After the Summer holidays, back to work. And what do we find? A worsening shock and horror story on Planet Dearth ‘24
Twenty-five years ago, as the new millennium approached, I, along with many others, was brimming with hope and optimism for the new century, expecting a multilateral approach to international affairs and the full implementation of the rule of law on the international stage.
9/11 had not yet happened. But Kosovo had and I suppose this was a tell-tale warning sign of what was already in motion, the behind-the-scenes scheming of a new world order controlled by those who pull the strings behind the scenes in Washington DC and therefore its troupe of yapping chihuahuas across the Pond.
As KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) or UÇK (Ushtria Çlirimtare ë Kosovës) terrorists decapitated Serbian civilians, bombed ambulances and shot at policemen, not only was the nod given from the West but arms, uniforms, logistics, financing were also provided as terrorists were wined and dined on Capitol Hill. As I said at the time, for he who cavorts with terrorists…Karma is a bitch. And for the record, Kosovo is Serbia.
And look what happened next. It wasn’t the Albanian separatists in Kosovo who perpetrated the horror of 9/11, it was Islamist takfiri fanatics, who usurped the teachings of the Qu’ran and insulted the main precepts of Islam.
The century started off terribly badly and despite the efforts of many, including myself (in meetings with Ambassadors and letters to world leaders, articles in the newspapers I wrote for/controlled/owned), noble causes were used as smokescreens while the inexorable Satanic horde marched onwards sowing horror with its Machiavellian schemes and destroying any hope of a balanced world living together in harmony.
First Kosovo, then Afghanistan, then Iraq, then the provocation in Ossetia by Georgia, then Libya, then Syria and then Ukraine, as now. Looking back, I was a quarter of a century younger and did not realise then, as I do now, that international politics is a cynical exercise in lying to the people who elect the representatives, sheer and utter hypocrisy and cowardice since those creating and implementing policy are not elected, neither would they be if they put themselves forward for election.
So, bottom line, I was naive to think that a new millennium would bring new rules of engagement, i.e. no more armed conflicts, international crises settled multilaterally through the United Nations Security Council, that development would replace deployment, that education would level the playing field across the globe giving every child the same rights and opportunities at birth.
There was much talk about Africa as everyone jumped on the bandwagon and suddenly smiling faces appeared beside Africans, patting them on the head and spewing forth torrents of verborrea about how wonderful the continent was and how development from the Western banks would change it and how Human Development Indices would improve and (violins).
I suppose I could have been more perspicacious and asked the questions Why? and Cui bono? (To whose advantage, in Latin). The answer is always the same. There is always money for banks and submarines.
So we can, with the benefit of hindsight, ask the question now and see whether we can find a path through the forest. In my pieces I try to go beyond railing against what I perceive to be wrong and as I grow older, feel the need to explore solutions.
Firstly, it is clear that with the advent of the digital age, the world is a global place where information and trends flow rapidly. What could be hidden or isolated a quarter of a century ago is now in the public domain. Albania is no longer a push-over at soccer, losing its games by 5 goals or more. Through coaching methods and the internationalisation of players, today Albania can give anyone a good game at the highest level, as we saw at UEFA EURO 2024.
Moslems could live their traditional lives following the five pillars of Islam happily and calmly without interference and intrusion from what they might perceive as diabolical tendencies from barbaric invaders from the West. Marauding gangs of youths, including scantily-clad girls, fighting and screaming in the streets, vomiting, blind drunk, swearing, urinating or worse in public, watching porn on their mobile phones. Tourism brought this first culture shock and also interference in ancient cultures by the CIA, preparing Madrassah to turn against the Soviet Union did nothing but fan the flames.
So Islamism was born. It has nothing to do with Islam and nothing at all to do with the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with Moslems, most of whom are honourable, decent people who follow an honourable, decent and noble religion, Islam – and follow the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. Peace, and Charity. Solidarity, Helping others.
So we saw many promises of development but what happened was intrusion, disrespect and a creeping of alien values into formerly pristine spaces through the new digital media and the globalisation of the Western Model .
Over the first two decades of this millennium, this has morphed into something horrible. The West, the European Union and NATO are now one and the same thing, although I have yet to find any statute which gives NATO the constitutional right to dictate or even influence policy in any sovereign state and the result is an encroachment to the east, placing a vice around Russia’s neck and continued provocations (Georgia, Estonia, Ukraine) which make Russia feel threatened.
We were supposed to be friends, on the same side. What has happened now is that NATO has used Ukraine as a pawn to create problems for Russia, with the ultimate aim of dismembering the Federation and seizing its considerable resources. After the Fascist coup in Kiev in 2014, it was obvious that the new Ukrainian regime would have given the Russian naval bases in Crimea to NATO, so Russia had only one option. Then ensued the fascist massacres of Russian-speaking Ukrainians (since zapped from the Net) in eastern Ukraine, the denial of their rights to practise their religion, language and culture, insults, calling them sub-humans, chants of “Death to Russians and Jews” on the streets by bands of demonic armed thugs, a worshiping of the Ukrainian hero, the pedophile child murderer Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator, in short the sort of treatment which make Hitler and Himmler look like fairy godmothers. As a reaction, Moscow offered the Treaty of Minsk which kept Donbass inside Ukraine but with the right for its people to exercise their culture. What was wrong with that? Kiev agreed, and signed it. The whole spectacle could have ended there and then. But Kiev was told not to implement it (perhaps this was while the son of Joseph Biden was sitting on the board of a Ukrainian energy corporation) and was told by whom? The one responsible for the conflict, the same one as usual. The United States of America.
