LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Two sides to all war stories

I condemn the war in Ukraine by Russia and all illegal wars and occupations around the world.

The first casualty of war is always the truth. This is true now with propaganda deployed in equal measure by all sides including BBC and 24/7 media to make even Goebbels blush!

However, Labour’s latest shadow minister for war displayed appalling double standards.

We are not informed of the 14,000 Russian speaking citizens who have been murdered since 2008 by the Ukrainian far right fascist orientated vigilantes and private army who act beyond the realms of the official Ukrainian army.

I note also that there was not the same support for those refugees affected by wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq which he supported. These were equally callous wars inflicted by the Labour government that he was a member of and the Tories.

Humanitarian charities with scarce resources have the job of deciding who eats and who starves....Yemen or Afghanistan, Ethiopia and now the Ukraine. All refugee lives matter and all deserve our help with immediate aid. There should be no hierarchy in relation to those fleeing war or persecution.

It is not all one sided. Zelensky is a professional comedian and allegedly sponsored USA puppet leader. He has form in Eastern Ukraine too and he is recklessly allowing the conflict to be prolonged with NATO pulling the strings.

Best way to support the people of Ukraine is not to back Zelensky’s calls for NATO to send more weapons and implement a no fly zone.

Zelensky could end the bloodshed by binning his military fatigues, getting rid of the Nazis within his army and committing to Ukraine’s neutrality and agreeing some sort of self-determination for the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine.

The last thing we need is for more banging of the war drums from the USA/NATO so the USA can ensure they plunder the rich minerals, oil and grain etc in the region.

The only solution is diplomacy with meaningful peace talks instead of insults and the killing fields.

Britain has Stop the War protests nationwide but UK news channels distort this fact by only showing Russians protesting.

Meanwhile, Starmer attacks free speech and threatens any MP with being expelled if they dare attend any Stop the War rally. Not even Blair did that. What kind of a leader supports stop the war protests in Russia but outlaws his MPs from supporting a stop to the war here?

Russia has not been remotely communist for well over 50 years. Then after being state capitalist, Russia were then egged on by the west to adopt the west’s capitalist model during the drunken Yeltsin years. Hence the oligarchs are similar to our one per cent, the fatcats in UK — who own most of the wealth compared to the rest.

Successive Labour and Tory Governments have courted Putin since before he became leader. Many current and former politicians queued up to have a photo opportunity with Putin who was then classed as the good guy by the political establishment. They have benefited from Putin’s oligarchs including allegedly Mandelson, Blair and even the Prime Minister!

Peter Mandelson also partied with George Osborne aboard Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s yacht in August 2008. The hypocrisy is extraordinary.

Likewise, they ignored his similar ruthless invasions of Georgia and tiny Chechnya despite the mounting deaths. It’s obvious that the lure of the rubles, contracts, donations and a seat at Putin’s table was too attractive for many politicians.

Our politicians here have form for supporting  bombing of sovereign nations.

They voted for Blair’s illegal war and occupation of Iraq without any sound evidence other than the now infamous “dodgy dossier”. Then many MPs voted to stop any inquiry.

Many are the same MPs decrying Russia’s actions now. Kettles calling the pots black!

Blair and Bush should have been sent to the international courts to be tried for war crimes. Those politicians who voted for the war should have been held accountable.

The USA and Blairite Labour Government used an arsenal of hi-tech brutal weapons including cluster bombs in those wars that were condemned for breaking international laws. These killed and maimed thousands of children and innocent civilians.

Those wars caused over a million deaths of civilians and made the world less safe. It displaced over three million people and left the above countries in ruins with generations of their citizens left to suffer!

America sees itself as the only moralistic machine on the planet when in fact the opposite applies!

They have spilled more blood looking for world domination than any other nation!

Like too many politicians, Healey appears to refuse to condemn the callous atrocities by Israel on the Palestinian people and their communities or the ethnic cleansing and genocide that has been waged on innocent Palestinian civilians for decades.

Labour Party members who have bravely called out this hypocrisy, including many elderly Jewish members, have been attacked or expelled for their humanity in speaking out against the cruelty of the Israeli government.

Then of course there is the brutal Saudi Arabian regime.

Saudi Arabia have engaged in a long-running armed conflict in Yemen. They have continued to be implicated in war crimes and other serious violations of human rights.

Last Friday, 81 people were beheaded in Saudi but again, no outcry by British politicians or even deemed important to be examined in detail on TV news.

This week the same politicians are sucking up to this despotic Saudi regime in return for a fuel deal to offset the loss of Russian oil!

Virtually all known Saudi Arabian human rights defenders inside the country were detained or imprisoned at the end of the year. Courts resorted extensively to the death penalty and people were executed for a wide range of crimes.

The difference is that the UK Government have consistently sold arms to Saudi Arabia and also to Israel despite its government’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem since 1967.

We must push for peace in Ukraine, justice for the Palestinians and all people who are oppressed in the world.

We must be willing to face down all tyrannical governments, respect all refugees fleeing war and persecution.

Finally, we must end the hypocrisy of politicians who support and turn a blind eye to illegal wars and tyrants in one part of the world and criticise it in another.

Ged Dempsey, ex-Labour member