Friday 8 August 2014

A new dawn


I saw this photo this morning of an elephant using a VW Golf to scratch an itch. All the windows broke, the roof caved in and all four tyres burst. The elephant walked away satisfied.

This bit of photo-journalism was the most uplifting bit of the morning, now that Hamas has resumed firing rockets at Israel with the inevitable consequences, and 40,000 members of an ancient tribe are hiding in the mountains of Iraq to avoid being wiped out by marauding ISIS murderers. One of them talked to the BBC by mobile today, and they said that they would request friendly forces to bomb them to death on the mountainside, rather than face their fate at the hands of ISIS - if they didn't starve or die of thirst beforehand.

Obama has reluctantly authorised air-strikes against advancing ISIS forces, to 'protect US interests' in the area, and every war-weary citizen of America is hoping and praying that their sons and daughters don't have to go in by foot again to help clear up the mess.

I have a good friend whose son has just finished what was to be his final tour of duty in Afghanistan as a US Marine, and last night he expressed his wish that all the 'Arabs' just kill each other off, one by one, rather than his son go back and risk killing himself by doing it for them. "Let the bastards sort themselves out," is the gist of his sentiments. It is a shame that this was not the original foreign policy of previous administrations.

When he was training for his own stint as a US Marine, he told me, he said that they would make a 30 mile run in full kit, with a Sergeant swearing at them just like the British training equivalent, but one small difference was the motivational encouragement shouted at them to keep their spirits up: "PRAY FOR WAR!"

There is a big moral argument going on in France now, as to whether or not the country should fulfil it's contractual duty by supplying Russia with a shiny new warship that is just in the process of completion in a French shipyard. I smell hypocrisy.

At the same time, a load of French, non-Zionist Jews are demonstrating their support for Gaza in rowdy assemblies outside embassies in Paris. The day before yesterday, an English town (forget which) council flew the Palestinian flag from its Town Hall, much to the embarrassment of the Jewish inhabitants. I think they - understandably - were more embarrassed than outraged, and thought that it was not an elected council's job to express political sympathy in such a crude and blatant, non-representative way.

What it all boils down to is that if you give a child - or anyone else - a gun, sooner or later they are bound to pull the trigger. They just have to. It's only human nature.

15 comments:

  1. Hamas just couldn't wait; could they! On the dot of 8am they started launching missiles, and if they continue to do so from schools and hospitals as before, then the papers will have a field day. I feel very sorry for the ordinary Palestinian folk; much as I do for the Israelis.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It seems, to myself that is, that there is a blind sort of insanity in war. There will never be a 'victor' in this conflict between Israel and Palestine, well only for Death and people supplying the weapons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Plenty of people were defeated before even a shot was fired.

      Delete
  3. -The whole area is riddled by war - so many factions fighting one another ? And for what, I ask myself. Maybe I am naive but I really sometimes wish that guns had never been invented - but then they would have been hunting down one another with spears I suppose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This shows signs of being the Armageddon predicted all those years ago, though I am not superstitious enough to believe it.

      Genies and bottles come to mind.

      Delete
  4. Obama send in your bombers and get the bastards who call themselves the Islamic State and save the Iraqis and stop this army. For once the US you are needed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The US have an aircraft carrier in the Gulf.

      Delete
    2. I agree, but what a complete fucking mess. In stabilising a region, what has been done that cannot be described as de-stablisation?

      Delete
    3. Someone's got to do it and it doesn't look like we are except for sending in some food parcels. These fucking Islamic State fuckers have got to be stopped.

      Delete
    4. UK sending in food parcels , not bombs is what I meant.

      Delete
    5. Well, you got your wish. Hurrah. And for once we please.

      Delete
  5. For once the US is needed? Is there not another damn country in this world that could step up and do something?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not with the logistics infrastructure of the country which set light to the whole region in the first place, no.

      Delete