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Arise Sir Richard Armitage ...
Had you heard about the hush-hush job quite recently carried out - in a completely covert kind of way - by the Queen?
In a quintessentially, quiet and rather reserved best-of-British, stiff-upper fashion of course.
If you hadn't, then This Old Brit and Richard are about to blow your mind. Albeit in the nicest, politest and most proper possible way. Naturally.
Well, that goes without saying really doesn't it. After all, would we ever intentionally invite any individual's ire?
Regular readers no doubt can resist all reflexive response temptations realted to that question, since we're certain any of our periodic rhetorical queries are so readily recognizable.
Anyhow, how would you like to bump into a knight like the big, bad ass bald brute pictured above, on a dark night? On any night for that matter. Or even any damned day.
The pictured character in question is of course one of the neo-cabal's nastiest nasties, Richard Armitage. Or to give him his recently acquired full & proper title, Sir Richard Armitage. Yep, that's right. Really. We said 'Sir'. As in knight of the realm. As in our current British Queen Elizabeth's realm.
Rather remarkable, eh? What?
Many may have missed it -- many millions even -- when earlier in the week the Guardian gave out this little gem of info, amongst much more of the same.
Honoured with a KCMG was Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state under Colin Powell between 2001 and 2005 and a leading player in rallying diplomatic support for the Iraq invasion.
Mr Armitage's role in the Iran-contra arms smuggling scandal was controversial enough to prevent him becoming army secretary in 1989.
He worked alongside Oliver North to trade arms to Iran illegally and siphon profits to the Nicaraguan contra rebels.
Can you credit it? He's now a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. That's the full official title for KCMG by the way. It's the second highest possible honour awarded via knighthoods bestowed by a British monarch. On behalf of the government of the day, we hasten to add. Nonetheless, we ask again - 'Can you
You'd better bloomin' believe this though. Armitage is far from alone when it comes to foreign Knights In The Court Of Queen Elizabeth. As previous US President George Herbert Walker Bush's long standing 'illustrious' inclusion proves.
Likewise the inclusion of the late demented Ronald Reagan.
And, that of Caspar Weinberger. And Alan Greenspan. And past Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani.
Also, of all the following: Wesley Clark, Tommy Franks, Colin Powell, Norman Schwazkopf, Brent Sowcroft -- and more.
Go here where 'names are named' and listed, to find out the full extent of this sort of sickening, super-duper, supremacist back-scratching & back-slapping shit for yourself.
( Incidentally, we're grateful to regular This Old Brit reader Griffon for first flagging this by commenting that Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque had picked up on the Guardian piece. )
posted by Richard at Thursday, April 27, 2006
24 Comments:
Mindblowing? I'll say it is!
Winning a war for indepence all them years ago? What independence?
Grrhh, There's NO independence for regular folk from the corrupt rich and powerful. Why aren't our jails full of the rich instead of the poor? Because THEY make the rules for US, not for themselves. Traitors, they are, traitors.
Also, I wanted to say look at him. Does he look like a NOBLE MAN? NO! He's an animal.
So who nominates these honorary foreign knights, Richard? I assume it's not just the Queen herself -- Bliar's "New Labor," perhaps?
Thanks for the information, Richard, and for the list of previous Knighthoods awarded in recent years to Americans, most of whom historians will regard as traitors to their own country. Several of those were news to me.
Those at the top of the "pecking order" do take care of each other, class and race take precedence over all else.
Michael said...
"So who nominates these honorary foreign knights, Richard?"
Now, that's an excellent question, Michael!
The US Constitution prevents these types accepting foreign honours while in office. And for very good reason.
I was very pleased when a stop was put to it here in Oz. By that time, though, the title "Sir" was synonymous with corruption in the minds of many, especially in Queensland.
Birds of a feather, eh?!
The Queen\\Monarch is nothing more than a 'rubber stamp'. The government of the day make the 'reccomendations' - in 'colusion' with with the 'real' rulers - big business & big money.
There's a police investigation going on right now into bribery & corruption claims that Blair's been "selling" peerages\\honours to the big money donaters to 'the party'.
The investigation won't stop or solve this though. It won't be allowed to --just you wait and see.
The foreign recepients can earn their honours via 'services rendered' rather than by only sending 'bagmen'. But big money is still the main thing that matters. In those cases it's not just mega big companies monies -- it's the ordinary people's monies from the public purse of the relevant country's honoured recipient.
