Welcome to my site. Scroll down for links to some of my online books and articles on the propaganda and reality of the 'war on terror' and 'globalisation' covering Israel-Palestine , Iraq , Iran , Afghanistan , Somalia , Colombia and China among other countries. They are all fully sourced, mostly to mainstream sources (Human rights organisation reports and press releases, government reports, broadsheet newspapers, books, academic articles etc).There are also links to various progressive people and causes worth supporting.
If I'm not the Duncan McFarlane you're looking for then; If you're looking for Duncan McFarlane the musician his site is here. If you're looking for the show jumper go here. If you're looking for Duncan McFarlane the living artist go here. If you're looking for the deceased one go here If you're looking for the engineer go here.
If you're still here, then to read my online books and articles from 2005 to present scroll down, or to read earlier articles i wrote from 2001 to 2004 for 'Friends of the Heroes' website click here.
There are also two articles by other people so far - one by Chris Walker (who lived and worked in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war) on the differences between Iraq then and now - and one by Hakan Suslu, then a Turkish student of international politics, on the difference between Al Qaeda's version of Islam and that of the majority of Muslims
(It has been brought to my attention that I am not in fact an organisation. I am aware of this but neither am I a company and the renowned musician of the same name quite justifiably already has www.duncanmcfarlane.co.uk as his website. Changing to a .net address might be an idea - but it just doesn't seem worth the hassle.)
Online Books
War on Terror - Propaganda and Reality - What the war on terror is really about. It's neither a crusade against Islam (as Bin Laden would have us believe) nor a war in defence of freedom and democracy and against torture, terrorism and dictatorship (as Bush and McCain tell us). It's a fight for power and profit - particularly through control of oil and gas reserves and pipelines - and the actual similarities with World War Two are not the ones usually pointed to.(last edited August 2008)
Iraq - Propaganda and Reality (last edited in mid-2007) - The official propaganda line on Iraq and the realities as told by British and American troops, western journalists and aid workers and Iraqis themselves ; Why Nick Cohen and Tony Blair are wrong about Iraq and wrong about the Stop the War Coalition (Also see 'Reply to John Gray' in articles below)
Online book - Israel - Palestine : Propaganda and Reality : Last edited December 2007 (This isnt in completely finished form but most is readable and sourced.).......Saying Palestinian terrorists kill Israeli civilians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a fact and not controversial or doubted by many people ; Another fact though - and one which arouses extreme controversy and denials - is that systematic war crimes by the Israeli government and military are being revealed by their own soldiers ; and Israel's government doesn't recognise Palestinians' right to exist any more than some of Hamas recognise Israel's - It's time to drop the pretence that the Israeli government is too morally superior to negotiate with Hamas. As Northern Ireland and other conflicts show even war criminals and terrorists can negotiate peace though - and plenty of Israelis and Palestinians want a fair and lasting peace. They need our support though and our pressure on our governments to end the bias towards Israel's government and the sanctions that are killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza. includes photos and accounts from eye-witness 'Wendy Palestine' of the International Women's Peace Service - Also see 'Israel – Palestine and the Gaza crisis' in articles below, written 19th Jan 2008
Articles and updates
The Iranian missile tests - July 2008 - Iranian missile tests are a response to Israeli air force exercises and the Bush administration's threats and recently stepped up covert operations inside Iran. Gullibility among much of the media has caused huge numbers of deaths in Iraq. Reporting in context about Iran, without hype, could prevent another million deaths.
Get Sadr? - The War for the Oil Law July 2008 - The way the Bush administration, coalition forces and the Iraqi government carry out a war 'on the militias' that targets some and leaves others guilty of similar crimes alone suggests the war on Al Sadr and his Madhi army militia may be more to do with Sadrist MPs opposition to the occupation and the new US backed oil law than 'Iranian influence' or 'sectarian violence'. The way to get rid of political extremism and violence in Iraq is to end military offensives and raids, forgive Iraq's debt and give it massive foreign aid or war reparations to end the mass poverty, unemployment and warfare which are the main causes of sectarian violence and extreme religious and nationalist politics.
Why Musharraf isn't a 'key ally in the war on terror' 22nd February 2008 - Musharraf and Pakistan's military arent moderates but allies of violent fundamentalists who continue to train, arm and fund terrorist groups - so why are the British and American governments funding them and demanding the secular parties who just won elections keep Musharraf in office and the head of the Supreme Court he unconstitutionally sacked out of office?
