Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:18 — 24.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More
Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded November 8th, 2023
A tapestry of Pablo Picasso’s haunting Guernica hangs mutely in the foyer of the United Nations Security Council. The 25 by 11 foot recreation of the Spanish artist’s cri de coeur recalling the ruthless bombing of civilians in that Basque town in 1937 had served as backdrop for press conferences by that august body until February 3rd, 2003 when, fearing life imitating art in the form of George Bush’s coming “shock and awe” destruction of Baghdad, the UN custodians of decorum covered it from the cameras, preemptively shielding Secretary of State, Colin Powell from any embarrassment the image might cause America and its accomplices as he laid forth his bogus casus belli for the second Iraq war.
The “Blitzkrieg” of Guernica inspiring Picasso so long ago has been reenacted daily in Gaza for the last month; with many times more men, women, children, and animals killed, injured, made homeless, and traumatized. Thousands are dead. Hundreds of thousands wounded, but the great resistance feared by Bush and his claque way back when is apparently not a worry for current leaders of the Western world, who remain unanimous and unapologetic in their support of Israel and its project for the new Israel despite the horrendous cost.
William S. Geimer is a peace activist, Professor Emeritus of Law at Washington and Lee University, military veteran who resigned his 82nd Airborne commission in opposition to the war against Vietnam, and author of the book, ‘Canada: The Case for Staying Out of Other People’s Wars’. In 2020 Bill founded the Greater Victoria Peace School, which he says has, since his retirement, “been a success and my board members are carrying on admirably with peace education.
William S. Geimer in the first half.
And; most here have probably forgotten entirely about Guantanamo Bay prison, set up so long ago to confine “the worst of the worst” in George Bush junior’s Global War on Terror. Incredibly, all these years later, prisoners still languish there, without the benefit of the protection of laws that were once the pride of Western Civilization.
Andy Worthington remembers though; and more, he’s been working all these years to both publicize the plight of those held, and get them real justice. Last week he attended in London one of the “ten coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantanamo“. He reminds: Sixteen of the thirty men are still held, after having been approved for release, as of November 1st, between 404 and 5,031 days.
Andy Worthington and remembering Guantanamo in the second half.
But first, Bill Geimer and the Gaza atrocity happening before our eyes.
Links:
American Friends of Combatants for Peace
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/