A prime minister who takes umbrage at people holding cardboard signs was curiously silent as Iran was threatened with genocide

~ punkacademic ~

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump threatened genocide against the people of Iran. Having already threatened to destroy Iran’s infrastructure in a post on Easter Sunday, he now threatened that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” unless Iran acceded to his demands.

Strategic studies experts began speculating that this rhetoric meant the possibility of a nuclear attack. Yet, as Iranian citizens awaited mass death, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was nowhere to be seen.

Since last summer, military analysts believe, American B61 nuclear weapons have been housed at Lakenheath under US control, the culmination of a multi-year process to bring US nukes back to Britain, with no public discussion.

Now the question became, had the US F-35s deployed to the Middle East from Lakenheath in Suffolk taken their nuclear weapons with them?

Green Party leader Zack Polanski demanded that Starmer speak out. Answer came there none.

Two decades ago, Starmer provided legal defence for protestors breaking into RAF Fairford to stop American B-52s taking off for Iraq. Now, as a B-52 armed with 12 cruise missiles rose out of Fairford into the Wiltshire sky, he said nothing at all.

The Guardian ruefully remarked that Farage – who in a moment of having nowhere to run publicly stated that Trump had gone too far this time – had offered sterner criticism of Trump than Starmer. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey stated Britain could be complicit in war crimes.

But Starmer’s silence was deafening, and it was of far greater import than Boris Johnson’s panicked flight into a fridge during the 2019 General Election campaign.

Of course, Sir Keir was in a dicey position. He had persistently claimed that UK forces and bases would only be involved in ‘defensive operations’; if American aircraft flew from them, their operations would only be ‘defensive’ in nature. Britain was not involved, he told us. This was not ‘our’ war.

But this was, and is, laughable. It was made more so on Wednesday when Starmer appeared from hiding to visit UK forces in Saudi Arabia and reiterate the same rubbish about ‘principles’ and ‘values’, despite the reality of the day before.

Whilst Starmer was desperately reasserting his moral credentials, the skies above East Anglia were – as they usually are – loud with the noise of American military aircraft. Some flew with their transponders off.

KC-135 refuelling planes flew out from RAF Mildenhall, Lakenheath’s neighbouring base, to the Mediterranean and back. Polanski called for them to be kicked out, once a fringe view, but now one gaining traction across the political spectrum.

But as in so many areas of policy, Starmer is behind the times and showing no signs of budging. It’s not clear that he has the capacity for original thought. His Labour Party plagiarises Reform UK’s policies, whilst trotting out Atlanticist shibboleths that weren’t convincing when Tony Blair uttered them, let alone in the ChatGPT-lite edition that Starmer represents.

There is no future in Britain’s mythical ‘special relationship’ with the US. A delusion fostered by a British elite reeling from the aftermath of the Suez debacle in the 1950s, it was always a mere sticking plaster on the bruised ego of an imperial state reduced to subordination.

In truth, the relationship is one between a vassal and a liege. As long as this persists, every American war is also Britain’s war – and this one is Keir Starmer’s most of all.

Image: Number10 on Flickr  CC BY-NC-ND 4.0