David Miliband declares the war on terror over
The idea of a “war on terror” is a “mistake”, putting too much emphasis on military force, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said.
Brave words coming, as they do, five days before George Bush steps down and from a man who’s been at the centre of a government guilty of unprecedented assaults on the citizenry of Iraq and Aghanistan since 2001 (and who used the phrase himself in a speech as recently as two months ago). As Quarsan says:
Seven years of policies that New Labour instigated. Where was Miliband’s conscience then? It was in the Aye lobby.
To be honest, it’s not the most fulsome mea culpa ever written. He seems more worried about the label applied to what the US and UK governments have done in the last seven years rather than what they did and how they did it. It’s a bit like calling murder ‘involuntary suicide’.
Nobody with even the most rudimentary powers of observation thought that The War Against Terror had some detailed over-arching strategy with any possibility of an ultimate victory. It’s clear that the coalition of the willing, such as it is, has been making it up on the fly, lurching from one foreign policy disaster to another.
And you hear Miliband say…
We must respond to terrorism by championing the rule of law, not subordinating it, for it is the cornerstone of the democratic society. We must uphold our commitments to human rights and civil liberties at home and abroad.
…and you think, ‘Oh, where to begin with that and where to end’. Iraq, BAE, Yarl’s Wood, SOCPA, ID cards, collusion with torturers, databases, databases and more databases…
Is this an implicit admission by Miliband that all this is going to stop? What exactly are New Labour’s ‘commitments to human rights and civil liberties’ anyway? Are they written down anywhere (you suspect it’d be quite a short list) or are they simply what a government minister says they are when giving a self-serving speech?
Posted on January 15th, 2009 at 3:50pm under Civil liberties, Eye Catching Initiatives, Human rights, New Labour, T.W.A.T., US Politics
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• 9 Comments |
Wise words, Chicken/Turkey yoghurt.
People are already forgetting that this man was a consistent supporter of EVERY foreign policy “initiative” started and continued by New Labour. Iraq included. Only last year he repeated the Iraq war is and has been a success.
This is what I wrote about it on Hagley Road to Ladywood
http://mymarilyn.blogspot.com/2009/01/miliband-renounces-what.html
I wonder what his mentor Blair thinks about him apparently renouncing him like this?
He could, of course, just be experiencing a few troubles at home.
Milliband’s article looks more like an attempt to drop the last seven years down the memory-hole, not a mea culpa. It coincides with Jack Straw’s latest attempt to remove juries from inquests in cases involving “national security”, which suggests that “championing the rule of law” is still not deeply embedded in the present Government.
Talking of databases, have you seen this?
“Straw insisted that the powers would come with “very strict controls” on who will get access to personal data…”
“Straw acknowledged that recent high-profile government data losses had damaged public trust but insisted that the new data-sharing powers would come with robust safeguards”
I generally can’t bring myself to get too wound up about the cynicism intrinsic to politics at the moment, and I have no particular beef with the “surveillance state”… but for some reason the tantalising proximity to admitting past mistakes during the announcement of this particularly stupid and intrusive plan really made the bile rise in my throat.
While I am not a fan of David Milliband’s actions over the past few years it is good to see a high-up politician speaking out about Britain’s foreign policy (and harmful policy’s at home).
Worrying about the labels attached to acts of government? Well naturally, they are politicians after all. What do you expect them to do? Act?
Be serrious.
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Is he renouncing the war on terror because he is now on the imaginary Muslim hitlist of top level Jews?