Obama sees the end of Osama

Osama in my slumber

Just before I fell asleep my Twitter time-line revealed Barack Obama was about to make an unusual Sunday statement and so my dreams were invaded by content broadcast by Al Jazeera concerning Osama bin Laden.

I eventually stirred up and the alertness that came was hit with the comprehension of my dreams, Osama bin Laden is dead.

A very evil man

It is a welcome development but it needs to be taken in context. This man was a very evil man whose Midas touch was death and destruction under the guise of an extreme form of religion that took its strains from Islam.

He found brotherhood amongst fellow religionists, usually sexually ascetic and repressed who were cajoled into giving up their lives for a paradise of debauched harems of virgins. With these bedazzled foot-soldiers he waged Jihad with impunity and unspeakable atrocity.

East Africa, Yemen, New York, Washington and spin-offs in Bali, Madrid and London, it was carnage like Armageddon and the man behind it every few months released videos to taunt and tease that he was still around – Catch me if you can.

The cost in life and property cannot be quantified in Afghanistan and Iraq, in some circles he could have been the precursor to the Anti-Christ, if a mere mortal can make destruction a global business you can only wonder about those who are destined to wreak biblical proportions of havoc untrammelled.

Justice is not served, revenge is

Amazingly, whilst he launched 9/11 from Afghanistan and was almost smoked out in Tora Bora he was found in a monumental edifice just North-East of the capital of Pakistan a classic case of hiding in plain sight.

I am not convinced justice is served, his actions changed our world that the rights, freedoms and liberties that many gave their lives for in the wars of the 20^th Century have systematically been rolled back in the blanket interests of safety and security, the world will never be the same again.

However, revenge has been taken, vengeance exacted and it is important that our celebration of his death especially amongst democratic nations should see this as the removal of a leader, a figurehead and an international nuisance, it would have been nigh on impossible to take him alive to face our courts and answer for the crimes he committed – we need to maintain that view of justice being served in that kind of structure.

Managing the fallout

An embarrassed Pakistan should have something to say about the unwanted guest that took residence in their country, as for the body that is in the custody of the United States in Afghanistan, he was shot in the head, he deserves no burial rites derived from the religion he professed to follow but besmirched with his actions and philosophy – there is a whole lot of rebuilding of systems, creeds, beliefs and reputations to be done.

He should never become a martyr and those who seek inspiration from his causes should begin to diminish and let our hope and future begin to take shape into a world that is safe, free, secure and less threatened by terror not forgetting the conflicts that allow for these extreme activities to take hold.

Palestine needs resolution, repressive regimes in the Arab world need to come to an end, some accommodation needs to be found for Iran, the Muslims should not find persuasion in the view that they are under siege.

The news today and the paralysis of analysis will for the moment be; Obama sees the end of Osama.

Mile-high monkey takes hat seat

Fist full of monkey

One would hope that this was not for real, but the incredible is now par for the course, it really has to be astonishingly miraculous to be surprising nowadays - it is impossible to shock anyone such that ones jaw dropping to the floor can be termed a rebellious response to conserving energy and body heat.

In this age of the war against terrorism and the paralysing paranoia of running the gauntlet of airport security one would think this was a science fiction dream.

Somehow, a man travelled from Lima, Peru to LaGuardia airport in New York with a few hours stopover in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his monkey (marmoset) pet under his hat without detection, till the animal came out for a breather during the second leg of his journey within the United States.

It would appear there was a time someone thought the swishing tail of the monkey was the man's ponytail.

Scanning voids

So much for security checks, X-Ray scanning and checked baggage, if a man could successfully go through customs checks without once having to doff his hat - it is no doubt a daring thing to do and no matter that charges are filed against the man, there was a complete lapse in checks at Peru and within the United States.

Supposedly, he was a passenger in transit in Florida and hence might not have had to go through stringent checks reserved for those entering the travel circuit from Florida, it is still amazing that no one noticed on the flight from Peru which would have been a good few hours.

A vector for terror

The greater concern however is the possibility that if this animal were a vector for some pathogenic organism, the conditions in a depressurised cabin for the hours of flight might have had the passengers in such danger graver than could be imagined - the Ebola virus or some simian-borne agent that could be so contagious and transmissible.

Seeking commonsense and comfort

Before we get ahead of ourselves, the monkey has now been handed over to the New York animal control officials and the man arrested. There is the plan to keep the monkey in quarantine for a month, but what if, the people on that flight had picked up something for which they should be in quarantine rather that walking the streets incubating secondary vectors of a disease?

Commonsense should prevail in this case, but the more serious matter here is that checks did not discover this possible terrorism opportunism and the consequences that could be too scary to narrate. Roamland Insecurity rules.

