The Gulf War ten years on
Veterans of the Gulf War marched in Whitehall to protest government indifference to their suffering. The idea that the allied troops were victims rather than perpetrators of atrocities in the war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq can only take hold because of the subsequent failure of Western policy. Instead of ennobling the allied victors in the Gulf, the war exposed the bankruptcy of the West's policies in the Middle East. While George Bush Sr. hoped that the 'Vietnam Syndrome' would be overcome by triumph in the Middle East, it has instead become the focus of an enhanced sense of moral defeat, made flesh in 'Gulf War Syndrome'.
During the crisis, international correspondent Hella Pick wrote optimistically that the crisis would see the United Nations reborn as the embodiment of a new global solidarity ('Rebirth of Nations', The Gulf War: The first sixty days). Ten years on the US and Britain's attempts to recreate the Gulf War victory by bombing Iraq again divided the UN Security Council instead of uniting it. In the Middle East the US strategy of encouraging allies is hampered by their inability to persuade Israel to give concessions to the Palestine Authority. Islamic oppositions have shaken regimes across the region that supported the allies. America's one sound ally Turkey collapsed economically and politically this week as premier Bulent Ecevit stormed out of a meeting with the President, sending the Lira and the country's IMF recovery package into free-fall. Meanwhile, British Home Secretary Jack Straw insists that Kurds fleeing oppression in the region will not find a safe haven - once the justification of British military intervention - in his back yard.
Foot in mouth disease
Radical London Mayor Ken Livingstone came up with a novel excuse for banning the planned march of the conservative Countryside Alliance - the danger of spreading 'foot and mouth' disease. The country is in the grip of a panic about the virulent disease that passes through most livestock, threatening wide scale culling not seen since the 1960s. Secretly, though, the authorities in Britain and in Europe welcome the prospect of destroying some of the country's excess capacity in farming. For decades European Union subsidies have led to massive overcapacity in farm produce, while the importance of the rural vote for conservative political constituencies has meant that the will to reduce those surpluses has proved elusive. For the maintenance of the 'free market' it makes more sense to overproduce livestock and then destroy them than it does to feed people. Hysteria over Foot and Mouth disease - which is no threat to people at all - will provide the rationale for the wasting of the UK's 'excess' capacity.
Meanwhile Newsweek reports that Europe is turning to organic foods in response to the BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis) crisis, on the basis that three million hectares are now dedicated to organic farming. Newsweek fails to give the comparative figures: 690 million hectares of land are under grain cultivation alone in the world. More to the point, the land under cultivation has been falling due to increased yields since 1981, putting many farmers out of business. Organic farming, heavily subsidized by governments, is one way for farmers to secure a niche market of high value crops, but few Europeans will pay over the odds for the manure-encrusted delights of the organic farmer.
Child Protection Racket
Claire Lorrimer, child care 'campaigner' was jailed for neglecting many of the adopted children in her care as well as persuading them to make perjured accusations of child abuse against their natural parents so as to claim cash from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. The industry of shaking down the CICS is well established. To secure convictions in the Welsh children home scandal police chiefs trawled through prisons interviewing former childrens' home residents asking them to give evidence against former carers, with the promise of CICS cash. Lorrimer had some good contacts in the child protection racket - her book carries a glowing foreword from Childline star Esther Rantzen.
-- James Heartfield