Posted 2:23 PM by Paul
A Greater America

A friend from LA sent me the piece below. It is most eloquent piece I have ever read on the terrifying direction in which the USA is heading. A real cry from the heart. Please pass it on, particuarly to the misguided or disengenous who equate being anti Bush with being Anti-American

E.L. Doctorow on Bush

I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our twenty one year olds who wanted to be what they could be.On the eve of D-day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the WMDs he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man. He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn.He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the thousand dead young men and women who wanted be what they could be.

They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and father or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life.... they come to his desk as a political liability which is why the press is no permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq.How then can he mourn? To mourn is to express regret and he regrets nothing. He does not regret that his reason for going to war was, as he knew, unsubstantiated by the facts. He does not regret that his bungled plan for the war's aftermath has made of his "mission-accomplished" a disaster.

He does not regret that rather than controlling terrorism his war in Iraq has licensed it. So he never mourns for the dead and crippled youngsters who have fought this war of his choice. He wanted to go to war and he did. He had not the mind to perceive the costs of war, or to listen to those who knew those costs. He did not understand that you do not go to war when it is one of the options but when it is the only option; you go not because you want to but because you have to.Yet this president knew it would be difficult for Americans not to cheer the overthrow of a foreign dictator. He knew that much.

This president and his supporters would seem to have a mind for only one thing -- to take power, to remain in power, and to use that power for the sake of themselves and their friends. A war will do that as well as anything. You become a wartime leader. The country gets behind you. Dissent becomes inappropriate.And so he does not drop to his knees, he is not contrite, he does not sit in the church with the grieving parents and wives and children. He is the President who does not feel. He does not feel for the families of the dead, he does not feel for the thirty five million of us who live in poverty, he does not feel for the forty percent who cannot afford health insurance, he does not feel for the miners whose lungs are turning black or for the working people he has deprived of the chance to work overtime at time-and-a-half to pay their bills -- it is amazing for how many people in this country this President does not feel.But he will dissemble feeling. He will say in all sincerity he is relieving the wealthiest one percent of the population of their tax burden for the sake of the rest of us, and that he is polluting the air we breathe for the sake of our economy, and that he is decreasing the safety regulations for coal mines to save the coal miners' jobs, and that he is depriving workers of their time-and-a- half benefits for overtime because this is actually a way to honor them by raising them into the professional class. And this litany of lies he will versify with reverences for God and the flag and democracy, when just what he and his party are doing to our democracy is choking the life out of it.But there is one more terribly sad thing about all of this.

I remember the millions of people here and around the world who marched against the war. It was extraordinary, that spontaneous aroused oversoul of alarm and protest that transcended national borders. Why did it happen? After all, this was not the only war anyone had ever seen coming. There are little wars all over he world most of the time.But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war.

The President we get is the country we get. With each President the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into and get us into, is his characteristic trouble. Finally the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail.How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.

E.L. Doctorow

Posted 7:49 AM by Paul
Selective Elections

God Bless the BBC - they have just picked up on little reported pronouncement by Donald Rumsfelt. Rummy was indicated that January elections in Iraq may only take place in areas where the security situation is stable. Or put into English, places where their guy will win. The US Embassy in Baghdad. Great stuff. Maybe they will extend the principle to the US Presidential elections in November and restrict the poll to Texas.

Posted 7:48 AM by Paul
The Iraq War Comes Home

If anyone looks back on this blog in a hundred years time they will think that there was only one topic of debate at the start of the 21st Century in the UK.

That's the way it is. Not even Vietnam dominated the news media in the way that events in Iraq now completely saturate TV, radio and the print media. But the British weren't involved directly in Vietnam. It was something over there. Something that the Americans were doing. Young British men and women did not die in the Mekong Delta thanks to a political elite - Conservative as well as Labour - that could spot a very bad idea when they saw one. 35 years later we were not so blessed. Our involvement in Iraq and non-involvement in Vietnam was certainly nothing to do with levels of political opposition.

Opposition to the invasion of Iraq is massive and widespread across age and social class. Opposition to Vietnam was smaller and limited largely to the young white middle class. 50,00 marched on Grosvenor Square in 1968. Two million marched in London in 2003. In 1969 I went on an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Sheffield with my friend John Sutton, a member of the Young Communist League [ I never joined ] I was 13 and my voice had still not broken. I must have sounded comical chanting "Victory to the NLF - Ho-Ho-Ho-Chi-Minh" in a castratto whine. There was no more than 2,000 people there. 35 years later and 40,000 people were marching in my home town against a war that they knew was about to happen, despite Blair's protestations.