Deserving neither liberty nor safety

Losing the protection of our liberties

Sometimes I bewildered about who is becoming the extremist in this unceasing War on Terror or War on Terrorism, could it be the terrorists or our governments?

The indicators versus the reactions are just too outlandish for contemplation, one sometimes wonders if the terrorists have not now achieved well beyond the nominal goal of curtailing our freedoms and overrunning our liberties with impunity.

A few years ago, it was the shoe bomber that lead to security staff asking us to take off our shoes at the security screening posts, one would have thought we were about to enter a mosque.

Last August it was the alleged desire of some terrorists without passports or air tickets to take down transatlantic planes with everyday cosmetics and whilst an outright ban on cosmetics would have left us no different from women in Purdah, the inability to take through drinks might just eventually lead to the inability to use toilets on the plane, just in case the contact between bodily fluids and toilet disinfectants causes noxious fumes.

Thankfully, the ban on hand luggage was relaxed as sense eventually prevailed.

The vigilant public

So, a number of vehicles have been apprehended before their lethal cargo was detonated to create great havoc. None of the two vehicles in London were noticed by the security measures we have in place, rather, the public observed smoke coming out of one car and another had been towed away for wrongful parking.

Luck, rather that methodical data mining or some counter-terrorism measure sifting through yottabytes of data and CCTV footage got these culprits and nipped a possible carnage in the bud.

Out goes the argument for identity cards preventing terrorism; it is a consciously alert and observant community with clear social responsibilities enhanced by trust and NOT a nannying state that overcomes terrorism; our vigilance must be cultivated and nurtured to the good of society - they should not take advantage of the circumstance to and unwarranted suspicion in our multi-cultural communities.

However, because one such vehicle approached the airport in Glasgow by ramming into the entrance as a burning object, we cannot now approach airports in our cars - there is a car ban. The drop-off/pick-up culture has met a sudden demise, as our cautious application of preventative measures encroach seriously on our rights of access and movement in the quest for some temporary safety.

The perception of temporary safety

Generally, we would all acquiesce to this curtailment whilst the Home Secretary goes into overdrive enacting new laws to protect us by denying us a few more of the rights people spilt blood for in the 20^th Century.

One cannot expect a commonsense approach to the threat of terrorism as the authorities are caught in a no-win situation - to do nothing is to be careless and when something is done, it is irrational but made to look sensible.

There is probably an amusing perspective to all this, which is how the threat of terrorism is able to create governmental hysteria or paralysis coupled with paranoia whilst the government tries to create a calming atmosphere for the general public.

If airports and aircraft are really the soft targets for terrorists, these bans are hardly working, we should just ground the planes and tell passengers to stay at home - even the Carbon Nazis would rejoice that the sudden reduction of carbon pollution.

But like the oft-attributed and oft-misquoted saying of Benjamin Franklin in 1759 - "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - how that rings truer today than then.

So, our governments give us temporary safety from terrorist threats by untrammelled curtailment of our essential liberties, we find that we are neither in safety nor in liberty and frankly, we deserve neither.

Who is winning this war?

Numbers on lifts and people

Which floor please? 13

You probably have heard it many times before; there usually is no 13^th Floor in hotels, well, you do need to be in such a building to see that for sure.

Basically, superstition and irrational thinking is the not the exclusive reserve of uncivilized Barbarians or savages in the deep jungles of some faraway land, ever-present in the hub of the lands of liberty, freedom and godlessness, builders would not deign to number a floor 13.

In fact, One Canada Square, one of the somewhat imposing business offices in London does have a thirteenth floor, but it is uninhabited, rather it contains only air-conditioning equipment.

Well, I happen to be lodged on the 14^th Floor of the Novotel Hotel beside the British Library and there is no 13^th Floor. Oops! I let the cat out of the bag, I'm in London till tomorrow.

One of the lifts at Novotel Euston

Numbered people

This use of numbers also applies to another interesting but disturbing scenario; the Time Magazine takes us on a journey through a counter-insurgency raid just outside Baghdad where they had once cleared out insurgents but failed to keep free.

It transpires that they divided the village into numbered sectors and then issued a curfew or clampdown on the village; however, after they had written the sector numbers on the backhands of the women and the back of the necks of the men.

One would suppose this came out of the doctoral thesis of General Dr. David Petraeus on counter-insurgency measures.

The pictures did show distress amongst the family depicted, though, they sensibly did not append the numbers to the ladies necks because that would have involved undressing them by taking off their scarves. The indignity of it all was still evident.

History returning nicely

It is probably essential and expedient to ensure that none of the villagers are caught in other sectors of the town when there is a clampdown.

The writing is probably in indelible ink which would wash off, if the water supply is there in a few days since it would have been an overkill to hire Halliburton to tattoo the numbers on the people.

