NAPALM DEATH Singer: BUSH And TONY BLAIR Need To Be Held Accountable For Their 'Crimes'

Tartarean Desire recently conducted an interview with NAPALM DEATH frontman Mark "Barney" Greenway. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Tartarean Desire: What about the recent terrorist attacks in London. Has that given you some fuel for your lyrical fire?

Mark "Barney" Greenway: "Ahh, it does, in much the same way as Bush and 9/11 did. My immediate response to it, and the first thing that comes to mind is, why do the innocent always have to suffer for the actions of those at the top? You've got Bin Laden out there, you've got Blair and Bush jigging it up there at the top, and it's the innocent people who are getting hurt in between, you know. And Tony Blair has flat denied it, and if Tony Blair thinks that he's had nothing to do with what's going on in the Middle East, then he must think that we are really stupid. Or that's what he's trying to tell us. If he thinks that he doesn't have anything to do with the big powerful governments in this world… They still continue to push their agenda in the Middle East, and try to turn it into something that is not desired to be, then Blair and Bush must think I and we and everyone was fucking born yesterday. You know, if you fuck with people, and fuck with people's countries sovereign nations, and you expect them to sit there and take it, then you really do need your fucking head taken, because it just ain't going to happen."

Tartarean Desire: Exactly. Then you're just asking for more…

Mark "Barney" Greenway: "Exactly!! I mean, everything everyone has said has come true. When Bush was standing on that aircraft carrier saying that the war was 'over, we have prevailed!!' Well, no, you haven't. There are people in that country that are fighting for their freedom, as far as they're concerned, their country's freedom. And they're going to keep doing that, and they're not going to stop, and they will use whatever means necessary to stop your desire of whatever transformation of the country that Bush believes it to be. That will continue, they will never stop that. As with Vietnam, it was a huge mistake, and Iraq is going to be exactly the same. Mark my words!! Everything that's happening so far suggests that completely."

Tartarean Desire: So do you agree with the "shoot to kill" policy that London has at the moment?

Mark "Barney" Greenway: "No, I don't. I think it's absolutely overreacted. I think that's not the way to go. It's tit-for-tat, this whole thing. I mean, Bush and Blair are trying to enforce this whole new society on a country that by in large doesn't want this tribal society. I don't agree with oppression wherever it comes from. I don't agree with one person heading a country and oppressing the other country — of course, I don't. When you do that, you cannot expect people to sit down/sit back and take it. But by the same token, the 'shoot to kill' policy with the guy over here recently… when they were chasing him for no other reason than just because… He came out of his apartment and he got stalled by the police, and he ran away, then they shot him in the head six or seven times. There's no justification for that, in my opinion."

Tartarean Desire: With your lyrics, you are trying to make people aware, but what’s your biggest goal when writing, and releasing them through NAPALM DEATH?? What are you wanting out of it?

Mark "Barney" Greenway: "Well you know, I guess the overall thing I’m trying to say is, if you are wanting to solve the problems of this world, and all those problems make NAPALM DEATH irrelevant, then what you got to do is start at the top. I mean, the superpowers and the corporations of this world that aid and abet the superpowers, and the religious factions that govern this world and their ideologies that govern this world, that being Christian or whatever, you will never get to really truly get to the root of the problems. These are the causes of poverty, they're the causes of intolerance between people, they're the causes of many environmental problems of the ecosystem being fucked up. What you have is this continual self-perpetuating cycle and when you don't deal with these people, you let them ride over the rest of the world. It's going to continue to be a problem. That's what I try to address. Here's a small example of what was done recently. Bush has finally acquired the rights to drill in the last unprotected part of, I think it's Alaska or somewhere in the Artic. He has finally acquired the rights to do that, and up 'till now it has remained protected. I mean, how fucking sad is that!? Here's this guy that ignores all protocols, the Kyoto agreement, Bush has said 'No, I don't want to know.' What gives him the fucking right to do that?? When other people are trying to work towards improving our environment and the ecosystem. What gives him the right to do that??"

Tartarean Desire: Well, he's the president of the United States of America (said very sarcastically)…

Mark "Barney" Greenway: "Yeah, of course. This might sound a little naïve… I think the whole world needs a radical readjustment. We need a people's response to people like Bush and others like him. We need to be able to turn around and say, 'Well, no, fuck you!! You are not going to do this, and if you do this, you will be brought to account for it.' I mean, they're quick to put Saddam and people in the dark. When are we going to get people like Bush, Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Reagan… Well, you can't with Reagan now, obviously, he's elsewhere, but when are these people actually going to answer for their crimes?? When they're quick to point the finger at others. It's this level of hypocrisy that really frustrates me. A lot of people, especially the percentage of the American populace that votes for Bush, and will continue to vote for Bush, can they not see that our lives are just as important as their lives? The people in the Middle East, their lives are just as important as everyone else's. Can they not see that all these people need to be accountable?? Surely, I mean surely, we have to come to a point where everyone is accountable."

Tartarean Desire: Do you see this ever happening??

Mark "Barney" Greenway: "Not in my generation. Like I said, some people might consider it naive, but that is my solution. You know what?! I'll give you another thing: I think the CIA. and the FBI should be disbanded. I think they are the biggest bastions of dishonesty and corruption that there is. Again, the American government are quick to point out corruption in other governments — Iran, China, the list goes on — but they are very slow to acknowledge corruption in their own backyard. Of course, of which daddy Bush presided over for many years."

Read the entire interview at TartareanDesire.com.