Iraq is also brought home to us on a daily basis by the horror of kidnap and beheading. As I write, Kenneth Bigley, a 62 year old Liverpudlian civil engineer, is in a cellar somewhere in Baghdad wondering when he will be tied down and have his head sawn from his shoulders. Two young Americans have already suffered the same fate. His family make appeals on TV and have even managed to get a leaflet distributed in Western Baghdad in Arabic pleading for his release so that he can come home to his 87 year old mother. It is an unimaginable horror for the 21st century but all of this was not only predictable but predicted by a wide range of people from across the political spectrum. Even normally phelgmatic Iraq specialists in the Foreign Office warned of the ensueing chaos a year before the invasion. I cannot remember a time when the British political class has been so deaf to reason.

A phone-in on the BBC has just finished. A young Muslim man described his sense of total impotence. He explained that Muslims had argued, marched and lobbied but no one listened. He denounced the murderers but remembered that Muslims had warned that if you created a vacuum in Iraq something even worse would fill it. They knew what was going to happen. This was followed by the Editor of Al-Jazeera explaining that his station had a moral duty to try and help secure Ken Bigley's releases because the death of any human being in such conditions was a tragedy. A similar level of common humanity is totally lacking in the way western media players talk about innocent Iraqi casualties of allied bombing. They are just collateral damage.

So, Iraq has reverted to the politics of the 9th Century thanks to the smart bombs and dumb politicians of the USA and the UK. The BBC has just announced that two Egyptian engineers working from a US mobile telephone company have just been kidnapped. They were seized in their office in broad day light. Hostage taking has become a daily occurence. It's a growth industry.

No one can seriously expect Bush or Blair to concede to the kidnappers demands. The kidnappers don't expect them to. But neither can Bush and Blair cannot offer security to foreigners in Iraq because all available forces are engaged in bombing Falluja or securing oil installations. The whole affair has brought home how completely impotent Blair has become. He is controlled by events in Iraq as the Iraqi insurgents manipulate the news agenda. His influence in Washinton is non existent because he has served his purpose and is now surplus to requirements. After Bush is re-elected Blair will be sidelined entirely as Bush tries to mend bridges with France and Germany. Blair was moved from war leader to care worn crisis manager. After Bush wins re-election in November he will be yesterday's man.

Ken Bigley's kidnappers will of course have access to CNN, Fox and BBC News 24 to check how the story is playing out across the world. They can choose their moment to strike the fatal blow based on when it makes the most impact. Terrorism as armed propaganda. I wouldn't be surprised if something barbaric happens in Baghdad to coincide with Labour Party conference, possibly just as Blair rises to speak next Tuesday.

Bush and Blair now have two options - neither of which they can countenance. Pull out or massively increase the number and level of engagement of their forces.

Posted 7:36 AM by Paul
Cat Person

We came home late with the kids last night after a a pleasent evening at Nandos chicken joint - one piece of globalisation and corporate branding I am happy to live with. A hundred yards or so before we reached home Bart appeared from someone's garden. Bart is one of our cats. We got him from an abandoned cats refuge but we think he was born on the streets rather than being an abandoned pet and he is going back to his feral ways. He is hardly in the house and sometimes he arrives with a rat in his jaws. He doesn't like being picked up so we let him follow us home.

Just before we reached out front door a pit bull terrier shot across the road and tried to savage Bart. I shouted at the dog and thankfully Bart made it through a gap in the fence of the local garage. The dog could not follow and returned to the gang of teenagers who were looking after it. I wouldn't be surprised if they let the dog slip the leash.

I was haunted by dreams that Bart would not return. I even fretted a bit today and went out to look for him. Very odd. I used to hate cats and now one has become a surrogate wayward son.

I glowed when he came home this afternoon. I even fed him some tuna as a treat.

I am clearly gettting old and sentimental.

Posted 2:12 AM by Paul
Patriot Games

I caught the last 10 minutes of "The Patriot" starring Mel Gibson before I went to bed. I would reccomend it to anyone. It is a real hoot. Not because the English are characatured as child murderers (par for the course) but because of the positive depiction of the French.