One cannot help but realize that numbers were part of the game in Holocaust Germany, the victims can still show you the number identifiers - amazing how history just creeps up on you without warning and because this is the War on Terror, it is not the same, only very different; thus, will go the argument.

Cheney has fled the country

I heard a large boom

And that is what the headlines should have read, how very convenient, he was moved to a bomb shelter briefly when the men he sent to war have to run the gauntlet of bombs, snipers, attacks and dangers indescribable.

Then we are told he heard a loud boom, well, I would wager, that the loudest noise he has ever heard of war or peace apart from when he almost shot a fellow hunter to smithereens.

This is just utterly outrageous, gone are the days when those who called men to war also had to be on horseback in the heat of the war, they had to be generals schooled on understanding that war is no game where belligerence and bluster is paramount and along with protecting ones skin.

So the Teleban when after him to kill him as he visited Afghanistan unannounced; having been to other countries including Australia where he gave praise as the international communities' recognition of Australia's steadfastness in the wars on terrors.

Wars on terrors

I say wars, because it is not clear if America is concluding one in Afghanistan, winning one in Iraq, preparing one against Iran, exacerbating one in Lebanon, praying for one in Syria or content with the one in Palestine - what a mess like Humpty Dumpty and all the king's men cannot put it all together again.

However, the Taleban must have good intelligence to have in the short notice of his being at the Bagram Air Base sent a message of death to the Angel of De'ath - between 9 to 14 people perished for his sake and nary an American tear would be shed for them because the news and anger would be levied at the Taleban for threatening the life of the vice President of the mighty United States of America, the sacrifice of a few locals proves the point.

The man who won five deferments when his generation went to war to die for a principle their nation held supreme has won a deferment from expiration too, even mercy abounds for the unjust.

Well, Mr. Cheney has since left the country.

These are no men of peace

What could have been

If it is true that in 2003, Iran offered the United States a deal that today might have helped quell the problems we see in Iraq and it was rejected outright, then we do live in unfortunate times.

It also means that all measures should be taken to bring maximum oversight and analysis to the proposed plan to escalate the battlefront or troop “surge” in Iraq as presented by President George W. Bush.

It is beyond belief that the two heads of the regime in America who in their youth, by every sleight of hand avoided serving their country in the thick of war are now the purveyors of the ignition to what might possibly be World War III.

There is no doubt that the consequence of rejection is the meat-grinder that Iraq has become, it is the graveyard of some who have unlike their leaders offered to serve their country in a war that no one wanted, at least, not I. On reflection, what America is asking Iran for now, is what Iran offered then, only this time, Iran does not have to care about responding.

Hating Iran with a passion

Surely, there must be something about the complete recalcitrance of these men that they just cannot deign to open diplomatic channels to either Iran or Syria, seeing Iraq, the country they have occupied since 2003 already has diplomatic relations with both countries.

It does not augur well for world peace that we cannot find men in leadership who can temper their belligerence with a modicum of restraint in view of the sacrifices they have demanded of others, that they themselves declined.

The question becomes, what has Syria or Iran done to George W. Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney? Because every right-thinking person, would be left aghast at this new development.

Making up for the faults of youth

However, it may be that having been stung by the seeming “cowardice” reference most especially to Dick Cheney’s non-military record, or is it a record number of deferments from being drafted to Vietnam (for the record, none of the deferments were illegal), they now have to display a quality of bravado, braggadocio or worse still brigandage to make up for their follies of youth.

This chauvinism to military power and expedition leading to the plunder of life and peace in Iraq and its environs is of great concern, if indeed, this news is true, the personification of power corrupting absolutely has another two years in the White House.

Our war on terror would now be for the Congress to consider regime change.

War on terror - Where suspects have no recourse

Verify before pulling the trigger

The reporting of news does get to me as nothing seems to be definitive and a lot seems to be assumptive.

Now we hear that suspected Al Qaeda elements have been attacked and bombed out on the border between Somalia and Kenya, so, it would appear, suspects would be dead before we probably confirm that people other than terrorist elements have been killed.

If one person is being targeted and many more are being wiped out, the justification begins to find no basis in good humanitarian analysis.

In Iraq, we also hear that alleged insurgents were attacked and killed by Iraqi and coalition forces, we might well find out something to the contrary, no one can tell.

We can change the popular saying of Ronald Reagan and say, “Distrust, but verify” – however, hawks would contend that leaving suspects or alleged terrorists to dig in their trenches could lead to the preventable loss of Iraqi and coalition forces lives.

My concern really is predicated on this pre-emptive propensity to obliterate with overwhelming force using suspect and sketchy intelligence before ascertaining that what was intended has been verifiably fulfilled. Friendly fire comes to mind, and the only friendliness is the opportunity to cover up an error that has involved killing comrades in arms.

