So Much for our 'ethics'

JOHN BORRETT,
Haylings Grove
Leiston.

The announcement of further air strikes against Iraqi targets and the consequent revelation of heavy civilian casualties and material damage, raises the usual questions concerning the mandate and authority for such acts of war.

This continued belligerence by two states with a unique history of partiality is compounded by a vicious campaign of sanction against a destitute population, directly resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children and adults.

Coincidental with these latest attacks is the revelation that at best they are only 40 per cent accurate and often the level is as low as two per cent!

So much for the myth of precision bombing and the avoidance of collateral damage.

The justification for perpetuating this war rests in a United Nations mandate having a validity only slightly more credible than that by means of which, in 1948, [was] invented the "state" of Israel.

Then and since, the US generally gets its own way by the covert and sometimes blatant use of economic and political blackmail. These events have all been comprehensively analysed and meticulously documented. They are a matter of record to all who are sufficiently interested.

Think about it - a poor nation, desperate for investment, having to cope with civil unrest and starvation, is not going to concern itself at the UN with either morality or ethics when the most powerful nation on earth is prepared to reward you for casting your vote in a way that makes the difference. This is precisely how the US gets away with murder, backed by the façade of international legality.

For so long has the UK reflected the foreign policy interests of the USA that we no longer take foreign policy decisions in the interests of either ourselves or humanity and the pretence that it is governed by ethics is both hypocritical and obscene.

In the Middle East, our credibility is regularly exposed and has been so since our involvement in the catastrophic invention of Israel.

Indded, although eventually, and against US wishes, we were unable to avoid supporting UN resolutions cvondemning Israel's military expulsion of the indigenous victims, successive UK governments have afforded unswerving support to the US and its many powerful Zionist pressure groups.

As a direct result, the irrevocable requirement for the return of seized Palestinian land, businesses, property and homes remain unfulfilled.

And now, for two generations, we have colluded with the US to protect Israel from gull implementation and retribution.

Because the US says "No", our Government invents reasons to resist the application of any pressure to compel compliance and in so doing condemns generations of Palestinian victims to a sub-human existence of destitution and death in refugee camps, often themselves the target of Israeli napalm and cluster bomb assault.

Mr Cook's ethics are thus very selective indeed. Just for once, an admission from this benighted Government that we have no moral authority, integrity or scruples left would restore a sense or reality, if not justice, to this misguided meddling in the affairs of the Middle East.

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