Seumas Milne's Blog, page 8

Another western war wont end terror in Iraq or Syria. It will only spread it | Seumas Milne

Bombing and more intervention cant destroy Isis. The US is at the heart of the crisis in the Middle East

Barely a month into the latest American bombing campaign in Iraq, and theyre already talking escalation. Last week Barack Obama promised that his plans to destroy the so-called Islamic State (Isis) would not involve American combat troops. This week General Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said thats exactly what he would be recommending if air power didnt work.

If work means destroy Isiss grip on western Iraq and eastern Syria, it wont. So expect the new war that Chuck Hagel, the US defence secretary, says will last several years to ramp up in the months ahead. Yesterday Obama stuck to his formula. But there are already 1,600 US military advisers on the ground. Special forces will no doubt be back in serious numbers before long.

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Salmond’s Scotland won’t be an escape from Tory Britain | Seumas Milne

Scots voting yes for social justice won’t get it from a party signed up to corporate tax cuts as the recipe for independence

It’s not hard to work out why next week’s referendum on Scottish independence is on a knife edge, and the markets in meltdown. If the Westminster elite had been secretly working for a yes vote, they could hardly have done a better job of it. Issuing threats of dire ruin, the no camp yoked together Labour, Liberal Democrats and Tories in a made-to-measure demonstration of exactly the London establishment stitch-up the nationalist-led campaign has thrived on.

Trading on fear and relentless negativity, the Better Together campaign has left the field open to independence campaigners to offer hope of real change and empowerment. By refusing to include a halfway house “devo max” question on the ballot paper, they denied Scots the option most wanted in favour of a gamble that has already backfired.

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Salmonds Scotland wont be an escape from Tory Britain | Seumas Milne

Scots voting yes for social justice wont get it from a party signed up to corporate tax cuts as the recipe for independence

Its not hard to work out why next weeks referendum on Scottish independence is on a knife edge, and the markets in meltdown. If the Westminster elite had been secretly working for a yes vote, they could hardly have done a better job of it. Issuing threats of dire ruin, the no camp yoked together Labour, Liberal Democrats and Tories in a made-to-measure demonstration of exactly the London establishment stitch-up the nationalist-led campaign has thrived on.

Trading on fear and relentless negativity, the Better Together campaign has left the field open to independence campaigners to offer hope of real change and empowerment. By refusing to include a halfway house devo max question on the ballot paper, they denied Scots the option most wanted in favour of a gamble that has already backfired.

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Far from keeping the peace, Nato is a threat to it | Seumas Milne

It was the prospect of Ukraine being drawn into the western military alliance that triggered conflict in the first place

For the west's masters of war, it's a good time to be in Wales. A military alliance that has struggled for years to explain why it still exists has got a packed agenda for its Newport summit. Nato may not be at the centre of Barack Obama and David Cameron's plans to ramp up intervention in the Middle East and wipe the so-called Islamic state "out of existence". But after 13 years of bloody occupation of Afghanistan and a calamitous intervention in Libya, the western alliance has got an enemy that at last seems to fit its bill. Swinging through the former Soviet republic of Estonia today, the US president declared that Nato was ready to defend Europe from "Russian aggression".

Nato's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen who insisted as Danish prime minister in 2003 that "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction we know" has released satellite images supposed to demonstrate Russia has invaded Ukraine. Not to be outdone, the British prime minister has compared Vladimir Putin to Hitler.

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Another war in Iraq wont fix the disaster of the last | Seumas Milne

The Yazidis need aid, but military intervention by states that destroyed Iraq will deepen the crisis now tearing it apart

They couldnt keep away. Barely two years after US forces were withdrawn from Iraq, theyre back in action. Barack Obama has now become the fourth US president in a row to launch military action in Iraq.

Were now into the sixth day of US air attacks on the self-styled Islamic State, formerly known as Isis the sectarian fundamentalists who have taken over vast tracts of Sunni Iraq and are carrying out vicious ethnic cleansing against minorities in the north.

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Gaza is a crime made in Washington as well as Jerusalem | Seumas Milne

The carnage unleashed on the Palestinians is part of a decades-old routine that depends on western support

Global revulsion at the mind-numbing carnage of Israels onslaught on Gaza seems finally to have spurred some of the western political class to speak out. The resignation of Sayeeda Warsi, Britains first Muslim cabinet minister, in protest against her governments morally indefensible stance, emboldened Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, to demand the suspension of arms export licences to Israel.

Last week it was Ed Miliband who condemned Israels invasion and the prime ministers silence on the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians. Even the United States administration denounced its strategic proteges disgraceful bombardment of a school, while Barack Obama described Palestinian suffering as heartbreaking as if he had nothing to do with it.

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We must end this collusion with terror in Colombia | Seumas Milne

As talks to end a 50-year war hang in the balance, violent repression carries on and the US and Britain stand behind it

The Colombian port of Buenaventura is a place of misery and fear. Four-fifths of the mainly black population live in dire poverty and paramilitary gangs exercise a reign of terror. Most of Colombias imports come through the port, which is being massively expanded to meet the demands of new free trade agreements.

But theres no sign of any benefit in Buenaventuras slums, whose deprivation is reminiscent of the worst of Bangladesh. Most of the citys population have no sewerage and many no power. Tens of thousands have been forced off their land around the city to make way for corporate megaprojects.

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Colombian peace talks will fail without government concessions, Farc warns

In exclusive interview, Farc leaders say hopes for peace will be lost unless government accepts democratic and social reform

Hopes of ending Colombia's civil war, one of the longest-running and bloodiest conflicts in the world, will be dashed unless the Colombian government accepts genuine democratic and social reform, leaders of the Farc, the country's main guerrilla group, have told the Guardian.

Talks to settle the 50-year conflict between the government of Juan Manuel Santos, re-elected last month on a peace ticket, and the leftwing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia regarded as "narco-terrorists" by the US government have already reached a series of agreements since they opened in Cuba in 2012.

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Gaza: this shameful injustice will only end if the cost of it rises | Seumas Milne

The idea that Israel is defending itself from unprovoked attacks is absurd. Occupied people have the right to resist

For the third time in five years, the worlds fourth largest military power has launched a full-scale armed onslaught on one of its most deprived and overcrowded territories. Since Israels bombardment of the Gaza Strip began, just over a week ago, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed. Nearly 80% of the dead are civilians, over 20% of them children.

Around 1,400 have been wounded and 1,255 Palestinian homes destroyed. So far, Palestinian fire has killed one Israeli on the other side of the barrier that makes blockaded Gaza the worlds largest open-air prison.

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The tide is turning against the scam that is privatisation | Seumas Milne

The international revival of public ownership is anathema to our City-led elite. But it's vital to genuine economic recovery

Privatisation isn't working. We were promised a shareholding democracy, competition, falling costs and better services. A generation on, most people's experience has been the opposite. From energy to water, rail to public services, the reality has been private monopolies, perverse subsidies, exorbitant prices, woeful under-investment, profiteering and corporate capture.

Private cartels run rings round the regulators. Consumers and politicians are bamboozled by commercial secrecy and contractual complexity. Workforces have their pay and conditions slashed. Control of essential services has not only passed to corporate giants based overseas, but those companies are themselves often state-owned they're just owned by another state.

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