Is there a ‘Nam brewing in Mess-O-potamia?

Is there a ‘Nam brewing in Mess-O-potamia?

I just visited Technorati and found that someone for Vietnam had linked to a blog I posted about Bush taking the draft and finally reporting for duty in Vietnam.

Looking at the old post, I had a wry smile when I looked at my lame attempt of poetry that many might think I was not gazing in a crystal ball but doing crystal itself.

Like bean porridge, some like it hot, some like it cold and some like it in the pot nine days old – here is a rehashed blog, in the pot hardly two months old.

The unpalatable comparisons

My crystal ball does not like the cold, condensation on the inside of the glass means I may not be able to see things clearly.

However, a window into the future appears, I hit the streets in my haggard witch costume, wailing like a banshee.

Woe, woe, three times woes, I see in Mesopotamia, the shame of Saigon; as peace finds no respite in a land brought to destruction on the flight of a lie.

The many who were carried out having arrived on their feet, would not the maidens back home anymore countenance.

We shall leave soon and no sooner than the mess in Mesopotamia has overwhelmed us with more shame than the retreat from Saigon.

Hear, O Dubbiyew, your Saigon has come for the King of Terror has for his kingdom Iraq chosen.

Phew! That crystal does take you places, in the light of new developments for the troop surge, the death of President Gerald Ford who oversaw the withdrawal from Saigon and questioned the validity of the Iraqi war.

More so, in readiness for the speech that the President intends to give on Wednesday.

Saddam was innocent of 9/11

A killing less amusing

So, they have killed Saddam Hussein and so what next?

There is no need to gloss it over as an execution, it was a killing, and a sort of executive homicide; the hanging rather than a firing squad would not make the death any less a miscarriage of due process.

Saddam Hussein for all his faults and misdeeds simply exercised the opportunity he had in leadership to perpetrate control over his people.

He terrorised the few to maintain control over the many, this is not to belittle the sufferings of those who paid the ultimate price as subjects in Saddam´s rulership, but this man is no greater tyrant than Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet, Pol Pot, Idi Amin or Pinochet, none of whom was subjected to the kangaroo court show trial that lead to his condemnation.

The lies of war

Let us examine the facts again; Iraq was invaded because some analyst put it into the head of some world leaders that there was tenuous link between Saddam and Al Qaeda with regards to the September 11^th 2001 attacks.

Then, the scare of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” lead to regime change and the introduction of democracy in the quest to enfranchise the Middle East and democratise radically Islamic lands with a brand of Western democracy and capitalism.

All these grand plans have brought us to the point where the US Army on the day Saddam Hussein’s sentence was affirmed, had lost exactly the same number of soldiers in combat as those who perished in the 9/11 attacks – 2,973 in all; as the country is on the verge of disintegrating into civil war.

It is now all evident that Saddam had no contact or interest in Al Qaeda and their machinations, neither did he have any part or knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, in fact, he was quite well contained by the sanctions (despite the oil-for-food) and no-fly zones, albeit, dissidents painted fantasy stories of his activities which the West swallowed and trusted without verifying.

First order hypocrisy

They who stood in judgment over Saddam should and would have a lot to answer for when history pens these events for posterity and the study of world government, where the ascendancy of democracy, the prevalence of market economies and globalisation, the collapse of communism, the rise of fundamental Islam and the politics of energy supply have left us all in a precarious situation than we have ever been since civilisation began to have meaning to all.

The crimes that Saddam committed against humanity are in consonance with those who now try to exculpate themselves from his tyranny having aided him morally and materially through the years.

The Iran-Iraq War

The Invasion of Iran between the years, 1980 – 1988 could not have been done without the help of America who were smarting from the Iranian Revolution who had American citizens held for 444 days. He was aided with weapons and logistics to obliterate Iran in which millions of lives were lost; he was a tool and war that extended beyond the borders of the self-same activity.

Halabja-Dutch connection

The Crushing of the Kurdish Uprising in 1987 – 1998, just towards the end of the Iran/Iraq war which included the unfortunate Halabja gassing of over 5,000 had a Dutch businessman as the source of the gas, obviously, all parties knew that the gas would not be used in lighting stoves.

Kuwait keeping the oil price low

The Occupation of Kuwait in 1990/1991 leaves many complicit, the Genesis of this was in the oil glut that Kuwait was exacerbating, and meaning Iraq was not getting enough funds for their oil after a debilitating 8 year war. The many warnings Iraq sent to Kuwait were ignored and other Middle Eastern countries sympathised but did nothing to act in favour of Iraq, the West would not have wanted oil prices to increase substantially, however, Saddam’s desperate actions to help his country get funds by annexing Kuwait, created the desired effect of raising the price of oil for a while, a situation of unintended consequences for the West and the start of the first Iraq invasion.

