May 31, 2006
GEORGE ORWELL
described an "endless war" in his 1949 novel "1984" that has
considerable similarities with the current "endless" and semantically
absurd "War on Terror" announced by US President Bush in 2001 after the
9/11 atrocity.
The
"endless war" in George Orwell’s "1984" involved (a) shifting
enemies and alliances (involving entities such as Oceania, Eastasia and
Eurasia, friends one day and enemies the next); (b) personified,
ideological evil (enemy of the people Emmanuel Goldstein); (c) an
all-powerful, ruling father-figure (Big Brother); (d) re-writing
of history (that was poor Winston’s job); (e) a Police State
("They" always eventually got the dissidents such as Julia and
Winston); (f) sexual repression; (g) torture (as in Room 101 where
Winston encountered his most dreadful fear, the rat, literally and
helplessly face to face); (h) re-writing of the English language (as
progressively reduced and simplified Newspeak); (i) untruth became
truth (thus "war is peace, slavery is freedom, ignorance is strength …
and 2 plus 2 does not equal 4"); (j) it became a crime to think; and
(k) FINALLY, unlike Joseph K in Franz Kafka’s "The Trial" (who is true
to himself to the end), ultimate psychological submission:
"
He [Winston] gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken
him to learn what kind of smile was hidden behind the dark mustache. O
cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from
the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the side of his
nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was
finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big
Brother."
These same Orwellian "1984" elements are to be seen in Bush’s "endless" War on Terror as outlined below:
(a)
shifting enemies and alliances (Al-Qaeda was the UK-US ally against the
USSR and now is the enemy; the Taliban in Afghanistan is "bad" but the
substantially Taliban-influenced Pakistan Army and Intelligence are
"good");
(b) personified, ideological evil (Islamic
fundamentalism is the "enemy" and especially as personified by the
supposed leaders of so-called "Islamic jihadism", namely Osama bin
Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, entities who may not even be alive);
(c)
a powerful father-figure (more in sorrow than in anger, earnest, homily
inarticulate, and God-fearing President George W. Bush);
(d)
re-writing of history (the official version of 9/11 is seen to be at
variance with observation and science; the weapons of mass destruction
and numerous other "justifications" for the Iraq war have proved to be
false; the residual argument for war, specifically "democracy" is also
a LIE because the Coalition is still occupying Iraq, notwithstanding
repeated Iraqi polls indicating overwhelming Iraqi opposition to
continued foreign military presence; and UK-US Mainstream Media
IGNORING of the horrendous human cost of the Bush Wars) (e.g. see: here );
(e)
a Police State (violation of human rights and civil liberties within
America by the Patriot Act and the Guantanamo Bay abuses) (see what the
ACLU thinks of the Patriot Act ;)
(f)
sexual repression (US politics is dominated by the Racist Religious
Right Republicans - the RRRRs or R4s - for whom sexual repression
is the sine qua non);
(g) torture (as in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and US rendition of prisoners for torture around the world);
US-funded
death squads are targeting Iraqi academics, intellectuals and health
professionals; US scientists and scholars have been intimidated; UK-US
Mainstream Media have an extraordinarily sustained policy of lying by
omission over the human cost of the Bush Wars 
(h)
re-writing of the English language (e.g. nucular, WMDs, collateral
deaths, democratic imperialism, rendition, and embedding; see the Newspeak Dictionary ). (i)
untruth becomes truth (war is peace, slavery is freedom, ignorance is
strength, and "2 plus 2 does not equal 4" translate, respectively, as
"the war was for peace", "occupation has brought freedom to Iraq", "we
cannot say in the interests of national security" and "we cannot say
how many civilians have died" in the Bush Wars);
(j) it
is a crime to think (US-funded death squads are targeting Iraqi
academics, intellectuals and health professionals; US scientists and
scholars have been intimidated; UK-US Mainstream Media have an
extraordinarily sustained policy of lying by omission over the human
cost of the Bush Wars);
(k) and FINALLY, psychological
submission (notwithstanding vigorous and articulate academic, worker,
veteran, Alternative Media and political opposition to the Bush
Wars, the US is presently just about tied on the outcome of a
prospective presidential race involving 2 WOMEN who are variously BOTH
complicit in horrendous, post-invasion avoidable mass mortality of 1.6
MILLION INFANTS in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories, namely
war-monger Dr Rice (Dr Death) and pro-war Hillary "look the other way"
Clinton. Concerning the evident indifference of BOTH Condoleezza Rice
and Hillary Clinton to the US mass murder of 1.6 million Muslim
infants, it must be noted that "female allomothering" ( "aunt
behaviour" or care by females for the offspring of other females of the
same species) is a fundamental female behaviour of many social
primates, including Homo sapiens.