But nobody is going to read about this in the West because the USA and the European Union, ladies and gentleman, practise censorship. I repeat, the USA and the European Union practise censorship, a Fascist policy to stifle alternative views and sources of information, as practised by the SS under Heinrich Himmler and used in the propaganda machine of Joseph Goebbels. Try to find information from Russian State media channels and you cannot. It has been banned so that you cannot see the other side of the coin.
We understand that perceiving an existential threat, Russia attacked first before NATO installed itself in Ukraine, which it was planning to do and indeed, was even in the process of doing. It was the final part of the puzzle. These are facts, not diatribes and not propaganda. The result is what we see.
Military conflict is ugly. As we have seen in numerous NATO campaigns, civilians get caught up in the melee, families lose grandmothers and grandfathers, parents lose children, children lose parents and siblings and grandparents, families lose pets, be they Russian or Ukrainian or whoever. Now we see a desperate attempt by Ukraine to create a diversion in what was virtually an unmanned sector of the theater of operations, across the Russian border, which has the western media crowing from the treetops, without mentioning the enormous number of Ukrainian casualties beginning to pile up as Russia moves soldiers into the area, without mentioned the fact that the Ukrainian military is already taking measures for a withdrawal. The obvious result is that Russian forces are advancing faster along the front line.
If the West (the USA) had not interfered, the conflict would never have started and the Russian-speaking Ukrainians would be living happily inside Ukraine practising their culture, language and religion.
And here let us all remember those who have been affected by this conflict, be they Russians or Ukrainians or whoever else, along with their families and loved ones. This is not how I envisaged 2024.
And next, Israel. Again. I do not have any sympathy for terrorists or terrorist attacks because they are a cowardly way of making a point using defenceless civilians who are going about their daily lives, paying their taxes, doing everything they are supposed to do until some piece of demented, demonic filth ruins their lives and those of their family members.
But yet again, and as the (excellent) Secretary-General of the UNO, António Guterres said, these things do not come in a vacuum, and again we have to study the context and causality to understand the wider picture.
Israel is and has been illegally stealing land which does not belong to it. Israel is and has been demolishing family homes and desecrating cemeteries and olive groves. Israel is and has been building housing units illegally on land which has been illegally seized from Palestinians and giving them to Israeli settlers. Israeli settlers (terrorists and thieves) have been attacking Palestinians with impunity. This has been going on for decades. What does the West do about it? It looks the other way and turns a blind eye and lends credence to the absurd hijacking of the word “Semitism” in which any attack against Israel’s policies is branded as anti-Semitic. How ridiculous, and how arrogant. A Semite is a person who speaks a Semitic language, which inludes Arabic.
So we may conclude for the West it is OK for Israel to strafe civilians, destroy their homes, murder children and so on but it is not OK for Russia to protect those practising their culture, language and religion.
Kind of defies logic, doesn’t it?
For one, let us agree that international law does not in fact exist because it was breached in 2003 by the act of terrorism in Iraq, and countless times before and after. For two, let us agree that international diplomacy does not have an effective forum of debate because whatever Washington and its chihuahuas do not like is vetoed or whatever atrocity Israel commits is whitewashed.
Is this acceptable?
If Yes, then there is no more to say. Let us just accept that the human being is incapable of living together, sharing this planet and looking after it, after all this revolting species, the ultimate eco-terrorist, has polluted the place from the bottom of the seas up into space, disrespects totally the animals and plants we are sharing our home with and so it is just a question of waiting for the planet to teach us how much of a bitch karma can be.
If No, then suppose someone starts doing something about it? One can sit back and say we cannot do anything, then things will get worse, given the quality of leadership we see today, which is one side provoking everyone else then complaining when others, with some reason, do the same as they did, without any valid reason.
So this can be done through the ballot box and through vetting candidates to represent the people before they are selected. Under what circumstances would you support any form of military conflict? Interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states? Plans to make a difference as regards pollution and climate change? What is your position on and plans for the planting of trees? What are your plans to tackle drug trafficking and street crime? International development? Education for all?
Gaddafy tried all that and look what happened to him, he was murdered and his country was sent back to the stone age, crawling with terrorists and studded with slave camps. By whom? By those who were elected blindly and not vetted properly.
The bottom line here is the need for an effective forum for international law to implement the rule of law, staffed by people who follow basic precepts of human decency, development, equal rights, education and a pleasant life for all. Surely it is about time that we found those capable of delivering what is not that difficult to deliver?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey can be reached at timothy.hinchey@gmail.com