Opinion | The Queen's Gambit: Knighting war criminals reveals the powerful as imperially nostalgic racists

By J.B.Browne

... who like to laugh and slap their knees uncontrollably right in front of you.

I want to write a letter. Not just any letter. A letter to The Queen, aka Liz. The mother of old teacup ears and the pedophile dud left with all the inbred gene stuff.

As a Brit, it's a romantic dream to be heard by the most sparkly elite in the land, even if it remains within a small, ignorable echo chamber.

And why the hell not? According to Wiki, the Politics of the United Kingdom clearly states that The UK is a "parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state."

Did you hear that? As head of state in a constitutional monarchy, Liz DOES have powers. However, they are marketed (and we indoctrinated) to believe they are ceremonial in gesture only. Day to day, that means that she may not refuse the proposal of a bill just because she dislikes it (on the surface, at least). But the very nature of her existence as head of state means that she wields more silent influence on legislation than is ever let on to the public. And despite her powers being ceremonial on paper, there are legal paths to remove a prime minister from power should they become rogue or act amoralistically.

In fact, the dismissal of a prime minister, i.e., the dissolution or suspension of Parliament, is deemed necessary when the legislature's wishes are juxtaposed with the nation's wishes.

It's happened before. The last time a bad actor was removed from the stage with a royally curved cane in the UK was in 1834.

But here we are. Me/we as individuals with voice boxes in a parliamentary democracy. Allegedly, we elect elected officials who make decisions on our behalf, and Liz's only real job is giving a royal stamp of approval.

And even though we didn't vote for the Iraq War, she still approved it with her initials. More recently, those same initials featured on the New Year Honours List for 2022, announcing Anthony Charles Lynton Blair as a knight of the British Empire. The list recognizes the "achievements of extraordinary people across the UK" according to www.gov.uk — presumably in Blair's case for "war crimes services rendered."

The myth that The Queen is apolitical is false, and in times of grave separation between legislature and mood of the nation, she has the absolute moral duty to step in. Indeed, as a democracy under a constitutional monarchy, Ma'am's responsibility as Queen Mother should be to hear our thoughts and reconcile our fears for something as vast and consequential as a war in foreign lands. Fears that such a divisive political leader as Blair, one of the chief architects of the bogus invasion, is now officially blessed by UK power elites, most of all, the monarchy reveals them to be as complicit in these war crimes, even encouraging.

Blair and knuckle-dragging Bush engineered a horrific death toll. Their "with you, whatever" anglo supremacist brohood caused an estimated 460,000 deaths, with some estimates as high as one million. Not to mention the ripple effect of those deaths manifesting as displaced refugees, widows, and orphans left to perish in the aftermath of the UK's war crimes in the Middle East. More than that, it's the way they sold their capitalist oil grab to their corresponding publics through fabrications, religious justification, and sociopathic lies.

Liz silently approves of British imperialism and war from the shadows by knighting Blair, revealing herself and the British elites as the imperially nostalgic racists they always were. Her non-actions, her muted blessings of Blair's leadership, can't hide the stench of centuries-old colonial undertones.

For this, she shall receive this formal letter.

Dear Liz,

I write to you from the bosom of the last spoils of British Imperialism and the Opium Wars, Hong Kong, China.

I write in protest against the flagrant crucifixion of war crimes exposer Julian Assange and the sour taste "knighthooding" of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.

The problem, Liz, is that signing off on the elevation of the former prime minister to the Order of the Garter seems to be an official attempt to languish in the antiquities of the golden age of British Imperialism. Those inhuman indiscretions, for King & Country, Rule Britannia, and all that bull, render the Iraq war and others like it as conveniently meaningless "all in the past now" discretions.

Should such an infraction on humanity be thrown to the wind as jolly mistakes? If the net effect is the considerable loss of human life, then rewarding Blair is the same as rewarding opium trade generals for wiping out the Chinese.

I vividly recall, Blair stood up in Parliament theatrically, pivoting the public narrative from Afghanistan to Iraq. He plied us with a non-existent fear to manipulate us into consenting without discussion. Maybe you didn't know it, but he did, and we all do now. And yet, as head of state, you said nothing and signed your initials in the bloodstains of centuries of Empire — a continuation of racist imperial nostalgia with no regard for special targeted sections of humanity.

Are we now to file this global catastrophe under "oops"?

The Garter is a personal gift from the Queen, but really, how can you and your advisors be so out of touch with the nation's mood? This year Blair, next year Johnson for COVID deaths services rendered?

Liz, your duty is a human one, not a silent one.

Otherwise, why is there even a You? Bloodline and Parliament rules?

Yours royally shafted,

Your humble and obedient but powerless servant,

Hong Kong, China

As he would refer himself, J.B. Browne is a half "foreign devil" living with anxiety relieved by purchase. HK-born Writer/Musician/Tinkerer.

 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

Read more articles by J.B.Browne:

Opinion | The strange paradox of Julian Assange and the question of censorship