Posted 12:06 PM by Paul
Incredible Stories

Over the last few days the newspapers and airwaves have been full of stories about space travel and the quest to find evidence of life on Mars. It's like being back in the 60s during the Space Race. This time around the contest is more unequal. In one corner we have the European programme led by an English professor with unfeasibly large mutton chop sideburns. In the other corner we have NASA.

The European lander sadly did not arrive on Mars in one piece. However, to give them their credit the Mars Explorer orbiter has provided the first evidence of water on the Red Planet and the theoretical proposition that there might be lichens or at least bacteria on the surface.

The American programme has met with more sucees. Despite losing what they call "intelligent contact" with their first lander, NASA has succesfully put another down on the surface a few thousand miles away from the first. It is taking pictures and analysing rock specimens. The clarity of the images and the amount of data is truly remarkable. Mars looks not unlike the Painted Desert in Nevada and remarkably similar to the sci fi artists impressions we used to get in American comics such as Incredible Stories.

The American vehicles resemble a hi-tech golf cart. The (now AWOL) European vehicle resembled a large saucepan. This tells us something about the two cultures. Unlike satelites and space shuttles there is no military application and no national security rationale for the expediture on the Mars programme. It is pure science and the USA at its best. They should be proud and we should congratulate them on what has been an incredible story.

Nearer to home there is a another incredible story from the USA. After insiting that Iraq was stuffed pull of Weapons of Mass Destruction ready and waiting to be ferried over by micro-light aircraft, Colin Powell ( remember his artists impressions at the UN?) has now adoped a slightly different tack. I quote.

" The open question is how many stocks they had, if any, and if they had any, where did they go? And if they didn't have any, then why wasn't this known beforehand?"

Phew! I think I will offer my own translation.

" The only really dangerous stuff they had was what Donald Rumsfelt sold them in the 80s, most of which they got rid of 13 years ago. The stuff that was left over has been taken by the Martians."

David Kay the outgoing chief weapons inspector in Iraq, a hawk who was appointed by Bush, has said as much. He has clearly just got bored of keeping up the pretence and probably tired of politcians blaiming it all on intelligence failures rather than their insistence on starting a bloody good war to help the poll ratings. Despite the facts staring us all in the face, Tony Blair sticks to the claim that evidence will be eventually be found of "WOMD related programmes". Note the change in language. He is starting to look a bit silly. The defence offfered by his dwindling group of supporters is that we should be patient because Iraq is A HUGE COUNTRY. Incredible stuff.

The USA and the UK can send robot controlled vehicles 141 million miles across space and send back crystal clear images of the surface including spectrographic analysis of tiny traces of water and minerals in the Martian soil. But still no sign of traces of chemical weapons in Iraq despite 1,400 people looking for them.

Note. Iraq has a surface area of 167,881 square miles about two thirds the size of Texas which measures up at 266,803 square miles. Washington to Baghdad is about 8,000 miles.