Friday, November 23, 2012

The Airship Legacy - Part 13

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PART XIII: PEACE ON THE HORIZON

            Terrorism would play a big role in bringing an end to the Iran War. The first terror attacks in Britain occurred in December of 1989. By June of 1990, there’d been 15 terrorist attacks in Britain, half of them in London, and nearly 500 civilians had been killed. America was first attacked on March 7, 1990, when Pakistani terrorists blew up an airliner at the Washington D.C., airport, killing 204 people. By August, there had been terror attacks in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Houston, and Miami, with nearly 700 people having been killed. The Liberty Party and the American People’s Party seized on these tragic turn of events and campaigned on ending the war. In Britain, and anti-War faction was starting to form within the BUF, though very secretively, since Prime Minister Michael Mosley openly supported the war and had declared any opposition to be treason.
            When the United States went to the polls for the mid-term 1990 elections, a giant wave of pent-up frustrations rose up at the polling booths. After the dust settled, the Republicans were left with only 24% of the seats in the House of Representatives, and only 23 seats in the Senate. The Liberty Party had 35% of the seats in the House, and 34 seats in the Senate. The biggest shock of the election was that the American People’s Party had 41% of the House seats, and 43 seats in the Senate. For the first time in history, the largest party in both houses of Congress was the socialists. When the new Congress met for the first time in January of 1991, William Clinton of Arkansas became the first socialist Speaker of the House.
-Lewis, Samuel. How Iran Changed the West. New York: 21st Century Publishers. 2006.

CLINTON TO BUSH: START PULL OUT OR LOOSE FUNDS
WASHINGTON, FEB 14- Fulfilling the campaign promises from November, Speaker of the House William Clinton and his fellow socialists have declared that they will seek to block vital funding bills unless President Bush agrees to start the withdrawal of American forces from Iran. “The President needs to understand something. The American people do not want this war. He started it, and now he needs to end it. It’s been over 6 years since he committed our troops to Iran, and it’s time they came home. And until he does so, I and my fellow legislators will block all funding to projects deemed vital by the administration.” This announcement came two days after it was reported that nearly 4,000 American soldiers have been killed since U.S. troops arrived in Iran in 1985.
            The Liberty Party also campaigned on ending the war, and it appears that they too support the socialist’s plan to cut Bush’s funding wherever possible. At this point in time, the White House has not released any sort of statement as to the president’s reaction to the demands by Clinton and the socialists.
-“Clinton to Bush: Start Pull Out or Loose Funds,” Washington Post, February 14th, 1991.

SOCIALISTS HAVE TEETH: FIRST FUNDING BILL FAILS TO PASS
WASHINGTON, MAR 11- Socialists and the Liberty Party have killed the first administration-backed funding bill to be brought before Congress since last year’s elections. The bill would have allocated money for 4 new battleships and an aircraft carrier to be built, and also had a provision providing funds for naval personnel in Iran. After the vote in the House of Representatives, Speaker Clinton told reporters that “I love this country, and I support our men and women that wear the uniform. But this war must end, and I will not vote to spend one more penny towards the military until President Bush orders the troops to be recalled. Mr. President, today we are telling you to bring the troops home!”
-“Socialists Have Teeth: First Funding Bill Fails to Pass,” The New York Times, March 11, 1991.

CLINTON TO MEET WITH PRESIDENT
WASHINGTON, MAR 20- The White House announced today that the President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and leaders from the Socialist, Liberty, and Republican Parties would be meeting at the White House on march 27 to discuss possible withdrawal of troops and a way to break the impasse that currently exists between the White House and Capitol Hill. Though no official statement has been released by the speaker’s office, those close to Mr. Clinton say that he seems to be in a very optimistic mood now that news of the pending meeting with the president has gone public, and there are many socialist members of Congress that believe that the war in Iran may soon be over.
-“Clinton to Meet with President,” The Washington Post, March 21, 1991.