If they filmed it in 2004 they oculd never get away with casting a Frenchman as Mel's great friend and comrade at arms in the fight for Liberty. I gather that the Frenchman had also lost children thanks to the war unleashed by the corrupt British - so the pair had an unbreakable bond. Despite the fact that huge swathes of the Brithish Army were staffed and commanded by Scots, Welsh and Irish the only accents on show were "plum in the mouth" Oxbridge English. This was topped off by the sub-plot of a freed slave who faught willingly with his former masters. One of his new white buddies says "I respect you." I half expected the black man to roll his eyes and cry out "Oh Gee Thank you Massa. Hallelujah." Of course Mel finshes off the dastardly Brit who killed his sons and sepite being ripped open with bayonets and shot he survives with no scars to show for his experience. They probably shot an ending where he died wrapped in the flag but the focus groups didn't like it so they gave the film a more upbeat ending.

Then the film strayed into the field of the Historically Correct by pointing out that the English had their escape to the sea blocked by the French Navy. The baddies surrended in a cowardly fashion. The USA owed its birth to France's desire to cause trouble for the Britain.

Maybe in future we will look back on 2003-and 2004 and thank France for its actions. Actions undoubtedly motivated to a large extent by self interest but the right actions all the same

Posted 2:03 PM by Paul
Golf Jihad

So it has come to this. Listening the golf on the radio.

But The Ryder Cup is not golf it is war and Europe has just blitzkrieged the USA at golf.

Golf - that strange game invented in Euro-Scotland.

Much as I love America and have many American friends there is something delicious about really stuffing it to the Yanks.

The moronic grunts of U-S-A from the stands [ Guys! take it easy we are not the Soviet Union ] are now drowned out by "Molly Malone" from wild Euro-Irishmen in absurd red wigs. As I listen to the last match, I can even hear the strains of the Marseillaise echoing across the greens of Michigan. Beaten by Old Euro-France. That must really hurt. Now Bush knows where he can stick his Freedom Fries.

As I write I can hear the ecstatic crowds in London demolishing McDonalds, burning Old Glory and jeering at overweight men in shorts with large cameras.

George Orwell commented that international sport was "war without the shooting". How ironic that a game played by multi-millionaires in slacks may herald the birth of a nation. A place called EuroGolf.

Posted 1:39 PM by Paul
Echoes of Vietnam

Ray's e-mail about Iraq certainly set in motion an avalanche of testomonies characterised by total despair. Old Amercian friends reffered to Bush and co. as "straight out of the Manchurian Candidate" lamenting the "irreperable damage Bush is doing to the USA. Damage which will take decades to heal" No one believes Kerry has a hope in hell of coming close, never mind winning. All of them fear for the future. The New Yorkers were the most pessimistic of all. The very same people who had suffered most were now being used by the White House to justify what they had planned all along. They must feel violated. Even the famed Jersey Girls who lost their husbands and lobbied for a full inquiry about 9-11 are being pilloried in the media as "Rock Stars of Grief" because some of them have had the temirity to come out against Bush.

Ray replied to one woman who felt that the real story of corruption and chaos in Iraq would only surface in 2005 and 2006, with memories of his own experiences as a young man in the early 70s. This is what he wrote.

I remember well having a wife and child and not wanting to be part of that war in Viet Nam and being drafted against my will when I was in good standing in law school because McNamara needed more fodder for his war, a war the bastard has publicly cried about as he made "mea culpas" in a book, interviews and speeches over thirty years after killing off almost sixty thousand young Americans and maiming another half million (Robert McNamara went on to serve as President of the World Bank, got even richer, and at age 88 this weekend he wed an Italian heirness - - a nice life for a man, like Kissinger, who belongs in prison with many others), and having had that experience of being drafted out of law school with a wife and baby, I feel my perspective is far different from that of those who were not forced to wear the uniform and kiss their wife and child good-bye at ain airpor to go off and train to fight and kill people far away.

I was lucky and drew a German assignment, missing the jungle war, but I was carefully considering going AWOL as I awaited the assignmen, going to Canada and Sweden, and I was talking to my young wife on a pay phone ever night near a trailer that sold giant beers and had a juke box that seemed to only play two songs - - Forgerty's "Bad Moon Rising" and Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay." I remember everything about that time and I do not want my nephews or the children of friends to experience such a time in their life. I was excused from basic training barracks on weekend afternoons to visit a friend I played high school football with a few years earlier, a kid who was walking point when he stepped on a mine. I remember it all well, and I don't want to compound this present mess by dragging more innocent young American kids into it.

Moments after Jimmy Carter took the oath, before he departed the platform, he signed the first document of his presidency, an ammesty for all those in Canada, Sweden, and elsewhere, and Carter was a military man. He understood the horror of the wrongs prior administrations visited on American kids.