The War on Terror is a LIE and in reality is a War on Women and Children, as revealed by the following statistics.
The
number of Western civilians killed by Muslim-origin terrorists over the
last 40 years totals about 7,000, comprising 2,200 Israeli
civilians since 1966 (see: here and here ), 3,000 Americans on 9/11 (see: here , here and here
) and the remainder from a variety of atrocities, most notably the
Ionian Sea TWA plane bombing (1974), Lockerbie Pan Am atrocity
(1988), Niger UTA plane bombing (1989), AMIA Argentina bombing (1994),
East Africa US Embassy bombings (1998), Bali bombing (2002), Madrid
bombing (2004) and the London bombings (2005) (for key references see: here , here and here ).
In
marked contrast, the cost of the War on Terror over the last 4.5
years since 9/11 (as of end May 2006) has CONSERVATIVELY been 2.75
million, comprising 0.5 million post-invasion avoidable deaths
(Occupied Iraq), 1.8 million post-invasion avoidable deaths (occupied
Afghanistan) and 0.45 million post-2001 global opioid drug-related
deaths due to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium
industry (see MWC News ).
However
the death toll from the War on Terror is actually much higher still.
Thus we are responsible not only for what we do but also for what we do
not do – and the US-led Coalition involves the richest countries in the
world. The 21st Century Bush Wars have been estimated to have cost the
US alone about $1-2 trillion (see MWC News
). The World has an annual gross wealth production (i.e. summed GNPs)
of about $55 trillion – yet it can be calculated that 2.5% of this per
annum ($1.4 trillion) would potentially abolish global avoidable
mortality (the difference between the actual deaths in a country and
the deaths expected in a peaceful, decently-run country with the same
demographics). Indeed highly focused expenditure leading to
increased African and Asian productivity could potentially achieve the
same result for far less. The current global avoidable mortality (2003
estimate) is 16 million EACH YEAR.
Good governance, peace,
high literacy, good primary health care and an annual per capita
income of only about $1,000 has enabled poor countries like Cuba, Sri
Lanka, Syria, Tunisia and Paraguay to achieve excellent health outcomes
and most notably 0 (ZERO) annual avoidable mortality (2003). Indeed, in
2003 avoidable mortality and "annual under-5 infant death rate" were 0
(ZERO) and 0.17% in both Cuba (annual per capita income $1,200) and in
the world’s richest country, the United States (annual per capita
income $38,000). The annual cost of ensuring that all countries of the
world have an annual per capita income of $1,000 is about $1.4 trillion
– and sensible expenditure of this sum, together with the other social
requisites obtaining in countries like Syria and Cuba, could
potentially reduce avoidable mortality in all of the countries of the
world to 0 (ZERO).
The upper estimate of the cost of the
21st Century War on Terror is the global avoidable mortality over the
last 5 years of 80 million people (including an estimated 48
million under-5 year old infants) – a carnage that could have been
prevented if there had been a War on Poverty rather than a dishonest,
racist and psychopathic War on Women and Children.
================
Dr Gideon Polya,
MWC News Chief political editor, published some 130 works in a 4
decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological
reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC
Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is
currently writing a book on global mortality ---