All talk and no support

The Crushing of the Kurdish and Shia uprisings in 1991, leaves much to be desired of the coalition that forced Iraq out of Kuwait. They goaded the people into clamouring for the overthrow of their leader but did nothing to support the uprising. With foreign armies out of the way, as any leader would do, he unleash terror on the uprising and crushed it whilst the West looked on having secured a security footing in the Middle East for the control of oil resources.

No care for the environment

The destruction of the Iraqi Southern Marshes from 1991 to 2001 was environment habitat vandalism that destroyed the livelihoods of the Marsh Arabs, making them refugees in neighbouring countries, if we had paid as much attention to the destruction of this habitat as we do of other animal species, maybe a lot more would have been done to prevent this.

There is no doubt that Western machinery would have help bring this about, despite the fact that we hated Saddam we wanted the contracts that paid huge sums of money.

Repressed and distressed

Finally, there was the internal repression of the Iraqi people by the cabal of Saddam’s kith and kin, he was tried for the killing of 148 from Dujail out of the possibly 300,000 that lost their lives.

None of these would have happened without the support of those who now rejoice at his condemnation and execution, most especially in the White House.

However, the farce of this whole event would be the posthumous trial of Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity, now Iraq has been know for a lot of precedents, but flogging a dead horse is not the going to win any races just as a dead Saddam would not have opportunity to defend himself if the trial would be in anyway just.

Martyr or healing?

What Iraq needs is to convert this travesty of a court into a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to find the truth and consider amelioration or compensation for the crimes of the state against its citizens.

If this trial does continue, it would be the birth of a martyr to a cause we have condemned but cannot control and in the end, never has an endeavour to war on a suspect purpose yielded so much loss for a goal that seems unattainable – America will not leave Iraq with its pride intact and the death of Saddam would not offer them the moral ground to justify the situation we have so far witnessed in Iraq.

The mess in Mesopotamia is America’s doing because of 9/11, but whilst Saddam who had nothing to do with it hangs from the gallows, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar Mohammed remain alive to deal terror like they did before – why are the real criminals still free now that the distraction of Saddam is over?

Some chronological material was acquired from articles in the Daily Telegraph of the 30^th of December 2006.

All warfare is based on deception

That fateful day

Let us really break this war on terror down into its fundamentals and understand what really happened to us after the ninth day of September 2001.

A number of foreigners mostly of Saudi origin had over months before the attack been learning how to fly planes in flying schools in America, a rather expensive hobby to have but generally inconspicuous as part of a terror plan.

The important thing was that they had already gained access to America and when they regrouped, they boarded planes that were flying inter-state in America; none were intercontinental because they wanted to wreak havoc on American soil.

On that fateful morning, they hijacked four planes, two flew into the twin towers, one into the Pentagon, the fourth which probably was on its way to the Capitol or the White House crash-landed in Pennsylvania with the convenience of the talk of heroism from passengers and crew of the plane than the possible shooting down of the same on authority of the American government.

The words leading to war

This tragedy of that day left 2,973 dead and 24 declared missing a majority of who were Americans. The President first made a broadcast to the nation that day to comfort the American People, prioritise the issues of rescue, help and succour, then stressed the need to return to normalcy in families, in the federal agencies and financial markets – This was the beginning of the making of the Bush presidency.

Nine days on, on the 20^th of September 2001, the President addressed a Joint Session of Congress and the American People outlining a number of points, the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security to be run by the governor of the state where the fourth plane crash landed – Tom Ridge, he also demanded that the Taliban hand over all terrorists of the Al Qaeda clique and give Americans access to all terrorist training camps in Afghanistan to ensure they was not one terrorist left in Afghanistan. This is a thinly veiled sovereignty issue on analysis.

Picking at a the speech

The speech was a rallying call and the sounding of defiance in the light of this atrocious attack and a number of quotes stand out in the speech.

“Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen”. They are still ongoing and the cost now exceeds the number of lives lost on American soil, but that does not matter, they have been lost in foreign lands fighting terror.

“What is expected of us? I ask you to live your lives, and hug your children”. However, we would change your lives with the doctrine of fear and threat to emasculate your freedoms and liberties – thinking aloud.

“I ask you to uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them”. Does this cover Guantanamo Bay, Extraordinary Rendition and CIA Secret Prisons or Unwarranted Surveillance? – Thinking aloud, again.

“But this country will define our times, not be defined by them. As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror”. Speak volumes without need for additional commentary.

A date in Kabul

It was obvious when the Taliban at first did not respond to the President’s demands on religious grounds and then vacillated about giving up Osama bin Laden and even offered to extradite him to some neutral state, they sincerity was suspect and there was no further recourse than to go to war to capture the leaders of Al Qaeda and punish the Taliban.