Posted 3:30 PM by Paul
RIP Johny Ramone

Johny Ramone died today aged 55 after a long battle against cancer. He led one of the most influential bands of the 70s and 80s. As young men in a grim town in the North of England we loved their American enthusiasm and vitality. I remember the first time I heard their debut LP back in 1976. I just wanted to cheer with joy. It was the most exciting record I had ever heard. We always preferred them to the Sex Pistols who were always beligerent, negative and bitter.

You can hear the work of the Ramones every time you turn on the radio. Bands like Green Day and Blink 103 just take what the Ramones did and give it a slight twist. As is often the case with innovators The Ramones never made big money. However, they did finally get the credit they deserved. Pearl Jam and The Red Hot Chili Peppers recognised their debt to the Boys from the Bowry in a huge tribute concert earlier this year. Members of both bands were at his bedside when he died in LA earlier today.

Yes LA. Like millions of New Yorkers Johny Ramone had moved out West. But I suppose when you have cancer the Southern California weather is much kinder than 6th Avenue in a blizzard.

So for Johny, Joey and Dee Dee wherever you are or aren't, I would like you to know that thousands of middle aged men and women across the UK salute you tonight as they out reach for their copies of Blitzkreig Bop and Sheena is Punk Rocker with a tear in the eye.

You were part of the America that we loved. But lovers are lost but love is not.

Long live the Ramones.

Posted 4:38 AM by Paul
Shock and Awe

At some point I will get around to writing up the bare bones of the great holiday we had in Bilbao, San Sebastian, Les Landes and Biarritz. Holiday in Bilbao? Sounds like a contradiction in terms but we had a great night there during fiesta. It has certainly changed for the better since I spend a day there in 1982 queuing up for a temporary passport at the British Consulate. The bag containing my original documents had been destroyed up by a right wing Spanish splinter group who blew up a bar run by the Basque Nationalist Party. I had lost my bag at a fiesta when drunk and it had been handed in to the bar for safe keeping.

In Biarritz we met up with Ray and Melanie Mouton and had a great dinner down by the old fishing port. It was great to see them and share opinions and gossip. It also gave Ray and Mel the chance to get to know Alice and Emily much better. Ray despairs at what is happening in the US and send out an incendiary e-mail yesterday to a group of his contacts expressing his views. So over to you Ray.


My fellow travelers

You guys know I do not send collective mail to a group of you often and I assure you this E-mail will be brief as it only states the inexplicable obvious, I think. I am in "shock and awe" over all the stories supported by polling data that headline and contain evidence that Americans have totally tuned out the chaos, anarchy, rebellion (read: opposition to an invading army) in Iraq. Iraq is simply not on the radar screen of the average American (How can anyone ignore it?) Iraq obviously is not an important issue in the most important election in history.

Senator John Kerry is tongue tied on the issue, and the president stabs his finger in the air and pounds the podium with his fist, proclaiming Iraq to be America's finest hour in his Q.&A. sessions where those with vials of blood, proving their right wing DNA are admitted and in his outdoor rallies where protesters are swept away with the efficiency of a Gestapo operation. And I, one who ordinarily deplores the media role in the campaign, freely admit that the media is doing its job on Iraq. The lead stories in print and broadcasts daily bring Iraq to Americans and though the thing speaks for itself, the media buttresses the case by presenting the General who planned the invasion who explains Rumsfeld and company ignored the best available military advice regarding troop strength and tactics for occupation, and they bring the highest ranking Marine to the camera and print this week explaining the debacle created by the U.S. advance-retreat ploy at the outskirts of occupied cities. Do Americans only care about what happens within their borders? Do they view the people shooting at the army in Iraq as terrorists? Well, if there are terrorists in Iraq, they appeared after our arrival, after we plowed the political ground and made it a fertile place for such activity.

But, I don't think there are terrorists in Iraq, but rather Iraqis fighting >for their homeland. I hearken back to a conversation in July of '03 with Reuters photographer, Desmond Boylan, and three of his colleagues just after the four came out of Iraq. All of them had the same report, i.e., the units they were imbedded with encountered no real military opposition on the Baghdad (all the tanks they encountered were covered with canvas and had never been uncovered - - there was never any thought of using them in battles they would have lost). All of them said that everywhere they went - - Mosques, schools, hospitals, civic buildings etcetera - - there were stacks and stacks of weapons and ammunition of all kinds, and it was clear as one of them said, that the Iraqis intended to fight another day, another way. These photographers were waiting for the uprising that came later. If they knew it, obviously the U.S. military knew it.

