Crimes of Britain is a platform that was set up in 2015 dedicated to monitoring British imperialism of the present day and revisiting it of the past. British Foreign policy of today is rooted in that of the British Empire.
As it stands Britain is currently waging war on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Rarely, if ever, does the British media report on these conflicts. If they do, Britain’s true role is often mitigated or presented as heroic.
Today at least 500 British troops remain in Afghanistan advising and assisting Afghan forces. The British media frequently misinform the general public that Britain withdrew from Afghanistan in 2014.
Hundreds of British troops are in Iraq training local security forces. In 2016 it was reported that British special forces had been operating in Iraq covertly alongside “moderate rebels”. The BBC has gone on to remove content from their tweet showing photographs of British special forces operating on the Syrian border. You can view the photographs here. Between August 2015 and 2016, Britain carried out over 100 drone strikes in Iraq. It was exposed in 2016 that a British PR company, run by Thatcher’s former spin doctor, had been creating fake al-Qaeda videos for the US in Iraq. Cancer and birth defects are the legacies of Britain’s war on Iraq because of the use of depleted uranium. Britain has made no attempt to clean up the radioactive hell it helped create alongside the United States. Even your most vehement defender of Britain will admit that Britain’s war on Iraq in 2003 has contributed to the rise of ISIS.
A memorial was unveiled earlier this year in London for British troops that died in Afghanistan and Iraq. It portrays British soldiers as liberators. Millions of Iraqis were killed and displaced as a result of Britain’s war on Iraq. It serves as a reminder that the millions of Iraqis and Afghans that were killed and displaced are not even an afterthought in Britain but are dismissed as nothing.
2011 saw the destruction of Libya. Britain openly facilitated and sent terrorists that they affectionately referred to as “rebels” to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. In 2017, one of these very terrorists blew himself up in Manchester, England, at a children’s pop concert killing 22. He was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an al-Qaeda affiliate, during in 2011. An outfit that was only proscribed in Britain in 2005. It has previously been allowed to fundraise in Britain. Then British Home Secretary, now Prime Minister, Theresa May was up to her neck promoting terrorists in Libya in 2011. This should be the biggest scandal of 2017 yet there continues to be an almost total silence on Britain’s collusion with terror outfits. In the following weeks after Manchester, there were some discussions on Britain’s running of death squads in North Africa but the story quickly dropped off. The Libyan government spokesperson in 2011 Moussa Ibrahim stated: “we [Libya] told the British government they were advancing terrorists“. Please see “Collusion is no Illusion” a project dedicated to unveiling Britain’s facilitation of terrorism across North Africa and the Middle East.
“Rebels” were trained by Britain in Jordan to go to Syria in 2012. In 2016 the SAS was on the ground in Syria fighting alongside “moderate rebel forces”. It poses the question, what exactly is a “moderate rebel”. This same tag was used in 2011 for the various terrorist forces Britain backed in Libya. James Le Mesurier, an ex British Army officer, is the man behind the infamous White Helmets. An outfit which has been proven to be in cahoots at the minimum with death squads time and time again. Le Mesurier was given an OBE for “helping protect civilians in Syria”. In 2016 more than 60 Syrian soldiers in Deir Ezzor fighting ISIS were in airstrikes that the RAF participated in.
Britain’s lucrative war on Yemen is framed as one led by Saudi Arabia. British politicians that discuss the crimes against the Yemeni people present Britain’s contribution to the war as one of mere arms sales. When in fact it has been reported in the British press that British advisors sit in the “command room” advising where the bombs they have sold should hit. It is no surprise that Yemen’s agricultural industry has been deliberately targeted. Britain has a history of using starvation as a weapon and is teaching Saudi Arabia the business of destroying nations. The war in Yemen is a British one.
Britain continues to occupy the northeast corner of Ireland. In 2017 Irish people like Tony Taylor continue to be interned by the British state. The PSNI is the RUC. They still raid the homes of Irish Republicans, stitch Irish citizens up like the Craigavon Two and intensely harass political activists on a daily basis under the direction of MI5. Sure, they might have shamrocks in their badges but they a colonial police force the same as the RUC.
The Chagos Islanders were forcibly removed by the Harold Wilson government to make way for a US military base. In official British papers, the Islanders were referred to as “Tarzans” and “Man Fridays”. Despite saying the island is uninhabitable for those it expelled the Royal Navy has 41 permanent personnel on the island. Fifty years on and the British Foreign Office announced the Islanders could not return home.
In 2016 a British military base was built in Bahrain and Bahrainis paid it. Like most Gulf states Bahrain is a British neo-colony. Britain has propped up Bahrain’s ruling family since 1861 and has assisted on numerous occasions to crush internal and external threats. Most recently British commandos trained Bahrain’s armed forces in the skill of sniping. Bahrain has been violently putting down protests for a number of years all with British help. Bahrain prison officials have on numerous occasions visited Maghaberry prison in the North of Ireland. It was reported that the British Foreign Office felt the situation in Ireland “mirrors closely with Bahrain”. Britain’s Chief Inspector of Prisons in England and Wales stated it was “the most dangerous prison he has ever been to“. Maghaberry holds a number of Irish Republican POWs.
British soft power is as strong as ever. In the wake of Brexit the BBC’s World Service, which has for decades been used to promote British imperialism, is set for its biggest expansion since the 1940s. Sickly colonial dramas and films are being churned out like no tomorrow. All aimed at rehabilitating the image of the British Empire.
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