who remembers september 11th? (1973)

despite yesterday's claims by the ministry of defence
that desertions from the uk armed forces
"have remained constant"
the escalating figures speak for themselves_
in 2001 there were only 81
in 2005 there were 377
this year it's 189 so far_
small wonder then that parliament is creating a new law
allowing life-term jail sentences for desertion

the reason for absconding
at first seems fairly obvious
today two more uk soldiers died in iraq
making the total deaths of service men and women 113
(33 dead during the actual invasion
all the rest since the 'ending of hostilities')

i was a soldier once
and i would proudly remind anyone
this is the british armed forces we're talking about_
these men and women have recently fought and served
in northern ireland, sierra leone and bosnia _
they aren't leaving because they're afraid
there's much more to it than that_

flight lieutenant Kendall-Smith was recently sentenced
for refusing to return to iraq for 'another tour'
because the conflict is illegal_
the bbc has a quote from an sas soldier
who was allowed to resign
after he was no longer prepared to return to Iraq
because of illegal acts he witnessed
carried out by the US forces he served with
and he's not the only one_
there are a lot of live interviews
that mention exactly the same thing

abu ghraib_
fallujah_
this week the pentagon wraps up it's inquiry
into what happened in haditha last november_
where us marines wiped out innocent villagers
because one of their number had been killed by a bomb
this weekend The Times
quotes a 10year old girl who watched as
"US soldiers deliberately shot and killed almost her entire family
as she lay hiding in the corner"

how many other 10year olds have done the same thing?
how many of them survived to tell us about it?
please don't think these questions are rhetorical
this is real _

about three years ago i was listening to radio4's 'question time'
and the bleating complaints of UK citizens
concerned about 'american aggression in iraq'
so i telephoned the programme to basically say
that you people really do need to wake up_
american foreign policy hasn't recently 'deteriorated'
it's ALWAYS been like that
up till now it's taken place in parts of the world
that the UK public doesn't normally focus on_

in Chile_ on september 11th 1973
after Project FUBELT
the CIA-backed Pinochet overthrew
the democratically elected Dr Salvador Allende _
(see also - wikipedia)
the main difference between the horror of 9.11.2001
and the terror of 9.11.1973
was in the amount of casualties_
the chilean figures are in tens of thousands
and they didn't all perish on the same day either
many many chileans died after months of torture

as one witness to those atrocities recently stated
"And now we see that on the same day
people were killed by terrorists in the USA.
We condemn terrorism
but the USA uses indirect terrorism
to overthrow democratically elected governments such as Allende's"

meanwhile back in iraq
the number of civilian deaths goes uncounted
last year the US was buying ammunition from all over the world
because it had exhausted its own supplies _
according to the pentagon's own statistics
US forces were averaging 250,000 bullets per dead 'terrorist'

most english citizens_ no matter their politics or background
have an intrinsic sense of honour and fair play
normally portrayed by our armed forces throughout the world _
the same cannot be said about our 'brothers in arms'
i lived in the 'land of hope and freedom' for three years_
at the age of 11 every american citizen attending school
swears allegiance to their flag on every week day _
their own 'intrinsic sense' is all about america

are we as a nation going to learn anything from iraq?
other than punishing our own servicemen more severely
because they listen to an english sense of right and wrong?
i look at the calibre of people in westminster today
and i'm afraid to say i doubt it