Friday, November 21, 2003
It's time for me to be a bit contencious and opinionated, since I haven't done that in a while.I spent most of my day yesterday performing the duties of channel operator/moderator in the #england chatroom on irc.undernet.org yesterday, and during this time came to a grim conclusion.
The terrorists carrying out these bombing campaigns really do know what they're doing.
I don't mean the technical aspects of delivering and detonating the bombs, but in achieving a reaction favourable to their goals. The main factor in this is the actual nations most of their targets are in... or rather the people of those nations.
What do I mean? Let me explain what happened yesterday.
Two bombs went off in Istanbul yesterday, destroying the British Consulate and HSBC bank... both soft targets. english and turkish citizens were killed.
Within the hour, the #england chatroom was inundated with turks screaming "Kill all english!... kill all murderers!" and suchlike.
So... the fact that it was english targets that were struck, and no doubt by turkish bombers, the fact that turks were killed too caused a significant number of turks to blame the english. I'm in no doubt that this is no accident. The fact that english citizens were killed is purely to legitimise the attack... it was necesary to the goals of the bombers that turks be killed too, to achieve the exact reaction observed yesterday.
So a few raging turks in a chatroom is no big deal, and easilly handled, but it's this emotional and completely irrational (or even downright stupid) nature of the people in the nations being targetted that causes wider problems. These are the kind of people who in their rage will take up arms and join the very terrorists who have killed their own countrymen. I'm not just talking about Turkey either... look at what's happening in Iraq, it's exactly the same phenomenon... and it's going to get worse.
This is idle speculation now, but I tend to believe that human beings are by nature pretty stupid. Combine the ill concieved invasion of Iraq and the attitudes that brought it about, with the actions being displayed now by the terrorists and populations of those countries being attacked, and it seems conceievable that all out world war is not that far off. Not a declared war... but random and extreme violence throughout the world, so that nowhere is safe, and no-one knows who is enemy and who is friend. Bombings here, retaliatory airstrikes there... much like Israel/Palestine, but on a global basis.
Insane.
Steve 2:15 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
I really should stop blogging about the war. This was never supposed to be a war blog, but the pictures I see every day on the tv are too compelling.Things over there are getting a bit mental, on both sides, and it's making me mad.
First we see a another example of trigger happy yanks, their tank firing into the hotel containing international reporters. They say they were recieving incoming sniper fire from the area near the hotel. Bullshit! The Iraqis are mostly armed with AK47s, which absolutely do NOT have the range to hit anything from there, and as for an RPG firing from such a position... it's laughable. The tank gunner clearly lacked a decent target and figured 'that building over there looks good... lets see if we can hit it'.
Then down in Basra, we see massed looting, mobbing of aid convoys, and general mayhem. The moment their opressors are removed, they go nuts and trash everything. Fair enough, they need to let off steam, but what're they gonna do when things calm down, they need to go shopping, visit a hospital, do every day stuff..... and oh dear, everything's trashed... by themselves.
It's all nuts.
Yeah, I know, that's what war's like and we should expect nothing different, but irrational, illogical behaviour just makes me wanna hit people. That's not logical is it?
Stop it at once... or at least... bomb the shit out of them properly and stop being so silly.
Labels: war
Steve 2:22 PM [+] (0) comments
Anyone who's been watching the BBC coverage of the war can't help but have noticed the coverage by Rageh Omar from inside Baghdad.
I just did a quick search on google and found this piece he wrote about his career a year or so ago.
It's interesting to be able to see some details about him, and explains an ammount about his particular style of coverage, and possibly how he seems to have achieved a certain freedom of movement not enjoyed by other journalists there.
Labels: war
Steve 12:27 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, April 07, 2003
Do you like comedy shows?The best comedy show I've seen in ages, which appears on international tv every day, is the Iraqi Information Minister giving his daily status report to reporters regarding the progress of the war.
Is he completelty out of his head, blatantly lying, or simply extremely stupid?