In general, global opinion was on the side of America to seek the annihilation of Al Qaeda and consummate regime change where the Taliban had become a totalitarian theocracy without any of the trappings of 20^th Century civilisation and a handbook of rules that would have made the Spanish Inquisition look like a kindergarten finger-painting class.

That war ended without the capture of Osama bin Laden of Al Qaeda or Mullah Mohammed Omar of the Taliban, they are still at large 5 years on, they are definitely America’s most wanted fugitives, and we have more problems in the world than to confer on them the epithet of the World’s most wanted fugitives.

Now that we’ve done Afghanistan

The main success of the war in Afghanistan is the uprooting of the Taliban regime who recently have been in insurgency leading to a call from NATO for more troops and equipment.

A fragile democracy exists in Afghanistan but that regime hardly has full control of its territorial limits and in many areas warlords run autonomous and tyrannical leadership over their local citizenry – it can hardly be called a roaring success.

Besides, the war dispersed both Taliban and Al Qaeda personnel who could have crossed into the tribal lands of Waziristan in Pakistan.

The prime objective of the Bush administration from the onset was to prevent another attack on American soil at all costs and this is how that was executed.

The American People would have required that the Taliban be defeated in Afghanistan that was accomplished, however, to be able to fight terrorists overseas rather than in America, a staging ground is required to concentrate terrorist manpower and resources.

Seeking a new terrorist haven

Afghanistan could no more be engaged as a host to that scenario, Pakistan had aligned with America in their war on terror so they were exempt, Iran had a kind of reformist regime and engaging them would have been inflammatory. However, there was unfinished business in Iraq, as it transpired the decision to attack Iraq was probably made within 2 days of 9/11.

In principle, if America were to attack Iraq on the basis of the pre-emptive war doctrine, or under the supporters of terrorism collective blanket and the weapons of mass destruction pretext, they would have carte blanche to run over the country, however, one unforeseen consequence is that it has now become a cauldron of terrorism with Americans engaged to dealing with an Iraqi insurgency and a thriving Al Qaeda murder machine.

It should then not be surprising that American soil has not been attacked since 9/11, there is no need to; the terrorists are still killing Americans as well as innocent Iraqis in Iraq. Iraqis have paid a larger price moving from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein to a pseudo-civil war where probably over 40,000 lives have been lost.

The supposed sham of a democracy that they have would require the strong arm of coalition support for years to come, the jury is out on if this experiment of democratising the Middle East would work, at least Vladimir Putin pointed said in the presence of Mr Bush in July, Russia does not want that kind of democracy. No country should aspire to that kind of democracy either.

What lies did for Iraq

Three and a half years into the war in Iraq the death toll continues to rise and this situation did not temper the resolve of America and Britain to restrain Israel from another loss of 1,000 Lebanese and 150 Israeli people due to American policies over the 5 years.

We now learn like we all knew before that Saddam Hussein had no links with Al Qaeda, no Al Qaeda operative met with any Iraqi official, there were no weapons of mass destruction, Iraq was not building a nuclear bomb and neither had they ordered yellow cake from Niger.

Mr Bush contends that Saddam Hussein was aiding suiciders (sic), let us review that issue again, suicide bombers having committed their atrocities in Israeli towns were identified, then Israel instituted a collective punishment policy of destroying the homes of property of the suicide bomber’s survivors.

In some cases, these suicide bombers owned nothing, but this punishment as a result of their act brought loss, anguish and destitution on their family and relations. There probably is a case for considering this act a deterrent, but conversely it can also be an effective recruitment tool for a new terrorist.

What Saddam Hussein did was to compensate those who had suffered loss for the actions of others and probably they were not in anyway culpable and were entirely innocent, whilst some might twist that into sponsoring terrorism, it could be argued that this was preventing the suffering of innocent people and the creation of a vengeance syndrome.

The premise of war

As Sun Tzu, the Chinese mathematician says in The Art of War on military strategy – “All warfare is based on deception” – Iraq is no less an example of how we have been lied to, cajoled, hoodwinked, robbed and disposed by evidence that turns out to be false at best and fabricated at worst.

Mr Bush and Mr Blair already have their places in history; it is unlikely they would be treated kindly when we look at the big picture of the New World Order in the 21st Century.

References

CNN.com - Senators: CIA dismissed Saddam-al Qaeda ties before war

Saddam 'had no link to al-Qaeda'

Senate: Saddam saw al-Qaida as threat

A dossier of lies to pursue the Iraqi war

The raid on Peking, London

Duck but not in Peking

Having just ordered Peking Duck in the local Chinese restaurant on a night out with friends and family, one would really have been put out that the only duck that became the highlight of that outing would have been the act of ducking under the table as rioting and terrifying terror police raided the restaurant to nab suspected, wait for it, logistical support to terrorism.