            When then-Speaker of the House William Clinton met with President George Bush at the White House on March 27, 1991, it was the beginning of the end for the Iran War. Socialists and Liberty Party members were unwavering in their demands to the President: if you continue the war, you do so without funding. After about 14 hours of negotiations, a deal was struck. The President would announce a gradual withdrawal of all U.S. troops to take a total of about 1 year, and Congress would then agree to give funding to the administrations projects. Although some in Congress wanted an immediate pull out, the president insisted that the United States could not just cut and run and leave the British in the lurch without facing serious negative consequences.
            On March 28, President Bush made a public address to the nation announcing the beginning of American withdrawal from the conflict. Britain was outraged, and threatened to reinstate the embargo on oil to the United States. However, the Commonwealth Executive Council rejected the plan. The American public was thrilled by this announcement, and there were spontaneous celebrations in many cities. The first troops to come home arrived on April 25th, and were given a hero’s welcome and were greeted by the President, and interestingly enough by Speaker Clinton. On September 30, 1991, Speaker Clinton announced his intention to run for the Presidency, and resigned the position of speaker, which was taken up by Texan Representative Liam Gates.
-Lewis, Samuel. How Iran Changed the West. New York: 21st Century Publishers. 2006

CLINTON PICKS ROSENBERG FOR VP
NEW YORK, JUNE 22- Having now secured the Socialist nomination via the primaries, Presidential Candidate William Clinton, formerly Speaker of the House, announced today in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty that Liberty Party Senator Jacob Rosenberg of New York would be his running mate in this year’s election.  This will be the first time in a modern presidential election that the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates running on one ticket that are from different parties. In the announcement, Clinton said, “Americans are not all of the same party, they are not all from the same creed, from the same faith. And as such, a government headed by me will consist of people from all parties, and that starts at the very top.”
            Republican candidate Senator Lionel Wood of Colorado, who will formally accept his party’s nomination, has yet to respond to this potentially game changing announcement. There is still speculation as to who Senator Wood will select as his running mate. Some think he will pick Representative Harrison Mayes of Wisconsin, while others believe it will be Governor Matthew Bush of Massachusetts. The Republicans seem to be facing a hard sell in this election, following the rather rough presidency of George Bush. After nearly seven years of being at war, Americans are seeking a change.
-“Clinton Picks Rosenberg for VP,” The New York Times, June 23, 1992.

THE KAISER IS DEAD
BERLIN, OCT 7- Imperial authorities have confirmed that Kaiser Louis Ferdinand I, who became Kaiser of Germany on December 1, 1939, has passed away from what doctors are calling natural causes. His Royal Majesty lived nearly 85 years, and has been a guiding force behind the modern German Empire since it’s recreation 52 years ago. The Kaiser’s 52 year old son Kronprinz Frederick Wilhelm stated to the national and international press at the Royal Palace in Berlin that, “My Father was a great man, and has been an inspiring leader to all Germans since his coronation in 1939. His shoes will be hard to fill. I thank you for your heartfelt thoughts and wishes for our family. May God bless our nation.”
            Chancellor Simon Jaeger (M) has announced a state of mourning throughout the country for the next 60 days. The funeral will be within the next few days, though the Royal Family has yet to set a date for the funeral. Berlin city officials expect hundreds of thousands of people to descend on the capital to pay there respects to the departed leader.
-“The Kaiser is Dead,” Frankfurter Zeitung, October 8, 1992.

CLINTON WINS!
WASHINGTON, NOV 4- Senator William Clinton of Arkansas has been elected as the nation’s first socialist president. What is largely being called an “anti-Republican” election wave, Liberty and Socialist party members have swept into power in both houses of Congress. President-elect Clinton told supporters in Little Rock that “tonight, America has chosen a brighter tomorrow. We shall put the violence of the previous administration behind us, and look to a new future, full of peace and prosperity for all Americans.”
            Last night’s election results are historic for many reasons. The most obvious is that this is America’s first president from the American People’s Party, which was formed by Upton Sinclair in 1949. Secondly, this is the first time in modern history that the presidential and vice presidential candidates from one ticket were not members of the same party. Vice President-elect Jacob Rosenberg has brought a great sense of cooperation and unity between the two left-leaning parties in the United States. Some pundits in the capital do not believe that this “political wedding” will last long. For starters, the Liberty Party confirmed their commitment to restoring some sort of affirmative action law at this summer’s convention, something that the socialists remain opposed to.
-“Clinton Wins!” The New York Times, November 5, 1992.

BOMB AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE!
LONDON, APR 14- Early this morning, while Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was reviewing the Royal Guard at Buckingham Palace, a large bomb exploded near the reviewing stand. Her Majesty, along with Prince Phillip and several members of the Royal staff were seriously injured and are being tended to at various local hospitals around London. Prime Minister Michael Mosley has declared a state of emergency in the greater London area, and the CSP has been deployed throughout the city. Although no party has claimed responsibility for the attack, most government officials believe that the Pakistani Solidarity Coalition is responsible for this dastardly act of terrorism. The Queen’s son, Prince William, has been put in protective custody of the CSP to protect the heir to the throne.
- “Bomb at Buckingham Palace!”, The Daily Mail, April 14, 1993.

