Public Address - Club Politique (Home)

Soothing [Gin and] Tonic | Aug 14, 2006 17:53

This blog was always going to go one of two ways. I could either talk about the recent hoopla in England, or talk about the dangers of hitch-hiking. The first plan was to toss a coin and see how I'd go, but then I thought I wasn't going to let some pesky random chance like the rolling of a dice decide my fate for me. We get to make choices in democracies, and damn it, I'm exercising my right to say, "No!".

Good ol' Angry Islam. You just can't shake those buggers can you? Doubtless the powers that be will be denying any link between British Middle-East policies and these angry young men, but hey, a scratched record is just a lazy man's communications plan. At first I was suspicious the whole she-bang amounted to a marketing plan by Coke, you know, to force people to have to drink only their products on planes, but then realised that was just a random and paranoid delusion.

In the end I just settled on being satisfied in labelling 'munters' all the chickhawk types running around with the waving of the arms. What the weekend has established again is that we in fact have less to fear these days that we did in the time before 911. Why? Because back then no-one listened to the spooks. It's well-established that 911 occurred because the threat was not taken seriously. These days though? You can guarantee that any angry young man who decides to strike a blow against the people demolishing Iraq and Lebanon will be arrested and likely locked up.

The upshot? Less fear, more trust in the security guys. You know, the guys paid to be paranoid.

Meanwhile, we get interesting little stories in the papers like this one, which claims that Bush gave the green light to the Israelis several months ago. Why? As a practice round for knocking out Iran's nukes. Ever think that we should maybe have someone watching this guy as well? Previous reports have Bush giving the go-ahead only after the IDF was already in action. I think there's likely more to this story than you'd expect.

Closer to home and with our own concerns, I know that right-wingers and chickenhawks like to take the piss out of 'lefties' and 'socialists' because of the preoccupation with 'root causes', and to be honest that one kinds of pisses me off too. Not as much as the constant carping about 'socialists', mind you. Guys, no-one has taken socialism seriously for decades... And 'root causes' tends to overlook that much conflict is very much rooted in the here and now.

There is no root cause for a pissed off youngster who sees an injustice occurring and has no way to express their anger. Injustice such as the levelling of Falluja under the cover of the Olympic Games. These people just see that their voices are ignored and they become increasingly disenfranchised. Of course, this leaves open the question of why they chose violence, but that's another matter. Most of of the hundreds of thousands ignored before the great search for WMDs in Iraq haven't taken up weapons. Maybe there's more to it then. Maybe being called a 'Paki' and disparaged by every white-trash cock in England could be a reason for it?

Who knows. Whatever the reason, they shouldn't be resorting to finding extremely inventive ways of blowing people up.

It does make me wonder though. Is there a terrorist think-tank somewhere?

Abdullah: We need a new angle... You know, something that just says.. "wow, those terrorist guys really mean business!"

Saddam: Yeah, I'd like to be able to show the boss something that'll really turn some heads you know, but... I'm just not feeling inspired.

Abdullah: [Sigh...] Yeah... When I signed up to this Jihad thing, I thought there would be more travel, you know? And more chicks.

Saddam: What about that trip to the fatherland in August?

Abdullah: Oh, too hot you know, I get thirsty just thinking about it. Pass me that water-bottle will you?

Saddam: Waitaminute....

It's a good thing we don't have to worry about these guys. Big on ideas, poor on execution. Well, that was a bad pun, but you get the idea. Pity to have to screw travel up for years to come though. Which kinda makes me think they're onto a win-win situation for them. Plot works, big drama. Plot foiled, big drama.

Might be time to get the 'root cause' to finally make peace with it's neighbours.

PS. I am humbled in my piss-taking abilities. Hat tip to Grabthar's Hammer

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Meditation on Freedom | Aug 08, 2006 22:10

This blog started out as a little rant about the events unfolding in the Middle East, but then I figured that life's too short to get wound up about things over which you have no control. As short as the life of a civilian in Lebanon that is. Ah well.

What really gets my goat is the faint air of threat surrounding this issue. A faint air that suggests it may widen into an actual inter-state conflict, instead of just a case of Israel pounding crap out of a neighbour. A neighbour apparently powerless to control a guerilla army on its territory. What we should all consider therefore is whether New Zealand should become involved in any such war.

The "hawks" among us, usually fat bastards who'd have trouble lifting a deep-fried Moro in anger, would doubtless have us enter such a fray on the side of the Americans and Israel. As I indicated way back in 2004, the enemy in this scenario is likely to be "Iran". In turn, our local peaceniks would likely oppose such a war and refuse to participate in what could be characterised as yet another war of aggression against "Islam".

Despite my ever-accreting belly and love for sitting on my ass pontificating, I'll not be siding with the Chickenhawks on this one (surprise surprise). But neither would I support the opposition. Frankly, and as I may well have stated before, all these overseas lunatics are as bad as each other.

Angry Islam has without doubt been picking fights with stupid Americans for a number of years, as you all well know, and kind of deserve to be given the wake-up slap. But on the other hand, these same stupid Americans have been doing their utmost, via a kind of ignorant, hypocritical arrogance we've come to know and love so well, to get themselves into grief with the kinds of people you just don't pick fights with.

Neither of these stereotyped groups deserves my support. Or yours for that matter.

Not that this stops the Chickenhawks. Good old Chickenhawks. Happy to see other people's people go get killed in a foreign war, unwilling to put their own expansive behinds on the line.

OK, enough condescension. Why do I think New Zealand should support neither side in this assumed future war? Because it will not be our fight. I know that there are voices claiming the 'War on Terror' to be a battle for 'freedom', and the protection of 'Our Way of Life', but this is simply bullshit.

Lebanon is not a battle to protect our way of life. If anything, the Lebanese demonstrated that they wanted our lifestyle. They wanted personal and political freedoms. They wanted to participate in democracy. Were the bombing and rockets to stop today, we have to assume that these desires would remain.

Naturally there are those that state that conflict in the Middle East effects us indirectly, via the price of crude oil for example. But why should we play that type of game? Look at recent advances in Brazil. They clearly show that petroleum is a necessity, it is not an absolute necessity. If anything, every Middle East crisis reminds us that this strategic competition is something we should seriously consider opting out of. I rather like the idea of guiltlessly driving a 4.1 litre V8.

And, if a Middle Eastern crisis widens into a war for control of the world's oil reserves, then I say we should not be part of that particular inhumanity. Any war to control oil is an unjust war. You want or need oil, then buy it. Too expensive? Find an alternative.

What it all boils down to is the simple decision whether to participate in someone else's war, or whether to tell both sides to duke it out without spilling the blood of New Zealand youths. Frankly, I think that the latter choice is the more rational, and the former a particular type of insanity only realised in the truly mentally impaired.

New Zealand has the freedom to make the choice not to participate in these conflicts. Not to spend our money and our children in a fight for a resource or ideal we can live without. I could not countenance sending someone else's children to die in a desert for nothing more than the desire to make friends with bullies and lunatics. I left Australia to escape that exact ignorance, and will not tolerate my nation making the same mistake.

We all need to seriously consider whether we are free to opt out of participation in unjust wars. We need to be prepared to oppose any voice within our nation that would have us spend lives fighting another people's fight. Think on it, and hope you never have to fight against the pressure to fight.

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