Somehow, through intelligence and surveillance, rather that raid the homes and other more private meeting points of these people, they went for the spectacular, hit them with their guard let down at a vulnerable but very public social meeting place, this no doubt saves a lot of money, rather than concerted raids all over the place.

It is however nice to know that so-called terrorism suspects have an international palate.

Probably not that smart

It might however be that the raid was conducted to establish association amongst groups of people and alliances, something discrete photography would have done, since they are still going to visit the homes of the arrested persons to dig for evidence.

Now, I have no problems with the need to put as many resources as possible into ensuring that we do not have another terrorist mishap like we did on July the 7^th 2006, but, the way this is barging into our way of life with the premise that the little discomfiture of the few helps the convenience of the many is flawed logic.

What is to say, another vulnerable public gathering place like a mosque, church, bowling alley, ice rink or lido is not on the list of some smart aggregating detective in cahoots with the police bean counter?

Worst still, some social activities like weddings and burials are going to lose their veneers of solemnity as we all suspect everyone around us who attempts to show any signs of life.

Suffer for the offer

So, when British Airways launched a television advertisement for World Offers, their seemingly cheap air travel offers, I thought, for all the fuss of not being able to carry my lipstick or having to dangle my tampons at Heathrow before boarding my flight and considering a decent sized paperback might have to be split in 2 to fit into those sizing contraptions, the deal must be so good to assuage the pain of the customs/security check.

As the fifth anniversary of September the 11^th approaches, expect the bizarre, the atrocious and the scandalously unacceptable as we fight our fear of the fear of the fear of terror without discerning the link between what we do and how that sometimes feeds into the causes of terrorism.

My contribution to the war on terror - suspicion

Getting on a first class coach

Suddenly, I have found that I am being subconsciously programmed into the mindset of the war on terror as subjective analysis and profiling upset my peace of mind as I travel from place to place.

On my return from Brussels, I had the unfortunate situation of not travelling light which meant I could not move between coaches that easily.

Unlike the German or French trains, the platforms for Belgian trains in the Netherlands or Belgium are not signposted to signify what part of the train has the first class carriages which are usually at one end, so one has to stand in the centre and then run either way as the train arrives to the right end.

I got on, reclined my seat and dozed off as I usually do when I get on any moving vehicle where I am not the driver.

Passengers from hell and beyond

When we got to Antwerp a group of people got on, probably eight in number all adult from middle-aged to probably pension age.

The older men had dulcet sounding tones to their conversation, the middle-aged ones were like claxons at full blast and the women were like banshees shrieking at a ghoulish congregation of fearsome festivities in a cemetery at some utterly forsaken place.

I prayed they had second class tickets, hoping the ticket conductor would move them on, but no, they had paid to be in company and be completely inconsiderate of other passengers.

Then one of their number started playing with phone tones at peak volume, at which point, I should have gotten up and shouted some abuse at them, but someone else beat me to it, it only helped the situation a little.

Crude profiling praying for action

Then all this disturbance was done in a foreign language I could not understand, it was probably Turkish or Turkic and then I suddenly had a kindred feeling with those who had two Asians thrown off a plane travelling from Malaga to Manchester and I just could not be objective about it.

If only we could get the conductor to throw these people off at the next minor train stop for not conforming to accepted first class passenger conduct and speaking a foreign language to the inconvenience of us all.

Unusual behaviour feeding suspicion

Then when going to church yesterday, some four Moroccans got on the metro and rather than sit down considering the carriage was half-empty they were walking up and down the length of the coach without any order to whatever they were doing.

That really made many of us uncomfortable, could they be planning something like a mugging on the train or some dastardly terrorist act?

Once again, I felt like calling the police to see into what they were up to and get them off the train.

What is acceptable anyway?

Why can’t people just board public transport with the modicum of decency to behave in a generally unsuspicious and civil manner?

My fear is that I am slowly getting assimilated into a mindset that suspects everything and gets weary of people if they look or act differently, the problem is I can easily fall into the category of someone who looks different, and in desperate situations would I also get betrayed on needless suspicion and by atrocious bigotry?

This war on terror does make everyone vulnerable in these uncertain and interesting times.

Daytime television a cure for current news

Cannot stand the news anymore

Even I cannot believe it; I have not sought, desired or watched any news for almost a week. It is strange, I am your news junkie doped up on an overdose of every snippet of news from all the networks, especially with a digital channels that give me access to at least 10 stations including Al Jazeera.