If you're an ordinary Australian, it's your money\\taxes that's being spent -- without your knowledge or agreement. Same goes for Americans -- or whoever.
This particular murderous galoot in question is funnily enough one of the most perfect examples of the whole corrupt 'payback' game.
Meanwhile, you and me? Fight & die for it all or work all our life to pay taxes to help oil this machine's wheels.
Sorry, I'll stop now. I'm taking up too much of you space Richard. Don't YOU dare stop though, my friend.Too few like you are around.
Michael, yours was an excellent question and I think Rex has provided a pretty excellent answer.
Now I'm taking up extra space but even while this isn't a laughing matter, I can't resist saying (or singing) this (in line with #1 anon's post).
"La, la-la, la-la, it's the "ugliest" knight of the year.........."
Well I don't know Richard, but I'd like to think, that her Majesty doesn't have a major role, in selecting the candidates and maybe she even held her nose, when she awarded those noble titles to the individuals you have mentioned.
For me the disillusionment came 'big time', when she awarded Ceausescu to Knighthood. Ever since, I'm not that easily shocked, in this regard.
Yet one has difficulty to escape the thought, that these promotions can do nothing, but damage the remaining credibility of the Royals, by exemplifying the sharply different value systems, the Monarchy and its subjects hold respectively, in opposition to each other.
anonymas 1,
I'm with you.
Michael and Rosemary, I'm with Griffon, Rex and anonymous 2.
Tom,
I'm with you too. That's why I include the ref 'on behalf of the government'. She taps the shoulders with her sword - that's about it - it's part of her job description, nothing more. And I'd put money on the fact that while doing so, she spends MOST of the time holding her nose.
None the less, it definitely does damage to the image & relationship. She should worry though. She knows the massive majority of people don't know the half of it, and so she also knows nothing's gonna change.
While she wields NO power, she DOES enjoy great wealth and privileges. That's why she isn't ever gpoing to 'rock the boat'.
Thanks Richard, I think we are in consensus here. Yet I doubt, that she has absolutely no say, or some sort of veto power, for 'culling' the candidates.
I speculate, that there must be a secret legal escape mechanism for her protection somewhere, with the understanding, that it's more or less need to be exercised gingerly.
In conclusion, she must be aware, that these sort of promotions are damaging her reputation considerably, so I'm more than a little 'bit puzzled, by the result.
Here's the very latest of the Bliar's New Labour "honours" scam. From the BBC today
I agree with all of you, saddened yet again by the "decline of civilization" around me, never more exemplified than by the awarding of these "honours" to the more outlandish and corrupt thugs, murderers and thieves amongst us. We had our own "hero" in Canada, the infamous Lord Crossharbour, Conrad Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship to be awarded a peerage and now of course, us Canucks watch with a kind of awful glee as he tries to reclaim it before he goes off to jail for all his crimes and misdemeanours. Of course he may yet be pardoned by the Blundering BushBaby in the White House. I mean it's becoming such a dubious thing, a knighthood or a peerage, isn't it. An enlightened, decent and honourable human being would have to refuse it, right, (s)he just couldn't bear being counted amongst those crooks, could (s)he? No thank you, Ma'am, Your Majesty, I'll have to refuse this Damehood, I still like to sleep nights and look my grand-daughter in the eye.
That is shocking, I remember Giuliani was knighted which may be somewhat questionable in retrospect as well.
Kiwi: excellent...does anything surprise us anymore from this degenerate regime ?
I loathe arms dealers they're even lower than drug dealers and kiddyporn merchants in my estimation. I really think that we're reaching the point that Yeats wrote about:
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
It looks like Rove is all set to be f*ucked by Fitz. Pretty soon.
So I expect Rove will be knighted shortly after he's been f*cked.
I mean, that's the way things work. Isn't it?
The Reagan conundrum:
How did they find out he had Alzheimer's?
Clearly he sounded that way when he was still of "sound mind"...
No dissent anywhere as far as I can see. Isn't it nice to know that, to coin a phrase, we are not alone?
