Move along, move along

I've moved my blog comments to the new address instead:

http://sjwb-uk.blogspot.com

Nub of the problem

Why we went to war? This was the name of a documentary on More4 last night in the UK. Intriguing question I thought. I still cannot answer that one. Why did the UK and US get involved in Iraq? All the evidence now as it was pointed out at the time, shows that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Yet this is the key reason for invading.

My questions to Tony Blair would be:

- So how did we make this leap from 9/11 to Iraq? What was the bridge?
- Was Osama Bin Laden not the main suspect, the key to figuring out the Al Qaeda threat? He is still alive and well if we are to believe all reports, certainly no-one has said that he is dead or captured. Saddam was well known to despise terrorists. Terrorism was not his motivation. Despotism was his. I still see no link between 9/11 and Iraq, I think this is a key question that needs revisited.
- What was the real key decision for going into Iraq? What was it that made everyone say "invasion is the best solution here"?
- Is it because it was an easy target, as it had no WMD?
- Was it revenge, finish a job from the 1991 gulf war? Was Saddam threatening to reveal some detail or fact and he had to be stopped?
- Or was the terrorist threat and WMD one big smoke screen to cover up the fact that the US has no more oil and is at the mercy of the Saudis and OPEC and that the US simply wanted to control a sizeable asset of oil to remove their needs in the middle-east? That way, they would be in much more control of their own destiny. You join up the dots, stand back and before you know it the image is in the shape of an oil barrel.

I think the UK faced the unfavourable decision of dropping off the big league table (US, Russia, China) and falling in with the other support teams (France, Germany, Spain, Italy). To save face, we jumped on board regardless. Tony Blair and co had to make anything believable to the public in order to maintain this big hitter status. The UK didn't need to be there, the US has enough logisitics and resources to do the job themselves, yet we find ourselves there.

A Stern lesson?

Remember that ground breaking economic report by Sir Nicholas Stern? Well just incase everyone has, here is a link to it:

Stern Report

Enjoy the future.

Mr Blair's legacy

A supreme talent to break the law (international or national) and walk away with it, with his hands laundered and a smug face. This is in reference to the Saudi arms deal, the Iraq war and cash for honours.

The most annoying thing about it is that he will probably end up a Lord himself, have a knighthood and earn millions on the US lecture circuit. Meanwhile the rest of the world has to pick up the pieces of the mess he has left behind. Shouldn't we all be accountable about our actions?

Obvious question of the day

Does anyone remember Osama Bin Laden and is anyone still looking for him?

Lunar-tastic!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6210154.stm

Space is the place

Space really is the future for humans. We do not have a future on Earth, unless we can move it to another sun in the next few billion years. The Sun WILL go supernova or bust and with that so does our planet. That's not to say that we should trash it, but I think "Friends of the Earth" need to re-think their title. How about "Friends of Humankind"? Much more suiting.

My worry is that we are using up so much resource just to consume products and stuff that really doesn't add up to much, that we will not have enough to give us that crucial leg up into the great beyond. In short we have a window of opportunity and we had better not squander it.

Space and explorations to other worlds offers hope. It will allow us to see ourselves as not just children of Earth, but of the wider universe. It will give us room to move and think again. We are becoming ever more retrospective and inward looking in current times. I think you could classify it as the second dark ages. With true exploration, the type which requires going to new lands of which humans have never stood, comes enlightenment, new ideas and ingenuity.

Perhaps with humans being so busy to make a life and develop an new and exciting infrastructure in space, we will forget about our silly toys. Imagine how wonderful it would be to step foot on another world, to be the first human to walk and set eyes on a dried up river bed on Mars?

We need to start seeing space as yet another destination, another place that we can go. It is held in humour too much. Star Trek and the like, for all of its optimism has hampered the space revolution. Every time a $100 million blockbuster comes out it must make a generation feel like they have already been and experienced it. How wrong they are!!

Cynical fact of the day part 2

The Guardian reported on Wednesday of this week, the following:

With regards to the current MoD Typhoon/Eurofighter scandal - the Syrian arms broker involved became a confidant of Peter Mandelson, whose introduction was apparently made by Charles Powell after 1997. Now Lord Powell, met the Saudi's arms broker during the 1980s when he was Margaret Thatcher's foreign affairs adviser. The peer is so close to the Syrian that he made him chairman of one of his companies. Lord Powell is reportedly on the payroll of BAE Systems as an adviser.

This may disgust you so far, but keep going it gets better.

Lord Powell is the brother of Tony Blair's chief of staff at No.10, Jonathan Powell. Apparently Lord Powell has been declining to comment on the Serious Fraud Office's investigations over the BAE deal.

Cynical fact of the day part 1

The British Ministry of Defence secured a £1.7 billion increase in its budget, which is on top of the £32 billion already spent during 2006-2007. And as Mr Monbiot states clearly in the Guardian on Tuesday this week, "there are currently no major conventional military threats to the UK or NATO...it is now clear that we no longer need to retain a capability against the re-emergence of a direct conventional strategic threat". This was a statement made by The MoD. So where the hell is the tax payers money going?

One law?

Can't believe that this is being looked at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6190080.stm

The trouble with tribbles

There is a lot of debate out there just now with regards to religion. What is happening? I honestly felt that civilization was moving forward to a common pursuit for objective, hard evidence. I remember about 5 years ago when the international space station was in its infancy and a clutch of probes were being sent out on their travels into space. Since 9/11, an extreme focus on religion has taken place. This I feel has moved us toward the meta-physical than the actual physical. Why do humans have to paint the universe in a certain light and not accept it for what it is? It might not be pretty in places, but it can be extraordinary in others. There might not be a creator but then we are in sole charge of our destiny and if there were a creator, should we worship him so?