The colonial precedent

by Mark Curtis
Guardian, 26 October 2004

The redeployment of British forces in Iraq to support a US assault on Falluja marks another stage in a creeping return to the colonial era, when popular revolts against occupation were routinely suppressed by overwhelming force. These past episodes, revealed in declassified British government files, provide numerous parallels with Iraq, and suggest a pattern of future blunders and atrocities. Those in Britain who like to regard more recent military interventions as humanitarian might dwell on those parallels as the latest phase of the Iraq war unfolds.

Declassified: Rogue State Britain

by Mark Curtis

Red Pepper, December 2004

The Blair government’s foreign policy since the invasion of Iraq has been disastrous for human rights. Outside of media and parliamentary scrutiny, decision-makers have been implementing some remarkable steps: Britain is deepening its support for state terrorism in several countries while unprecedented plans are being developed for global military intervention. The government has also announced that, following Iraq, state propaganda operations will increase.

There are certain issues which it is not done to mention in respectable circles, and one is British involvement in terrorism. Take Blair’s extraordinary support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian atrocities in Chechnya have worsened throughout 2003 and 2004. Tens of thousands of people have been killed or forced to flee. While Britain was busy invading Iraq in March 2003, Human Rights Watch was documenting the highest rate of “disappearances” since the beginning of the war in Chechnya, invaded by Russia in 1999.

Britain and Africa: The aid dividend

by Mark Curtis

Red Pepper, March 2005

A major feature of the invasion of Iraq was media commentators falling for obvious government propaganda. Without such complicity, the invasion would have been politically impossible. Yet this willful self-deception is now being repeated in another area, where government propaganda is approaching the same depths as on Iraq. The current Big Lie is that 2005 is to be the Year of Africa.

We are now meant to believe that Blair’s hosting the G8 summit and presidency of the EU in July presents a giant opportunity for progress on eradicating African poverty. The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, for example, writes that “the new year is for optimism” since “both Blair and Brown look to 2005 as Britain’s big chance at the helm of the G8 to engage the rich with debt relief, aid, fair trade, carbon emissions and AIDS-crippled Africa”. “On debt and trade”, she adds, “Labour has done well”.