"We are driving them out. We have killed them all. We have destroyed all of their tanks. All of their reports are lies. Blah blah blah"
Hehehehehe. Yeah right.
So what's he going to do when as he's giving a report about how Iraqi troops are destroying allied forces, an M1 tank rolls into view behind him?
Picture the scene. A journalist asks him to explain the presence of the tank behind him and the US troops storming the building....
"It is a lie. We have destroyed their tanks. We have killed all of their troops. Do not believe their lies. Victory is ours. Take your hands off me you imperialist invader... you liar... We are victorious!"
Labels: war
Steve 12:02 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Time for a spot of wild speculation on the war.The allied forces are on their way into Baghdad, and still the Iraqis appear confident. They've already said they have a trap laid for us. Maybe it's just propaganda, maybe not.
Quite a few people expect a chemical attack as our forces get close, but I suspect something even more radical.
They've already shown a willingness to sacrifice their own people, and suicide seems (to them) an honourable tactic to take out an enemy, so....
what if they have a nuke in central Baghdad? It wouldn't surprise me to see them draw our forces right into the centre of the city and then take out everyone, themselves included.
Like I said... wild speculation, so when it doesn't happen, you can laugh at me and call me stupid. Alternatively, I may sit here saying "told you so". Nothing much would surprise me at the moment.
Labels: war
Steve 2:17 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, March 31, 2003
There seems to be an ammount of debate in blogdom about whether to blog on the war or not.I guess I'm not entirely comfortable blogging about it since it's started, partly because anything I say here won't be news anyway, but also because my opinions now the fighting has started are getting rather more extreme than even I expected.
I'm frustrated by the media coverage with reporters and news readers making dumb and unfounded statements and asking the most stupid questions. I'm aggravated by the obvious lies being told by the Iraqi authorities, and I'm amazed at the naivety of anyone who can't see that the Iraqis absolutely WILL slaughter their own civillians just so they can say we did it.
There's a very ugly logic to much that's happening over there.
Sure there's no uprising in the towns and cities... it'd be like having a conservative government (they suck, for those who aren't sure) in London and having the French invade us to depose that govt. Would I rise up against the conservatives? Hell no! I'd go kick French butt.
Sure the Iraqis are using civillians as human shields, not to mention every other cowardly and underhanded tactic possible. So what's surprising about that? If you're a 7 stone weakling and some 6 foot musclebound asshole picks a fight with you, you kick him in the nuts. It ain't honourable, but it's about the only chance you have to even the odds.
Blah blah blah... I could go on, but I think you get the picture. War's ugly and we aren't gonna walk away from this smelling of roses. The Iraqis won't thank us for this even when Saddam is removed, and the whole of the middle east will hate us. Chances are there'll be civil war there when we finally pull out, but fuck it... if you're gonna do a thing there's no sense in being half hearted about it. Saddam's an evil bastard who's only concern is keeping power at any expense. He needs taking out, and if doing that's gonna be ugly, so be it.
I guess what bothers me about this war more than anything isn't the senseless loss of life... (disgusting example of how self obsessed I am) it's that it's made me look at myself in a different way... how I view the inhabitants of another culture. I look at the behaviour of the Iraqis themselves and the arguments and attitude of all the other arab nations, and all I find myself thinking is "uncivilised, stupid, fucking savages."
I remember being in my teens, being a peace loving, tollerant kid who honestly believed you could solve any problem by simply talking it through logically. I was idealistic, and couldn't understand how anyone could hate anyone else just because they viewed the world differently.
I liked that person.
He's long gone, and that's sad.
Bomb the shit out of the fuckers.
*Shudder*
R.I.P civilised world, civilised people, civilised me.
Steve 11:11 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
HeheheAbout 30 mins ago BBC News 24 was reporting that they believed the Ministry of Information building in Baghdad may have been bombed. I knew this wasn't true as I was watching streaming video from the roof of that very building at that moment.
