We now face the prospect of our Government sitting on its hands while those to whom it might have extended a helping hand are abandoned to the summary justice meted out by the Taliban - just so the Tories can keep their poll ratings up.
That’s not good enough.
It's a big mistake to think the Western establishment could give a shit about refugees from a disaster deliberately caused by said establishment.
ReplyDeleteThis is "merely" the latest manifestation of the centuries-old Great Game. The reduction of human beings to pieces on a chessboard of greed and mindless powermongering.
"Democracy" has nothing to do with it, just as it has virtually nothing to do with governance of Western nations, especially Britain and the USA.
We already see the same grotesque platitudes and lying bullshit left on blood soaked fields from Vietnam to Northern Ireland. The same evil lies and looting perpetrated by the same evil mindsets. The same malevolent propaganda peddled by hired media cowards - the very people who helped promote it in the first place.
Is it any wonder some of the victim peoples are driven to the mindless despair of violent reaction?
Nor, mark my words, will there be any attempt at MEANINGFUL restitution in Afghanistan. Example: the USA hasn't paid one cent of compensation to Vietnam, a tiny country it tried - in its own words - to "bomb back to the Stone Age". The same applies across the planet anywhere touched by the urfascist American Empire and its European pack dogs.
Nor will this horror end any time soon. Not with military bases and propaganda ringing the rising economic power of China and the renewed national confidence of Russia. Homicidal maniacs still control the West, governments little more than minor irritants.
And all the while innocent humanity bleeds white and suffers deliberately inflicted poverty.
And for WHAT? WHO BENEFITS?
It doesn't say much for democracy, does it? I don't remember any manifesto promises to destabilise other countries and create a massive refugee problem. Yet both major parties did it.
ReplyDeleteWait till you see the whites of their eyes lads. They would have won if they kept their eyes closed .
ReplyDelete