Army Chief wants out of Iraq

General seeks UK Iraq withdrawal

This is one of those astonishing turns that even the mainstream media cannot avoid. British readers will already know that the head of the army has delivered the ultimate blow to the Blair Party government by effectively saying that our continued presence in Iraq is creating a greater problem with every passing hour. Whitehall are exhibiting a very uncharacteristic silence - it;s clearly going to take a while to work out a "spin" agenda for this one.

Repeating the obvious here is largely for the benefit of those readers elsewhere. Scanning the Amerikan papers I find little mention of what is clearly a major indictment of our following the Bush Regime's imperial campaign.

So you thought Abu Grahib was bad news? The latest edition of Democracy Now with Amy Goodman concentrates on abuses involving, amongst other things, rape and dogs inside Amerika's own penal institutions. It includes some very unpleasant video footage which can also be found posted separately at their website. See link left.

Prisons are increasingly promoted as a tool by the newly authoritarian state, but the folly of incarcarating those whose "crimes" are not those of endangerment to the greater society has long been in question. The government are not willing to cough up the funding the maintain a remotely humanitarian standard of living for those locked up yet wonder why marginal "offenders" emerge from such places "hardened" to criminal culture itself. With the exception of friends and family, Joe Public doesn't give a damn or pay much attention to the issue - out of sight is out of mind!

When, as now and despite advance warning, the whole system overflows its already stretched capacity, the animation in charge does a Bush-like knee-jerk and proposes to redeploy the overflow in the most inappropriate locations possible. Police cells without long-term welfare provision and abandoned military camps are hardly going to foster a culture of "rehabilitation". They are more likely to incubate a hidden future menace to everyone.

The prison population spans a gamut of different people. There are murderers and child molesters. There are also some who are little more than dissenters, non-conformists or those who contravene the "fake laws" which exist simply to constrain independent behaviour that harms nobody except the individual concered, if even that. Yet, with minor environment differences, they are all subjected to the same machinery if isolation, indifference and neglect.

How long before the likes of the Blair Regime too come to the conclusion that dogs will be cheaper than human guards. How long before they seek to economise still futher by administering even more dangerous pscho-depressant drugs than in use already and cut the food rations to less than those required for full life sustainability. How long indeed until British society has its own legion of "the disappeared"? The engineers of such nightmares step slowly, but ever more methodically.

One is surprised Blair himself has not taken an interest. After all, when the war-crimes and corruption of those entrusted to manage our affairs on our behalf come fully to light, he and his elite conspirators may one day find themselves living in the prison system themselves.

Later.