I emailed them with the url of the video stream, and what do you know, 5 mins later they were showing that exact same video stream on the show. Coincidence? Maybe, but it made me chuckle.
Labels: war
Steve 3:39 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
I've avoided talking about the war since it actually started since there's nothing I could say that hasn't already been said a billion times on tv.The net being a wonderful thing though, I've been watching various different news stations from across the globe, mostly just to see how the coverage differs.
I don't understand a single word that's said on Al Jazeera, but I did see the rather nasty video footage of dead US solders that they aren't showing on western tv. Bloody savages.
If you're curious to see how things are being reported on British tv, check out BBC News 24 on either Media Player or Real Player.
Labels: war
Steve 9:32 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Oh lookie. We're going to war? Gosh! No-one saw that one coming eh?I had to chuckle while watching the news just now. A reporter was talking about a group of anti-war protesters in London, and propped up against a fence behind her was a big colourful banner with the single word "PEACE" printed on it... except that... wait, it didn't say PEACE at all. Now either this person was an illiterate moron with even worse spelling than mine, or they were protesting at the PACE of something or other. Maybe they were at the wrong protest, and objected to the speed, or lack of, with regard to traffic in London.
Labels: war
Steve 8:53 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, March 13, 2003
I've been watching BBC News 24 for the past couple of days and find myself rather disturbed by the attitudes of certain American polititians and 'political experts' when interviewed in that channel's 'Hard Talk' show.When asked questions regarding the legality of an attack against Iraq without a UN mandate, the resposnse of one interviewee was "We're so powerful, with such a large military force, legality is basically irrelevant."
This seems to be a recurring theme just lately. America is so powerful, the rules don't apply. Another example is the American withdrawl of support for the new International Court that's been set up to try those guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes etc. America is doing deals behind the scenes with individual countries in an attempt to make americans exempt from tiral in this court.
What kind of message is this supposed to send? "Sure, you can try foreign war criminals, but if american soldiers commit attrocities, you can't touch them, because the rules don't apply to us."
Probably the most alarming thing I heard was last night. A congressman who claimed that while Al Qaeda was a terrorist organisation that needed to be dealt with, the IRA was a legitimate military organisation because they only attacked military targets (god only knows where he gets his information from) and had a genuine political grievance against the British Government. When this rule was applied to the Pailestinians having a genuine grievance against the Israelis occupying their teritory, he completely pooh poohed the idea.
The double standards in the attitudes being displayed rather make me sick, and the consistant disregard for the rules, or international law on the grounds that they don't apply to America... it's alarming to say the least. How far can you push such attitudes before all manner of illegal activities are conducted in the name of 'democracy and freedom'? Freedom for who? America?
I know this sounds like a simple case of american bashing, but it's not really as simple as that. I have many american friends... probably more than english friends, but on a national level, I'm deeply disturbed by the political stance of that 'great' nation... the arrogance that comes with military and economic might, and the fundamentalism that's increasingly seeping into political policy. There seems to be a growing belief that any non-democratic nation is a legitimate target of military, political or economic aggression. The support of Israel is largely down to them being a democratic state, regardless of the fact that they conduct all manner of unsavoury activities, flouting international law left and right. Do you suppose they'd recieve anything like the support they enjoy if they weren't a democracy?
Condesning all of that down to the simplest terms, how far can you push it before 'the promotion of freedom and democracy' becomes the oppression of anyone who disagrees with America?
Labels: war
Steve 12:22 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, March 07, 2003
It's occurred to me that some people (assuming anyone's even remotely interested) may not be entirely clear on my stance regarding the upcoming war.I've spoken out against Bush and Blair, stating that they have shown no real evidence to justify going to war, and consistantly ignored world and public opinion.
On the other hand, I can quite happily sit here and say the U.N. security council is an innefective if not completely worthless organisation that does little but provide a platform for pointless blathering and posturing.
So, am I a hawk or a dove?
Hehehe. I'm neither.
