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President Bush
As anyone in the UK who has turned on a TV/radio, bought a newspaper etc will know Bush is in the middle of a state visit to the UK. This is costing lots in terms of police resources....but why are the media trying to report this event as if it's something that actually matters?
We have telephones - all of the important decisions will have been made over the 'phone before he even got here. Nothing more significant than Bush delivering a few sound bites in an attempt to help Blair will happen so what is so signficant about this visit.....? Anyone care to enlighten me? (Oh yes, and Bush will be making a commercial to aid his own election campaign....but a rant about the ridiculous nature of the funding of the American political system will have to wait).
Incidentally, the soundbite I've just heard concerning the need to protect security through the use of force fails to identify that that the protestors are not (in general) arguing that force is *never* justified as a means to achieve peace. Their arguments are more subtle - that in this particular case the use of force was not justifiable at the time it was used.
My own views on Iraq are that I think the war was the lesser of the two evils ((a) - letting Saddam carry on in power/UN sanctions remaining in place - that combination was doing untold damage to the Iraqui people, and (b) - a short, war not without civilian casualties) and can be justified on those grounds.
The pragmatist in me also sees it as an object lesson to Bush/Blair - just because you have the biggest army in the world, and just because you can go in and overthrow dictators doesn't mean you should unless you've got good reason for doing so and have some sort of plan for the future of the country. The lack of thought that appeared to have gone into planning for the creation of a democtratically elected Iraqi government before the war started strikes me as a huge mistake. America must not be allowed to forget the lessons of Vietnam, and hopefully Iraq is providing a useful reminder. Hearts and minds, people, hearts and minds.
Oh yes and to change the subject entirely I was very pleased with myself yesterday; I managed to reduce my inbox from 80ish to 14.
We have telephones - all of the important decisions will have been made over the 'phone before he even got here. Nothing more significant than Bush delivering a few sound bites in an attempt to help Blair will happen so what is so signficant about this visit.....? Anyone care to enlighten me? (Oh yes, and Bush will be making a commercial to aid his own election campaign....but a rant about the ridiculous nature of the funding of the American political system will have to wait).
Incidentally, the soundbite I've just heard concerning the need to protect security through the use of force fails to identify that that the protestors are not (in general) arguing that force is *never* justified as a means to achieve peace. Their arguments are more subtle - that in this particular case the use of force was not justifiable at the time it was used.
My own views on Iraq are that I think the war was the lesser of the two evils ((a) - letting Saddam carry on in power/UN sanctions remaining in place - that combination was doing untold damage to the Iraqui people, and (b) - a short, war not without civilian casualties) and can be justified on those grounds.
The pragmatist in me also sees it as an object lesson to Bush/Blair - just because you have the biggest army in the world, and just because you can go in and overthrow dictators doesn't mean you should unless you've got good reason for doing so and have some sort of plan for the future of the country. The lack of thought that appeared to have gone into planning for the creation of a democtratically elected Iraqi government before the war started strikes me as a huge mistake. America must not be allowed to forget the lessons of Vietnam, and hopefully Iraq is providing a useful reminder. Hearts and minds, people, hearts and minds.
Oh yes and to change the subject entirely I was very pleased with myself yesterday; I managed to reduce my inbox from 80ish to 14.