THE QUEEN IS DEAD
LONDON, APR 16- The Royal Palace announced this morning that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has died from injuries received from a bomb blast at Buckingham Palace two days ago. This comes a day after Prince Phillip, the Queen’s husband, passed away. The nation is in shock. However, many are calling for the government to end the terrorism by ending the war in Iran and Pakistan. Prime Minister Mosley has stated that “this country will not bow to terrorism. Our country has been stabbed near the heart, but we will pull through and survive. And to those who think they can dictate how this country is run by blowing up buildings and murdering the innocent, they had better think again.” The CSP has been ordered to begin mass roundups of suspected terrorist and terrorist sympathizers.
-“The Queen is Dead,” The Times (London), April 16, 1993.

INSTABILITY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
LONDON, AUG 1- It has been months since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and unrest in the United Kingdom has been steadily increasing. The Mosley government has used the attack as an excuse to round up thousands upon thousands of Muslims in the United Kingdom. In addition, Mosley has increased the number of troops to be deployed to the Iran-Pakistan War, which has taken a turn for the worse in recent months since the United States has withdrawn from the conflict. Three weeks ago, Tehran was seized by the Iranian rebels, and unrest in both Iran and Pakistan is at an all time high. There are rumors that a large anti-war protest against the Mosley government is planned, but this cannot be confirmed. Despite continued support of the war by the Prime Minister and the BUF, King William has continued to speak out against the conflict, calling it a “bloody stain” upon the United Kingdom.
-“Instability in the United Kingdom,” The Frankfurter Zeitung, August 1, 1993.