I guess looking at it honestly, I'm rather an amoral, if not immoral person. I can quite openly accept that the cases put forward by Bush and Blair are tenuous at best, and in truth offer little in the way of hard evidence to justify a war. However, I'm also fully aware of the fact that they're going to go to war whatever happens. So here's my position. Cut the bullshit, quit blathering and get on with it. Stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes in the vain hope that we're gonna buy your story and believe such an attack is justified. It isn't, but since it's gonna happen anyway, shut up and do it.
I'm tired of being so blatantly lied to by our polititians, but I'm also tired of listening to lame dumbass french and german twitterings. What's the point of waiting for several months to prove the inspectors won't be able to do their job? Stalling the inevitable just to say "we gave peace a chance" is entirely pointless and pathetic when it obviously doesn't have a chance, so either join in or at least shut up. Actually, no... just shut up.
No, I don't advocate war as an acceptable solution to anything, but acceptable is a fairly redundant word when applied to human nature in situations such as this. It's going to happen, so lets cut all the pretentions regarding 'acceptable' behaviour and actions and just get it over with.
Labels: war
Steve 8:43 PM [+] (0) comments
The tv's back.
*Breathes a sigh of relief*
Typically, the first thing I found myself watching was the news, more specifically, the U.N. Security Council meeting, following the Blix report.
Arguments regarding who's right and who's wrong aside, one thing rather struck me about this meeting, and all the others previous to it, and it's something that kinda leads me to question the effectivenes of such meetings in general.
These people don't actually talk to each other. The delegates aren't in a position to respond to what they've heard from other delegates speaking previous to them in that meeting... they simply read pre-written speaches, with no room for actually assesing what's been said already. One nation might provide key new imformation that should logically alter the view of other nations and/or their representatives, but as things work there, opposing points of view still get aired which completely ignore the facts just stated. Perhaps all perspectives are re-evaluated later by the various nations, but it seems that assesing the attitudes and opinions of each nation is problematic when working in such an unresponsive manner.
It's frustrating to watch.
All of these people are in the same room, they can all hear each other, but they are not actually communicating in realtime. They may not actually be ignoring each other, but no genuine assesment of information appears to happen.
Much as I may dislike Bush's attitude towards the U.N., I rather can see his opinion that the U.N. may become irrelevant.
Labels: war
Steve 5:26 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
It's just occurred to me that the weapons inspectors in Iraq are looking in entirely the wrong place.How do I come to this conclusion? Well... I was just reading through the short stories section of one of my websites, and chuckling away to myself as I read this one. Then I realised, seeing as how my site can be viewed by anyone in the world with a net connection, and how I'm obviously an internationally recognsed genius in the field of rodent nuclear weapons systems, it stands to reason that the Iraqis will have developed Intercontinental Nuclear Ballistic Hamsters, and heaven help us, maybe even the longer range kangaroo version.
So, Mr Blix, you heard it here first... go and check out all the pet stores and zoos. You'll find the weapons there.
Oh yes, watch the sky people. Those mice with strap on wings and rubber band powered propellors... are you SURE they work for the CIA?
Labels: war
Steve 1:25 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, February 16, 2003
I dunno how large or successful the peace rallies in other countries were yesterday, but between 1 to 1.5 million people converged in London yesterday to protest against the potiential war with Iraq, and in a country with a population of only 60 million, that's rather a lot.Seems to me, Tony Blair had better start paying attention, or he's gonna be out of a job somewhat sooner than he'd planned. What he's doing now may not be very democratic, but eventually, democracy will prevail.
Anyways, enough of that. Last night, Brigitte and myself went to visit a couple of friends, Penny and Ryan. Much fun was had as we discussed such various topics as farting, sex in unusual places, and who wears the trousers in a relationship. There's something quite charming about comparing notes with a couple who's relationship started in exactly the same way as ours, at more or less the same time, and indeed... on the same computer.