Israel – Palestine and the Gaza crisis : and a reply to M Green and Joy Wolfe 19th January 2008 - Olmert's government seems to believe dividing and undermining Palestinian leaders is a smart tactic ; they'd be better to negotiate with those who've offered to negotiate (including elected Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh) instead of strengthening extremists through sanctions and military action that kill innocent people as surely as rockets or suicide bombings
The Risks of Action (December 2007) - Most of the debate on Iran's nuclear programme and whether its civilian or military, like the debate on whether Saddam had WMDs, misses the point. Its not whether they exist but whether "rogue states" or terrorist groups would really use them first if they had them - and whether by "acting" with air strikes, "tactical" nuclear strikes or all out invasion against Iran or Al Qa'ida in Pakistan we could create a self-fulfilling prophecy about a threat which currently doesn't exist
An interview with Chris Walker on Iraq - (October 2007) - Chris Walker is a retired planning expert and civil engineer from Scotland who worked in Iraq in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. He's a critic of the Iraq war who is well known to readers of the Herald newspaper (a Scottish newspaper based in Glasgow) for his letters on Iraq. I asked him some questions on Iraq
Blair's recycled propaganda - (October 2007) - Blair has learned nothing from the Iraq war. From beyond the political grave he's recycling the same propaganda for another war against a non-existent "threat" - this time in Iran
The real reasons for Galloway's suspension from parliament - (August 2007) - It wasn't only lefties who were calling for an end to sanctions that were killing ordinary Iraqis without removing Saddam from power - Senior US Generals and UN officials were too - but was the chair of the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee ?
John Lyons is no sell-out - (August 2007) - This is a reply to a Nick Cohen article referring to former Labour MP John Lyons and Alastair Campbell as if they were comparable. It also questions Cohen's implication that Lyons has somehow "sold out" by acting as a consultant in a dispute between FirstGroup and the Teamsters Union, despite union membership among FirstGroup employees having risen sharply after reforms recommended in Lyons' first report.
Torture - it's not just a few soldiers out of control - The mountain of evidence provided by British and American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and by human rights organisations showing the Bush administration and British government have a tacit policy of torture - and so do the forces of the new governments they've installed
New Improved Double-Think - July 2007 - Watch and be Amazed as Wild Billy Kristol, Manly Bob Kagan and Torture Justify’in Al Dershowitz hold two mutually incompatible beliefs simultaneously at great risk to their little remaining credibility! (Such as that George Tenet is a known liar - and that George Tenet's says in his new book that Saddam was working with Al Qa'ida - so that must prove it)
Iraq - Propaganda and Reality - Why Nick Cohen and Tony Blair are wrong about Iraq and wrong about the Stop the War Coalition
The Persian Problem (short version) - What should we do about Iran? - June 2007 - (this is a short article of under 1200 words on Iran briefly covering the nuclear programme , human rights issues and terrorism)
Reply to John Gray - Blogger John Gray's lies about John McDonnell MP, the Stop the War Coalition, Iraqi Trade Unions and myself - and the truth
Yeltsin - No Democrat - Boris Yeltsin wasn't a drunken democrat - he was a dictator who sent the army to shell parliament and sold his peoples' assets off on the cheap
Murky Waters - British sailors and marines being held by Iran are part of events which are less clear cut than Blair has suggested - but there may still be a way to get them home safely
Budget response March 2007 - Brown has taken from the poorest to give to big companies and thrown more money into the black subsidy hole of PFIs in the NHS that will result in the higher spending producing cuts in staff and beds
Prejudice against all immigrants - Is it any better than racism?
Unfriendly fire - The killing of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq was not an isolated incident
Why Dannatt was right - There are several reasons why the head of the British army - General Dannatt - was right when he said that British forces should be brought home from Iraq and soon
Starving Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban - Why the war on drugs we're pushing on the Afghan government is causing starvation , increasing heroin production and forcing farmers into the hands of the Taliban - and the legal alternative suggested by the Senlis Council of using poppies for painkilling pharmaceuticals.