            The instability that caused the collapse of the British Union of Fascists and their rule of Great Britain was twofold. First, after the Queen’s death in April of 1993 at the hands of terrorist greatly affected the moral of the British public, and their willingness to support the war in Iran and Pakistan. Public protests of the war became more common and more intense, despite attempts by the CSP to suppress such events. People also began to protest the growing number of arrests of Muslims that the security police carried out, under the pretext that they had ties to Pakistani terrorists. This excuse was believed at first, but by the end of the summer of 1993 it became obvious that the government was punishing an entire community for the actions of a few.
            The second, and more corrosive crisis that would ultimately be the straw that broke the camels back was an article released on March 3, 1994 by the London Times that stated that the War Ministry had  been grossly underreporting the number of war deaths that the country had experienced. While the official number at the time of the article was around 3,500 dead, the number that was reported to be the real number was closer to 7,500. The day after the article shocked the British public, the CSP arrested the writer and editorial staff of the London Times and closed down the paper all together, which was loudly celebrated by The Daily Mail. Prime Minister Mosley went on the television on March 5 and stated that the Times’ article was totally false, and that the war dead count was around 3,500. Despite these attempts to suppress the information, a major rally was planned to protest the war on March 10. On that day, nearly 150,000 protestors rallied outside the War Ministry. The CSP showed up in force, and a riot soon broke out. In the end, 788 people were arrested, and 230 were killed, along with over 2,000 that were injured. The next day, the King held a primetime news conference carried on the BNN and the BBC, where he decried the murder of “230 brave patriots”. Furthermore, he announced that he new for certain that the death count was above 8,000, and he called on Prime Minister Mosley to resign his post as prime minister. What happened next would stir up the unrest of the British populace into action. As the King finished his broadcast, the CSP stormed the palace and arrested the King on live television. The feed then went to Number 10 Downing Street, where Mosley declared that the man on the television had been an imposter who had hijacked the television signal.
            No one in the country believed what Mosley said. Unrest exploded into revolt, and violence ruled the streets of many parts of London. The CSP surrounded the Prime Minister’s residence to protect him from the mayhem. Director Horace Williams, head of the security police, declared martial law in London, and decreed that any protestor could be shot on sight. This did not sit well with the army. On March 12, 1994, the army declared that the Prime Minister and the CSP had committed treason by arresting the King, and launched an attack on several key locations in London. The so called “Royal Revolution” had begun. Army intelligence learned that the CSP were keeping the King in the prison operated under their main headquarters in central London, and sent nearly 300 soldiers to storm the building, after the RAF made a small raid that damaged the building. Another 600 men were deployed to take 10 Downing Street, along with 600 sent to Parliament, 350 deployed to Buckingham Palace, and 300 to the BUF headquarters. By 4:00 that afternoon, MP Robert Prince, head of the informal “Reform Wing” of the BUF, declared that he was forming a new government and would serve as Prime Minister. Prince quickly declared his loyalty to the King and the Army, and would eventually be recognized by the army leaders later that night as the “legitimate” prime minister.
            At 6:30 on March 12, the CSP headquarters fell to the army after hours of fighting. The King was found, unconscious, in his cell bellow the headquarters, and was whisked away to the safety of a military hospital outside the city. The BBC, which had declared loyalty to the army from the start, happily announced this news. At 7:30 the following morning, Michael Mosley surrendered to the army, and normalcy slowly began to return. King William formally confirmed Robert Prince as the new Prime Minister on March 15, after having regained consciousness on the 13th and had a few days to recover. On March 20th, Prince announced that all members of Mosley’s government were to be dismissed from power, and were forced out of the Party. The CSP was shut down by order of the military, and the military police took control of the security police’s many prisons.
            It was then that one of the worst acts of the 2nd Mosley regime was discovered. Two prisons, described by the army as death labor camps, where nearly 200,000 Pakistanis had been interned after being arrested by the CSP. It was later discovered that nearly 140,000 people had already died at these camps, in addition to nearly 75,000 people that had been murdered immediately after being arrested by the security forces. The public, and international community, was appalled, and may called on the government to execute Mosley, Williams, and other leaders of the old regime. Trials were announced to start in the fall of 1994, and all the death camps were closed and those imprisoned there were given compensation and a heap of apologies from the new leadership in London.
            On April 1, Prime Minister Prince announced a unilateral cease fire in Pakistan and Iran, and stated that there would be formal peace talks in Cairo over the summer, following the annual meeting of the Commonwealth Congress and Executive Committee. On April 3, the army announced that all political prisoners being held in the former CSP prisons were to be released, as long as they had no “regular” crimes attached to their files, such as murder, theft, or rape. By the end of the month, all but 347 political prisoners were free. Prince announced later that month that he would soon be presenting a series of reform bills aimed at “cutting back the excesses” of the Michael Mosley era. The first of these bills, known as the Political Speech and Association Act, decriminalized public opposition and protest to government leaders and government policy, and allowed for the formation of new political parties. This act passed 53-47 in parliament on May 14, 1994. By the end of May, the Labour, Communist, and Democratic-Republican Parties had all been formed, and were putting pressure on the Prime Minister to call for a new election, especially the outspoken leader of the “New Labour Party”, Ms. Margret Roberts, who called on Prince to have open elections as soon as possible so the people could express their new found political freedoms. BUF record from May, June, and July of 1994 show huge drops in membership, as the party card was no longer required for a number of places of employment.
            At the Commonwealth Congress in June of 1994, Prime Minister Prince backed a bid by South Africa to give that country the Commonwealth Presidency for the next two years, a move that shocked many, since the United Kingdom had held the presidency solidly since the end of the 1960s after the rise of Sir Oswald. On August 1st, Prime Minister Prince and others from the British government headed to Cairo to meet with members of the Canadian, South African, Australian, Indian, Pakistani and Iranian governments to discuss a final peace in the Middle East. The talks went on for weeks, and there sere several times that it looks as though the Cairo Talks would fall apart, but fortunately they did not. On August 19, 1994,the Cairo Treaty was signed, officially ending the Iran-Pakistan War.
-Samuels, Dr. Frank. The Fall of the Blackshirts. New British Press, London: 2005.

PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
CAIRO, AUG 19- His Majesty’s government has announced that the Imperial Commonwealth, Iran and Pakistan have signed the Cairo Treaty. The war in the Middle East is now officially over. After 16 years of conflict and the loss of 8,400 soldiers, the silent stillness of peace can finally reign over the British Isles. The treaty, which took over two weeks to draft, has done the following:
-       Guarantees the independence of the Iranian Islamic Republic.
-       Releases the Dominion of Pakistan from the Imperial Commonwealth, and recognizes the country as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
-       Guaranteed at least 3 billion pounds of reconstruction aide to Iran and Pakistan each, to be paid by Imperial Commonwealth.
Prime Minister Prince stated that “this war has been a leech on the vitality of the British people, and upon the whole of the Imperial Commonwealth. We should have pulled out of those countries many years ago. We have harmed the lives of millions, and now we must look to the future and repair the damage we’ve done.”
-“Peace in the Middle East,” The Times (London), August 20, 1994.

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