Labels: war
Steve 8:57 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Now, I don't much care for political blogs... in truth, they bore me senseless, but just this once, I'm gonna do something I wouldn't normally do, and state my views on the potential war with Iraq. I dare say none of this will be new to anyone, as it's mostly pretty obvious. I just feel like throwing my two pence worth in.First and foremost, and despite what the likes of George Bush and Tony Blair would have everyone believe, this (potential) war is not about Iraq supposedly having weapons of mass destruction, though I suspect Britain's reason for going ahead is enitrly different to that of America.
To quote George Bush "It's clear to me now that he (Sadam) is not disarming,"
Really? How exactly is it clear to him? Does he have a crystal ball? The weapons inspectors have found nothing, and he's obviously not prepared to wait for them to complete their inspections, so there has to be another motive.
For America, it's mostly about oil. After 9/11, Bush rather wants to distance himself from Saudi Arabia, since most of the terrorists who committed that atrocity were from there... so, what would be a good alternate supplier? Oh look... Iraq has lots of oil, no-one much likes them, and with all the fears of terrorism and terrorist supporting countries, it wouldn't take a great leap of imagination to trump up some excuse to invade them and take control of their oil. For sure, America won't simply take over Iraq and steal their oil, but it's a pretty safe bet they'll have the final say on who governs the country after Sadam's been toppled... the most likely candidates to succeed him obviously being those who'll offer America the best deal on oil.
There may be another possible reason behind Bush's urgency to go to war though, that being his general incompetence on the home front. Just like Maggie Thatcher in the 80s, things were looking pretty lousy on the domestic political scene, but the Falklands war pushed her popularity sky high and kept her in office for years to come. Bush is clearly taking a gamble here, hoping that a tough stance against an aparrently agressive nation will improve his standing. I dunno that this'll pay off though, `cause the last report I heard said 80% of Americans were opposed to a war against Iraq, at least without a UN mandate.
Britain's involvement, I think, is not quite as clear cut. It's not about the oil, and it's certainly not about any potential threat. Truth is, the reasons are probably mostly historic. Firstly, Britain still owes America a huge favour from WWII, with the so called 'Lend/Lease' arms deal. America basicly gave us tanks, and whatever other hardware we needed, to be paid back in whatever form was convenient... that turning out to be co-operation in military action (so it seems).
A second major reason is that Britain REALLY needs America, kind of like a big brother. Even after the break up of the British Empire, and with numerous countries around the world who hate our guts after we dominated them, expolited their resources and whatever, we still have a massive influence over world politics. Quite astounding when you consider how small a country this is, and hence how small our industrail strength is compared to many other nations. The reason is simple. We back up America whenever they ask, and they'll come to our aid should any other nation decide they've had enough of this annoying little terrier of a nation. "If you piss me off, I'll set my big brother on you."
We hope they would anyway... this hasn't been put to the test since WWII.
If there's another reason behind Briatain's involvement, it's a very basic and primitive one. Britain IS a warlike nation. We love a fight, and will gladly kick another nation's arse, just to show our troops are better than theirs.
Controversial? Almost certainly.
Overly simplistic? Maybe.
The truth? I think so, you may not... but I'll tell you this, the decision to go to war has already been made, and it has bugger all to do with anything the arms inspectors may or may not find in Iraq.
Do I believe this is a justifiable war? Hell no, but just like any other bloodthirsty immoral asshole, so long as it doesn't affect me, I'll lap up the free firework show on tv every night, without sparing a thought for the thousands of innocent people who'll suffer.
The simple truth is, humans as a species thrive on violence. The only real difference between us and a band of warring baboons is that we have bigger guns, and get to watch it live on tv.
A bigger question though is, will we actually win this war? I'm not so certain this will remain a war between Iraq and America/Britain + allies. If others join in opposition, and with the current atmosphere in many muslim nations, where they feel they're being oppressed beyond all reasonable tollerance, things may not turn out quite as people expect. I'm not saying the allied western nations will get their arses kicked, but things may get VERY messy.
Labels: war
Steve 12:12 PM [+] (0) comments
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