Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Now that's chutzpah

The BBC reports that Michael Meacher, former environment minister in Tony Blair's Labour government, is urging Tony Blair to pressure George Bush on measures to counteract "climate change".
"The US cannot count, despite its hegemony and its unique power, on the automatic support - even from close allies - if the US ignores their fundamental concerns," Mr Meacher told The World at One on BBC Radio 4.

"We have been a very strong, some of us think almost too subservient, an ally over recent years and it's time, I think, for the political goodwill which has been generated by our support to be called in."

"We" have been a very strong ally? How rich coming from the likes of Meacher, who has been anything but an ally to the US. Let's take a look at the "poltical goodwill" that Meacher has offered George Bush and the US.

Check out this article, written by Meacher in September 2003, titled "This War on Terrorism is Bogus", in which he peddles the conspiracy theory that security authorities in the US knew about the planned 9/11 attack before the event, but purposely allowed it to happen in order to provide a pretext for attacking Afghanistan and Iraq.

Or consider this piece, written by Meacher in November 2004, in which he rhetorically asks "Did Dubya rig the election?" and passes on long-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2000 election as fact.

Or this one, from April this year, in which he asserts that "America is usurping the democratic will in Iraq", even as he laments the demise of Saddam Hussein, saying that "The US, having destroyed the sole major secular government in the region, is now at risk of replacing it with a theocratic regime."

Even as recently as three weeks ago, Meacher was assailing US motives over Iraq, saying "The reason they attacked Iraq is nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, it was nothing to do with democracy in Iraq, it was nothing to do with the human rights abuses of Saddam Hussein....The connection [with oil] is 100%. It is absolutely overwhelming."

Let's be clear. Meacher is not a friend of either George Bush or America. Meacher has never been a friend to either George Bush or America. It takes unmitigated gall for this man, of all people, to lecture Blair on what he is owed for the support and goodwill "they" collectively have shown towards the US.

Oh, and by the way, don't you think the BBC, as it broadcasts Meacher's lecture on what Bush owes his allies, has a responsibility to inform its audience of just how much of an ally Meacham himself has been?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is surprising that the BBC has him on to speak on such matters. His title was "environment minister". He could speak on the environment, but to an American such as myself, I think it's presumptuous of him, no matter what he said before, to say how Tony Blair should cash in his chits. He's out of his depth on that subject, IMO.

However, Blair, the UK, have been a good ally to the USA, and we are very thankful for that. I don't think it would be out of the question for Blair to come to the U.S. asking us to do some things for them. He's endured a lot of resistance to their participation in Iraq, on our account. Perhaps Meacher was on the money, though, when it came to what Blair wanted to ask of Bush. In a recent interview, Bush made a point of talking about how "we're working on reducing our emmission of greenhouse gases." It's been a while since he's talked about that. Perhaps this was on Blair's agenda, no matter what Meacher said.

11:42 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home