Tom, you're not alone either. Puzzled was my middle name for the first half of life. Thank God I eventually wised up.
kiwi, Thanks for the link. There's no end to their diry dealing, is there?
wisewebwoman, My own thoughts and feelings, exactly. I hope things get better before my own granddaughter grows old enough to be affected too much by today's politicians' crimes.
jultra & mark, were all agreed again.
me, yep! I know. I heard about Fitzy's lates. Lets all cross our fingers that Rove 'gets his,' eh? (Not the knighthood, btw.)
gert, yeah. Poor rambling old Ronnie. And to think - he never, ever knew what all the fuss was about - any of it. Not ever. :^)
Rex, I took some extra space just for you - to tell you not to worry about taking some extra space. Much better to hear folks' feelings, ideas, opinions, info, etc - than not too - and be left with lots of empty space.
You keep on commenting, friend.
Brit--
I don't think Armitage gets to call himself "Sir Dick." I don't know if that's reserved for British subjects or for commonwealth subjects, but I'm pretty sure Americans don't get to use the title.
And I've never thought it proper for American public officials to accept such honors. They should all say, "My duty was to my country, and any service I did for yours was due to a coincidental alignment of interests."
And the Queen's habit of giving these honors to American officials based completely on how vigorously they defended the privileged against the majority is sickening.
That said, I have to defend Armitage. A murderer? Yes, but so are they all. As Daniel Berrigan said, "The real unspoken credential for that kind of public office is you have to be willing to kill a huge number of people. If you don't want to play that dirty game, stay away from it."
That's true for any head of state or cabinet official of an imperial power. They all participate in the killing that their administrations invariably mete out. So we can't really sort them out based on who's a murderer and who's not.
Put Armitage next to Rumsfeld, and you've got the difference between Aaron Burr and Jeffrey Dahmer.
Armitage and Powell were the ones who were considered "unreliable" enough to warrant surveillance by Bushco.
Don't get me wrong -- they went along with the war, and any reservations they had were strategic, not humanitarian.
So he's smart, ruthless, and in Vietnam he wasn't afraid to put his life on the line. Very much a knight from the old school. Compare him to Ronald Reagan, and you'll see what I mean.
gordo,
That's right about not being to call himself Sir, publicly. Nonetheless, he's been awarded the honour- which many of far more worthy people haven't.
A agree that they are 'all' smart & ruthless, in fact they are all sociopaths. Smart I can relate to but not sociopathic ruthlessness, when it means mass murder ensues because of it. Of course Armitage is not alone, but I don't accept that as an excuse.
As for putting his life on the line - every single serving soldier that's ever been in action did excatly , so I make no allowances on that scor. And the vast majority didn't all get so much taste for bloodshed/bloodlust that they wanted to make a career of it. Most normal men could not wait to escape such an environment.
A bad bastard is a bad bastard, in my book, whether or not there are even 'badder' bastards.
I think the thing this sort of payback proves beyond all else, is that none of them do what they do for they reasons they pretend to do thing. They do it for themselves and their own benefits. None of this type are the type to give a shit for the ordinary/regular people they purport to serve/defend/whatever.
They do it for themselves. Be it for the buzz, the money, the power, the glory, even the infamy in some cases - or any and/or all of those things. As I said, they are sociopaths. They would [and do, and will always]turn on 'their own' - without a second thought.
Naturally, there are others who see things differently to 'This Old Brit'. That's life isn't it?
Thankfully there are more of us that can differ on maybe one [or few ]thing[s]s while still agreeing on many, many more.
So anyone who layed his life on the line in action must be an ok guy? For how long? Forever? Anyone harmed by any vet thereafter must feel great hearing that. Not.
Gimme a break will ya.
I have to agree with both Richard and anonymous that's one of the more inane comments you've come up with gordo. Physical courage without an ethical backup is the hallmark of the successful bandit, and no more than that. Plenty of the Waffen SS laid there lives on the line - am I supposed to be impressed?
Did I say that Armitage is innocent because he didn't evade service, like Bush and Cheney? No. I said that it is a mitigating factor.
You may recall that I compared him to Aaron Burr, a murderer and a traitor. I can't see how that can be taken as anything except a condemnation.
However, I do think that we have to draw distinctions. I think that there is a difference between an Otto von Bismark, who views the world as a giant chess game that requires the sacrifice of thousands of pawns, and a Teddy Roosevelt, who scans the globe in search of weaker nations to make war on.
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