> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim heartfield <jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk>
> Date: Monday, December 07, 1998 4:18 AM
>
> >In message <00d901be2040$849b0420$85004bca at home>, Enzo Michelangeli
> ><em at who.net> writes
> >
> >>I'm not the defense attorney for Britain:
> >>I'm not even British. (Even though I must note that there have been much
> >>worse colonial masters than them).
> >
> >Have there?
> >
> >I'm struggling to think of examples that compare to the opium wars
> >against China (in defence of Britain's right to export Opium to the
> >heavily addicted Chinese), or the vast numbers killed in the suppression
> >of the boxer rebellion, or the forcible annexation of Hong Kong and the
> >denial of its citizens a vote for 95 of the hundred year-long lease, or
> >invention of concentration camps in South Africa, or the bombardment of
> >Dublin in 1916, or the use of air power against the Kurds and Iraqis in
> >1918, or the Amritsar massacre in India in 1919, or the partition of
> >Ireland in 1922, or the three and a half million killed in the Bengal
> >famine of 1943, or the partition of India in 1946, or the annihilation
> >of the Mau-Mau in Kenya, or the suppression of the Malaysian insurgency,
> >or the war in Aden, or the quarter century long struggle against the
> >nationalists in northern Ireland, with its assassinations, torture,
> >military occupation, psy-ops and blanket fire on civilian demonstrators.
>
> Oh well, nobody behaved well in foreign land: not the Japanese in Korea and
> China, not the French in Indochina and Algeria, not the Russians in
> Afghanistan, not the Americans in Vietnam, you name it. Not to mention what
> happened in ancient times: Alexander or Caesar were not famous for
> philanthropic deeds. However, the British at least managed to disengage from
> most places in a relatively clean way, apparently without leaving behind too
> much bitterness and, often, leaving decent public infrastructure,
> administration and civil service.
>
> >Not wishing to boast, exactly, but its as well to remember the reasons
> >why 'my' country earned the name 'perfidious Albion', and its flag is
> >called 'the Butcher's Apron'.
>
> Considering that 'perfidious Albion' was one of the preferred expressions of
> the fascist propaganda, I really don't feel like sharing it. Perhaps
> Pinochet, now, would ;-)
>
> Cheers --
>
> Enzo