Radio Waving Afghanistan’s Imperial Function

I can’t find this online anywhere (must be connected to this) [found the audio, audiohijacked the report and now included below] but as I was cooking a delicious meal for my recovering mother I heard Radio Four Six O’Clock News (iplayer link) on in the background that George Robertson (former nulab and Nato sec gen) was giving a speech and rallying support for more warring down Afghanistan way and he said (transcribed from audio clip)-

Britain & Nato he said were in Afghanistan first & foremost to protect our own security.

Yep, not freedom, democracy, nation building but simple selfish ‘our security’, because he made the play that if we leave the Taliban in their caves (hey wait aren’t we doing deals with them now?) they will ‘reach out’ again like in ‘911’ and attack us. So he was regurgitating standard Bushco talking points and admitting- yeah fuck them Afghani bastards we are there to make us secure and all that crap about bringing them ‘freedom’ is a cover for our bombing runs. Obviously politician’s speeches are written to their audience, to selfish war-loving security fetishist he angles it this way, to voters he tries to make them feel good by invoking freedom & democracy™ but which do you think is the more truthful?

Stop Lying To Me

“Torture is against our laws and our values. And, given our mission, CIA could have no interest in a process destined to produce bad intelligence.”

He said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shared his “deep regret” about the mistaken assurances.

He said he was “very sorry” to have to say that previous denials made in “good faith” were now having to be corrected.

Just fuck off. Continual lying is continual disrespect and I’m sick of it. It’s sad we still live in such a way that the truth of our history (in terms of widely accepted public consensus) will not be known until all the key players are beyond sanction and by then the false version of events often remains in place from force of habit. Life in the simulacrum is fucking killing me!

Suu Kyi Barred From Standing In ‘Elections’

Aung San Suu Kyi will be barred from running for elections in Myanmar under a draft constitution proposed by the country’s military government, because she has been married to a foreigner. The Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate was married to Michael Aris, a British citizen who died of cancer in the UK in 1999. The government’s announcement comes ahead of a May referendum on the new constitution which, if approved, will pave the way for democratic elections in 2010.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which includes Myanmar among its 10-nation membership, criticised the move on Wednesday but said it was powerless to do anything.

Sore losers I suppose.

In 1990, the military junta called a general election, which the National League for Democracy won decisively. Being the NLD’s candidate, Aung San Suu Kyi under normal circumstances would have assumed the office of Prime Minister. Instead, the results were nullified, and the military refused to hand over power. 

Um, at this point the most constructive thing I can say is fuck ’em, exactly how remains to be worked out.