I can only attribute my lack of interest in the news to the gnawing propaganda machinery that has slanted the required objective assessment of issues in the Middle-East and the way global leadership conveniently tags every legitimate aspiration to self-determination as part of the war against terror.

The meaning of the war on terror

In fact, we can redefine the war against terror as any situation where America and the West have no immediate financial gain as their interests are threatened by people who have another perspective to the issue.

This is because this broad definition is what is happening in practice, each issue is assessed in some self-interest monetary terms or the ability to exert hegemony to emasculate other nation states.

Nowadays, suspicion is enough cause for proof of guilt as is the case of Iran’s nuclear experiments.

The peace of apathy

It allows Lebanon to be leveled in the quest to humiliate Hezbollah militarily in a 19^th Century strategy that believes in military solutions to what is essentially a historical situation that needs bold diplomatic moves that take full account of the affected people.

Anyway, the news becomes staple that creates apathy, as if I now care about how many rockets land anywhere or the collateral damage counted in innocent lives extinguished in the facelessness of an American precision weapon or some Syrian-technology missile.

It is obvious, this is no Six-day-war and there would be no winners in this fracas; the reoccupation of Lebanon would entrench the forces that Israel wants to uproot, but, who is to say Israel does not like living dangerously.

Is Judah also Israel?

Somehow, I am coming to the view that the situation in the Middle-East cannot continue as it is, people have striven to plant the land of Israel within the confines of what was the smaller kingdom of Judah – the more this happens the more it appears like an aberration.

Biblical scholars had better start dusting their biblical history and ancient cartography.

I would suggest that there would be most likely, like in the ancient times, be another dispersal of the Jews – etymology of Diaspora - before they are resettled again in places that might not bear any semblance to what we have today.

Those given to eschatology had better read the signs of the times again and look for deeper interpretation of prophecy – Peace, will not come to Israel on the edge of a sword or the tips of sophisticated weapons.

They hate our freedoms

We are gathered here to fight

When President Bush addressed the Joint Session of Congress and the American People in the aftermath of the terrorist strike of September the Eleventh 2001, all the civilised world was at one with America in compassion, in sympathy and in agreement.

We all could not afford to live in a world where a threat of this sort could approach suddenly one ordinary morning and wreak so much destruction in life and the symbols of a nation’s might.

This statement then became the rallying call to go after those terrorists, hunt them down and wipe them off the face of the earth.

“Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”[1]

This is what we all hold dear and I list them in order.

+ We are a democracy

+ We have freedoms

+ We have the freedom of religion

+ We have the freedom of speech

+ We have the freedom to vote

+ We have the freedom to assemble

+ We have the freedom to disagree with each other

This all constituted the galvanising force of the War on Terror that has taken troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which are bordering on failed states despite the progress in democratic institutions.

The freedom to lose freedom

However, looking at the world today and the War on Terror we might find that we have become part of that target.

Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the speech that Dick Cheney gave yesterday when he condemned the press fro revealing that the US has been trawling the SWIFT for international transactions that might involve terrorists. [2]

We are given the notion that this activity lead to the capture of Hambali the notorious terrorist involved in the Bali bombings.

That itself is of some value, but if that is the only terrorist transaction that has been successfully pursued to a conclusion since 2001; albeit after the fact - then the War on Terror had already been lost and this transaction spoofing only helps to clear up the carnage - one would wonder what other means the terrorists use to move money globally.

There are many systems of moving money most especially using Western Union or Moneygram where sums running into billions would not even reflect on any spook radar.

Playing into the enemy’s hands

But, that is beside the point, Mr Cheney would have us believe that this operation was within the law of the land and was legitimate having tried without success to prevent this information from being published.

The further assertion that these secret activities of the United States government in prosecuting the war on terror from extraordinary rendition through the NSA eavesdropping to this filching or fishing through global transactions is playing into the enemy’s hands.

Bladderdash!

I would tell you what is playing into enemy hands – the fact that in a democracy we have the kind of transparency that would make the German Gestapo look like a window box.

The fact that we trumpet this who issue of freedoms and secretly ride rough-shod over these democratically assured freedoms on the premise of protecting the people from some undefined evil.

The fact that our freedom of religion and belief systems is usurped; to galvanise a political base whilst, dividing all others.

The fact that the freedom of speech in revealing clandestine operations of government in the public interest is railed against but the same people are culpable in revealing the identity of secret agents.

The fact that the democratically exercised will of the people of Palestine is ignored. They elected a government less favoured in the eyes of the West, and this has lead to their greater impoverishment.

And though we have the freedom to assemble, we do not have the freedom to disagree with the government without being called names.

Those are the things that play into the enemy’s hands and I am beginning to wonder who really hates our freedoms.

References

[1] President Declares "Freedom at War with Fear"

[2] Money-tracking leak angers Cheney