Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/470/1986
From The Socialist newspaper, 18 January 2007
Blair's vision: 'wars without end'
TONY BLAIR'S political failures in Iraq and Afghanistan - which have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians and nearly 200 UK service personnel deaths - has not stopped the megalomaniac prime minister envisaging a future of wars without end.
In a speech aboard HMS Albion, (appropriately enough for someone echoing the past days of the British empire!), Blair defined the future role of Britain's armed forces. Notwithstanding the evidence of an overstretched military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, he wants the armed forces to be centre stage in wars against 'global terrorism', stretching endlessly into the future.
"My choice would be for armed forces... to be war fighters as well as peacekeepers; for a British foreign policy keeps our American alliance strong and is prepared to project hard as well as soft power," he said.
However, rather than countering 'terrorism' Blair's and Bush's military adventures around the world have further fuelled the rise of right-wing political Islam and its networks of terrorist operatives.
History lesson
INCREDIBLY, BLAIR said the challenge since the 9/11 attacks in the US resembled the 'free world's' fight against "revolutionary communism in its early and most militant phase".
This is a blatantly false and reactionary historical comparison. The response of British imperialism and its allies after the 1917 Russian revolution, where the working class came to power, was to try and crush it in blood!
Some 21 allied armies were sent to destroy the workers' government (which had ended Russia's war, and the Tsar's oppressive rule) and restore a capitalist dictatorship. Only socialist internationalism and massive sacrifices by Russian workers and peasants prevented the imperialist powers in succeeding.
However, the devastation of the wars of intervention and the resulting political isolation so weakened the workers' state as to create the conditions for the rise of a one-party Stalinist dictatorship - the negation of workers' democracy.
Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary socialist and leader of the 1917 revolution, described imperialism as "horror without end". Blair with his 'wars without end' clearly identifies with continuing this bloody imperialist legacy.
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In The Socialist 18 January 2007:
Labour ministers make us sick!
Keep up the pressure for 3 March demo
Socialist Students
Anger against top-up fees grows
War and terrorism
Iraq: Bush continues his dangerous blunder
Blair's vision: 'wars without end'
International socialist news and analysis
"We're moving towards a socialist republic of Venezuela" - Hugo Chávez
Sri Lanka: Urgent action needed
Fighting for a socialist world
Socialist Party news and analysis
Interest rate hike pushes up costs
What's behind the school leaving proposals?
Campaign for a new workers' party
Socialist Party workplace news
Fight the government's sell-off plans
Strike ballot put on hold once again
'Single status' battle in Manchester
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