CAMERON'S FOLLY

Once again the United Kingdom is engaged in military action in the Middle East. We are told by our leaders that Colonel Ghadaffi,s brutal treatment of his people can not be tolerated by the enlightened West. The logic behind this statement seems for me to be flawed to say the least.

In the recent past we have stood idly by while Israel bombed the hell out of Palestine and even imposed sanctions upon them when they had the temerity to democratically elect a government of which the Western Powers did not approve. We have taken no action in Zimbabwe where another despotic ruler is systemically starving the life out of his countrymen. The glaring inconsistency in the reason for attacking Libya takes my breath away.

Don't get me wrong, I have no fondness for the Libyan leader but I can not understand why our politicians express such righteous indignation against his actions when they are prepared to turn a blind eye to much worse atrocities in other parts of the world.

The West's interference in Middle Eastern affairs has been notoriously unsuccessful thus far, and has only succeed in turning even more Muslims to the doctrine of the extremists. The people who live in these countries are no more stupid than we, and they are perfectly well aware that we are taking this action in part to protect our oil supplies. I do wish that they would stop treating us all like idiots and at least be honest about it.

The die is cast, and our planes are now over Libya bombing, we are told, loyalist forces. Again the inconsistency is beyond belief. Just a few weeks ago Mr Cameron and his cohorts assured us all that we did not need an air force and that our submarines - now firing missiles in to Libya - were an expensive anachronism .Now we begin to see perhaps a part of the reason behind Mr Cameron's pious hypocrisy. For a Government looking for a good reason to do an about face on an unpopular policy decision without losing face, this is an opportunity not to be missed.

In The United States the less than popular President Obama must feel that this is his chance to improve his image by “Kicking some Libyan ass!” The same mistake George Bush made in Iraq accompanied by the vainglorious Tony Blair, a piece of stupidity for which the British and American people are still paying.

Ever since Margaret Thatcher's leadership was brought back from the edge of the abyss by “Victory” in the Falklands, a just war has been seen as a way to raise a Party or a Leader's popularity., But who pays for this exercise in stupidity, why the men we send to fight our bloody wars, the young men and women who's courage can not be too highly regarded. It is a great pity that their leaders have not the same nobility. Their sacrifice, and I mean the word literally, to political expediency is as much an atrocity as any carried out by Saddam or Mugabe.

I am no expert as must be obvious but I have a long memory and have lived through enough events of this sort to recognise them for what they are. I am also a pacifist and yet I think it is folly for Britain to disband its Air Force and decimate it's Navy at a time when the world is in such a state of disarray. You might as well drop your trousers, paint a target on you backside and then loiter about at an archery contest, the idea is ridiculous. So why be coy about it? Why not admit we were wrong and change our policy? It is simply because our leaders cannot afford to be seen to be indecisive.
I expect many people will think that I have over simplified this matter but if you look back through history you will find that a great many events of huge historical significance took place because one man or group of men wanted to hang on to power, or gain more power.

It is time we all learned that this is not necessarily the best thing for us - the people they govern.

America suffered the horror of 9/11 and in Britain we had the 7/7 bombing, prior to which our cities were systematically bombed by the IRA. No matter how you wrap this up, it is a fact that a good deal of the money which funded the IRA Attacks on the British mainland came from the USA. And some of that money was spent buying explosives from Libya. How can America justify arming Irish terrorists while at the same fighting a war on terror in the Middle East, the whole idea is ludicrous. We in Britain are every bit as hypocritical. We supplied Iraq with weapons of war in the hope that they would bomb Iran, I have no need to tell you what was actually done with these weapons. I hope you can see my point.

One man's heroic leader is another man's tyrant, one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. There is no moral high ground and we are all going to keep on loosing if we do not wise up to this fact. During the 20th century, great wars were fought as a means of escaping from a depression, for God's sake do not let us go that way again.

So many politicians want a bloody war because the world is in a bloody mess and don't be fooled none of this is for your benefit . We fought a war with Germany to save Eastern Europe from oppression and then calmly signed it over to the Soviet Union. What an exercise in futility, one despot is much like another. We cannot afford to squander our planet's dwindling resources on another war and besides our world is capable of enough destructive force, it needs no help from insects like us!