When one looks with any sense of calm and neutral curiosity at the alleged poisoning of the Skripals, one cannot help but come away with the conclusion that a judgment had already been decided upon and that evidence—the kind that might be scrutinized by independent parties and brought up for international inspection—had been relegated to irrelevance. Russia, we all heard, was the villain, the culprit, the evil demon whose ways cannot be countered except by force.
When one looks further into the possible motives for Russia deciding to murder, in a most ineffective way, a double-agent who had taken part in a spy swap years ago, one is told simply that Putin is the devil.
Very shortly thereafter, as if to make a bold connecting link between evil Russian and deadly chemicals, we have the story of Assad’s ‘regime’—it’s always a regime, isn’t it, instead of a government, and one never hears of Netanyahu’s ‘regime’ in Israel which has just killed unarmed stone-throwers, for which there is very clear-cut evidence, or Trump’s or Obama’s or Clinton’s regimes that have resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths as a result of illegal invasions.
But I digress.
The so-called evidence for the alleged Syrian chemical attacks was gathered by those who don’t need any evidence to launch air strikes. In fact, this latest salvo occurred immediately before an internationally recognized body, the OPCW, was about to begin its investigation into the matter. So why the urgency, why not wait a few days or weeks until something might be discovered? After all, Assad at least is not accused, as was Saddam Hussein of holding a smoking nuclear gun over the heads of the West.
As I mull more and more over this lawlessness—and lawless it is, by any standards—I see another target, perhaps the principal target, one is far more dangerous than Assad because he lives in the belly of the beast and he is an avowed espouser of a system that is a nightmare to neoliberal capitalism: Jeremy Corbyn.
Corbyn has come under attack on several fronts most recently, as the corrupt and decrepit Tories wreak havoc on social welfare: for alleged anti-Semitism, because he dares question the disgusting incarceration of the Palestinians and the indifferent and murderous policies towards this people; and then for urging a rational and sensible approach to assessing evidence in the Skripal case, and for encouraging Parliamentary debate before a rush to an illegal military attack against another country. His poll-star is now waning.
So as I see it, it’s not about evidence, and never has been. It’s about deeply strategic political goals against any serious forces that will undermine real change in the Elite’s status quo.
A status quo that is teaching us that there is no law except Power.
In Shakespeare’s great play Macbeth, the Scottish warlord, as he plots the gratuitous murder of the rightful king, Duncan, says: “but in these cases there is judgment here, that we but teach bloody instructions which, being taught, return to plague the inventor.” And indeed they return to cause his own demise.
Blood will have blood. That’s the lesson we are all being given by the self-proclaimed triumvirate of the US, Britain and France (whose Macron is also under pressure by his people for seeking to eliminate social programs); this ‘police’ who are ‘locked and loaded’ and ready to fire at any threat.
Dr. Garcia is a physician and writer who is a dual citizen of the United States and New Zealand. He believes in evidence.
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The real target of the alleged chemical attacks: Jeremy Corbyn
Posted on April 17, 2018 by Emanuel E. Garcia, MD
When one looks with any sense of calm and neutral curiosity at the alleged poisoning of the Skripals, one cannot help but come away with the conclusion that a judgment had already been decided upon and that evidence—the kind that might be scrutinized by independent parties and brought up for international inspection—had been relegated to irrelevance. Russia, we all heard, was the villain, the culprit, the evil demon whose ways cannot be countered except by force.
When one looks further into the possible motives for Russia deciding to murder, in a most ineffective way, a double-agent who had taken part in a spy swap years ago, one is told simply that Putin is the devil.
Very shortly thereafter, as if to make a bold connecting link between evil Russian and deadly chemicals, we have the story of Assad’s ‘regime’—it’s always a regime, isn’t it, instead of a government, and one never hears of Netanyahu’s ‘regime’ in Israel which has just killed unarmed stone-throwers, for which there is very clear-cut evidence, or Trump’s or Obama’s or Clinton’s regimes that have resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths as a result of illegal invasions.
But I digress.
The so-called evidence for the alleged Syrian chemical attacks was gathered by those who don’t need any evidence to launch air strikes. In fact, this latest salvo occurred immediately before an internationally recognized body, the OPCW, was about to begin its investigation into the matter. So why the urgency, why not wait a few days or weeks until something might be discovered? After all, Assad at least is not accused, as was Saddam Hussein of holding a smoking nuclear gun over the heads of the West.
As I mull more and more over this lawlessness—and lawless it is, by any standards—I see another target, perhaps the principal target, one is far more dangerous than Assad because he lives in the belly of the beast and he is an avowed espouser of a system that is a nightmare to neoliberal capitalism: Jeremy Corbyn.
Corbyn has come under attack on several fronts most recently, as the corrupt and decrepit Tories wreak havoc on social welfare: for alleged anti-Semitism, because he dares question the disgusting incarceration of the Palestinians and the indifferent and murderous policies towards this people; and then for urging a rational and sensible approach to assessing evidence in the Skripal case, and for encouraging Parliamentary debate before a rush to an illegal military attack against another country. His poll-star is now waning.
So as I see it, it’s not about evidence, and never has been. It’s about deeply strategic political goals against any serious forces that will undermine real change in the Elite’s status quo.
A status quo that is teaching us that there is no law except Power.
In Shakespeare’s great play Macbeth, the Scottish warlord, as he plots the gratuitous murder of the rightful king, Duncan, says: “but in these cases there is judgment here, that we but teach bloody instructions which, being taught, return to plague the inventor.” And indeed they return to cause his own demise.
Blood will have blood. That’s the lesson we are all being given by the self-proclaimed triumvirate of the US, Britain and France (whose Macron is also under pressure by his people for seeking to eliminate social programs); this ‘police’ who are ‘locked and loaded’ and ready to fire at any threat.
Dr. Garcia is a physician and writer who is a dual citizen of the United States and New Zealand. He believes in evidence.