The usual inaccurate 鈥榩eace鈥� ideology

Peace protests in Lincolnshire mask more cynical objectives

By David C. Jennings (Bio and Archives)  Monday, April 29, 2013 Comments | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

Peace protestors reared up in Lincolnshire this past Saturday as about 600 demonstrators marched from the county town about 4 miles to RAF Waddington, which has become the new operational HQ for predator drones flying in Afghanistan and other parts of the world.

On the surface, such demonstrations sound harmless enough as participants campaign along the misguided notion that by ending unilateral strikes against terrorists, somehow they鈥檒l decide we are nice people after all and leave us alone.

The stark truth of these matters is, however, rather different. Policies of the nineties tried to minimize the magnitude of terror attacks against American targets which only led to a bolder and grander scale. Then a closer look at who runs Britain鈥檚 鈥榩eace movement鈥� shows that peace is far from their mind. Much more likely is the opportunity to launch a cynical takeover.

Listening to the comments of protestors reveals an in-cohesive and emotionally driven response to situation that addresses nothing in a sensible way. Penny Walker, a walk organiser, said: 鈥淭hese pilotless killing machines 鈥� which have already killed hundreds of innocent civilians in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Gaza 鈥� are fuelling anger and terrorism around the world, endangering us all. They are also paving the way for a future in which robots make decisions to kill with no human oversight. We need to take action now to end this new form of remote-control murder.鈥�

Walker spouts the usual inaccurate 鈥榩eace鈥� ideology; that the actions of drone strikes are fuelling terrorism when in fact they are killing terrorists. More telling though is the last place on her list of so called atrocities 鈥� Gaza. Much of what drives these protests is actually an anti-Israeli position; the devil is always found in the details.

Two of the principal organizers behind the march and several related protests are the 鈥榃ar on Want鈥� and the 鈥楽top the War Coalition鈥�. Along with the old-timer CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) they form the bulk of the organizational talent.

鈥楽top the War鈥� was founded only 10 days after 9/11 indicating how knee-jerk these people are when it comes to opposing any kind of military action regardless of the reason. More than that the founders are political opportunists, following Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel鈥檚 mantra of 鈥榥ever letting a good crisis go to waste鈥�. Andrew Murray is a trade-union activist, Lindsey German 鈥� a Socialist Workers Revolutionary Party veteran, and George Galloway and Tony Benn are old school lefties. 鈥楽top the War鈥� was founded as much as anything to give its founders a vehicle to champion all of their causes.

Galloway was also head of the 鈥榃ar on Want鈥� from 1983-87. Supposedly and legally a charity it has in fact directed significant resources towards politicizing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, calling Israeli presence in Gaza an occupation, apartheid, and a siege while accusing the Israeli鈥檚 of daily human rights abuses. Pro Israeli forces have hit back at 鈥榃ar on Want鈥� with NGO Monitor鈥檚 Dan Kosky saying 鈥渢he United Kingdom could find itself aiding an Israel boycott campaign”, by virtue of tax-exempt benefits enjoyed by the charity.

Ironically 鈥榃ar on Want鈥� launched “Help win justice for the Palestinian people this Christmas”, when Palestinians as Muslims actually fundamentally disagree with Christmas. Indeed it is Yahweh (Hebrew for God), the father of Jesus, in turn the focal point of Christmas, whose idea it was for the land to be Israeli in the first place.

Many of the 鈥榩eace鈥� protestors simply get caught up in the whole kaleidoscope of lefty lunacy, under the misguided idea that these policies will change the world for good. It is an unfortunate and na茂ve concept that relies on inherently bad people suddenly behaving nicely because you capitulate to them. In reality that is co-dependence on an international scale.

Leadership of these groups though, whilst not wholly being unbelievers, sees a deeper cause to strive for. This cause is one which encompasses the bringing forth of a leftist utopia with—surprise surprise—them in charge. This is their core motivation, that only they have the understanding necessary to bring forth the changes required and that no price is too high for that to occur. In that thinking they find common ground with the terrorists they inadvertently protect.