John Reid for Labour leader? - What has he actually done in all his ministerial posts? - and why John McDonnell MP would be better
Hezbollah, Jesus and Tommy Sheridan - There is a right to resist occupation but two wrongs don't make a right - and Hezbollah targeting civilians is as much a war crime as Israel doing it
Lebanon : No barrier to an immediate ceasefire : Hezbollah can't be defeated militarily , is being made more popular by Israel's attacks on Lebanon and is offering a ceasefire and negotiations on disarmament. So why isn't every government demanding an immediate ceasefire? Ask the Israeli, British and American governments to demand an immediate ceasefire
Negotiation - The Only Realistic Option - The last Israel-Lebanon war showed neither side can win in the Israel Lebanon Palestine / occupied territories war. Three democratically elected governments say they can't negotiate with terrorists - yet many democratically elected governments - including these three - include people guilty of war crimes or terrorism.
Islam and Human Rights - Hakan Suslu discusses the different interpretations of Islam and the Qur'an and how they relate to human rights - Can they be reconciled? Is there any necessary conflict between them ?
The real enemy - Military force and economic sanctions as responses to terrorism are failing because they are strategies which kill the innocent with the guilty as much as any suicide bombing - and don't treat Iraqis, Afghans and Palestinians as human beings whose lives are each worth the same as an Israeli, American or British life.
Shifting the Blame - Blair tries to blame British Muslims for the growth of Al Qa'ida - but the wars he continues are the terrorists' best recruiting sergeants
You can't teach old collaborators human rights - The same Military Intelligence units involved in collaborating with terrorists to kill Patrick Finucane and other innocent people in Northern Ireland were also involved in the killing of Jean Charles De Menezes - and in operations in Iraq
John Reid claims weakening the Geneva Conventions would make our troops lives easier - the reality is it would put them in greater danger
Rusty Jack Jack Straw claims the Geneva Conventions are 'rusty'
Jack & Condi's BAE adventure Condoleeza Rice visits Jack Straw and they get a warm welcome from BAE Systems - 31st March 2006
Getting the people who didn't do this thing - Massacres of civilians in Iraq are microcosms of the whole war
When Dick Met Katrina - The total failure of the Bush administration to prepare for hurricanes or help the survivors shows they don't even value Americans' lives
Iraq: Should we stay or should we go?
Scottish Left Review article on Habeas Corpus and terrorism laws
FotH articles on the war on terror and the Iraq war written from 2001-2004
Links
Justice for Gordon Gentle Campaign
Glasgow Stop the War Coalition
John McDonnell for Labour leader
Justice for Jean Menezes campaign
Military Families Against the War
Craig Murray - the ambassador who spoke out against torture
Glasgow Palestinian Human Rights Campaign
Blairwatch - Chronicling the demise of the New Labour project
Isabel Losada the author of 'For Tibet, with Love'
The British government tries to suppress 'Murder in Samarkand' documents
British government seeks to supress evidence of it's involvement with Karimov's dictatorship in Uzbekistan - Craig Murray's book 'Murder in Samarkand' on his time as British ambassador to Uzbekistan is now available from amazon. Emails, telegrams and official documents which prove Murray's claims that he had informed the government of torture and killings by Karimov's regime with their only response being to institute disciplinary proceedings against him are on his website - and reproduced here (and at many other sites) as back-up. The British government has threatened legal action to force Craig to take them down - they claim the Foreign Office has copyright on them. Note that they don't question their authenticity - only ownership of them. Craig has been forced to comply because, while he would probably win the case, the legal costs would be prohibitive.
The disputed documents are backed up here and by many others
See Craig Murray's website for more details
More writers welcome
I'd also like to get other people's views and research up on the site. If you want to submit an article for the site (and they don't have to agree with mine - they can completely disagree) email me - I may write a reply but if i do i'll let you write a reply to that too.The idea is to provide some free debate.
Articles don't have to be replies to mine though - they can be on totally different subjects or angles. Including sources - especially for controversial claims - whether online sources ( i.e websites/newspaper articles) or offline sources(i.e books etc) is a good idea as it lets people judge your claims better. Articles can be of any length (though bear in mind that the longer they are the less likely people are to read all of them - and i know some of mine are too long)
Sons and daughters of a dream
The urge to struggle for an ideal
To stay and fight
Oppose war fever
Refuse to kill or be killed
There are voices calling in the wind
"Power to the Peaceful"
With a readiness for war
They come down hard on dissent of all forms
Bloody militarism has swept the country by storm
There are voices calling in the wind
Power to the Peaceful
This is not a war of the urging people
This is not a war of economic independence
It's a war for conquest
It's a war for military power
It's a war for money
The road to universal slaughter
There's repression and intolerance
on any deviation from the norm
in all aspects of your life
In this time of entry to war,do you know what to sing?
Power to the Peaceful
Anti-Flag 'Power to the Peaceful'