‘Persian Gulf states buying UK silence’

Taking a charitable view, however, such gifts can result from a moment’s lack of thought about the implications of receiving something from a particular regime. We all make mistakes. Besides, it can be awkward to refuse.
 
But it is an entirely different matter when receipt of the gift is a deliberate act of the UK government which shows that it has been bribed by bullies, corrupted by cowards, and debased by debauchees.
 
At Sandhurst, the UK’s famous military academy, there is a Hall which commemorates the Battle of Mons, in Belgium. Mons was the first major battle of the First World War, 1914 - 1918. The heavily-outnumbered and under-armed British lost 1600 men and the Germans over 5,000. It was a tactical defeat for the Germans. For nearly one hundred years, the Hall has been a place of honor reminding everybody who enters of exceptional courage and the sacrifices made by soldiers fighting for their country.
 
But, alas, Mons Hall is no more. Rather than commemorating the braveries of Mons, the Hall now gives obsequious, toadying memorialization to King Hamad of Bahrain. By slyly donating £3,000,000, the king is hoping to gain honor with the generations to come by imposing his inglorious name upon the heroic deeds of past generations. There will be a ceremony next month.
 
How foul! How repulsive! Nothing more cynical and disgusting can be imagined.
 
It is nauseating that the British government has allowed this to happen. How can the UK have sunk so low?
 
It seems that the UK is making a habit of it. Sandhurst has also received a £15,000,000 donation from the United Arab Emirates with an accommodation block having a plaqueto the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The autocratic Persian Gulf states, infamous for their human rights abuses, are buying silence.
 
To make the situation worse, if that is possible, a Ministry of Defense spokesman has said that “All donations to Sandhurst are in compliance with the UK’s domestic and international legal obligations and our values as a nation.”
 
Values as a nation? That’s a very clear admission that UK values now embrace the dirty sleaze of Bahrain, of birdshot into faces from a yard, of nurses tortured to say that they have pulled flesh apart to make wounds worse, of babies and old people gassed, of brave young men shot down in the street.
 
O Britain, that you have come to this!
 
To its great credit, the online community is reacting accurately and understanding that, by accepting the gifts, the UK has gagged itself in respect of Persian Gulf human rights abuses. On Twitter, a message rightly says, “I doubt UK will condemn human rights abuses committed by allies whose leaders indirectly fund UK armed forces.” Another message is succinct, "Sandhurst endorses mass torturing, child-murdering, iron-fisted dictator."
 
Yes, exactly. Decent people instantly understand the level of degradation to which the UK has sunk.
 
But it’s not only the UK. Bahrain is the base of the USA’s Fifth Fleet which is committed to supporting every totalitarian regime in the Middle East. The support enables these regimes to suppress democratic demands while, in exchange, the USA gets what it really wants, namely, the expansion of the racist entity of Zionist Israel. USA foreign policy no longer serves the long term interests of the USA but only those of Israel.
 
And it’s the same with the UK. Both the USA and the UK talk about negotiation and peace in Bahrain but they have no intention of doing anything about it. The USA could order its marines to march a mile down the road from the naval base and that would be the end of the Killer-Khalifa regime but, apparently unaware that it is now hated throughout the Middle East, the USA, like the UK, has seemingly decided to remain despised.
 
The real tragedy of all this is that a moral collapse is being revealed. Each year, on Armistice/Remembrance Day Sunday, 11th November, some poignant lines are recited in honor of those who were killed in the First World War:
 
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
 
No doubt it will not be long before the Killer-Khalifas will have bought themselves an annual place at Remembrance Day ceremonies, as well as tombs in Westminster Abbey for when they die. Among the UK’s bravest and most honored will lie cheap cowards.
 
O Britain, that you have come to this!