I will sign off in shock and awe that Americans don't care about Iraq, that Bush is allowed to strike a Churchill-Patton like pose over Iraq and Kerry just >mumbles and mutters that "it's wrong."

The view from Les Pyrenees [ ed note: Top class restaurant in St. Jean Pied de Port where Ray lives ] is lovely if I just can discipline myself to be more American and tune out the greatest foreign policy/military blunder in the history of the western world.

Ray


So, I wote back to Ray and his American friends with the following


It is great to see that as old age approaches Ray is mellowing out and becoming more conservative. Handing down edicts from his mountain fastness. I am sure I spotted him on TV at the Republican Convention hanging out with Don King.

Or not.

For what it's worth my take on all of this is that Ray is right and below are a few obvious observations for you to ignore, read, be offeded by or whatever. I won't bore you all with any more of these ramblings.

Lack of Impact Iraq Disaster is Having in USA

Not really surprising when you think about it. It is so awful, so hopeless, that nobody wants to think about it. Iraq is the war equivalent of compassion fatigue when the screens are full of images of starvation from the Third World. You just want to turn off the TV and take the kids to see Shrek II.

It is a depressing fact that most of the poor US kids who are getting blown apart in Iraq (many are reservists or private contractors) are trailer park whites or urban blacks. They have very little political leverage. They are not swing voters. The whites will probably vote for Bush because they think that they have to rally round the flag. The blacks vote Democrat or do not vote or ,if they have a traffic violation, are banned from voting in Florida. That is why I doubt if

Bush will bring in the draft again. He cannot afford for eloquent white middle class kids to come back with terrible tales of incompetence and corruption. The political elite won't worry too much because their kids won't be going anywhere more dangerous than Tijuana. Gone are the days when powerful families like the Gores, the Bushs and the Kennedys expected the oldest boys to serve their country. The boys and girls of the new elite serve Mammon not Uncle Sam

The Resistance to Occupation

If you invade a country with whom you share no culture, religion or language a chunk of the population will resist with everything at their disposal. Nothing new in this. The rest will aid them or turn a blind eye. When the donkey cart with missiles under the straw arrives in front of your home you won't ask questions. You will just take the kids into the basement and pray. Every Iraqi knows that the Yanks and the Brits won't be there to protect them when the boys in hoods come knocking at the door. The "liberators" spend most of the time in their barracks - because they are ordered to do so. Things are bad. Tet offensive excepted - the Viet Kong did not get close to the centre of Saigon until the final stages of the war. The Iraqi insurgents already control whole swathes of the capital. US troops just don't go there. The next stage will be from the manual of Soviet resistance to the Germans. They will start siezing the arsenal of the enemy and turn it against them. Before anyone gets to angry at the analogy, we should remember that the Soviet Partisans were a ruthless bunch of killers. They executed thousands of collaborators and torched their villages.

Hunkering Down

A phrase used by several US and British apologists for this mess. As in " we have to just stick this out, hunker down and let the new Iraqi forces get bedded in so the re-construction can continue". Russia tried the same in Afghanistan. Whoops. The re-construction of Iraq has not even started. Electricity supplies in Baghdad are worse now that 6 months after the first Gulf War. We are making Saddam look good.

The forces of the new Iraq are a PR stunt. No serious commentator believes they are anything more than a token force. They don't even have the kid of hardware given to the short lived South Vietnamese Army. This is exactly where Osama Bin Laden wants the US. Presenting a target of opportunity without the political will to engage and protect Iraqis. This is what Al Quaida guessed would happen. Neither the President nor the Prime Minister can afford to pay the political price for the kind of military casualties that would flow from a real engagement on the ground with the enemy. A "clean" air war cannot deliver the political objectives. Every time a Black Hawk or a British jet blows up a house and decapitates a child another family joins the war against the foreigners.. The war has so far has gone strictly to plan for Osama and the Boys. Straight from the terrorist play book. They must be really happy. They attack the USA and murder 3,000 people with a bunch of Saudis and Egyptians and Bush and Blair attack the Iraqis - their principle enemy in the region. Perfect.

International Co-operation

This is the new buzz phrase. We are told that the French, Germans and Russians should "not fight yesterday's battles" and that we all need to "move on". Roughly translated this means, "Look the whole street is on fire can you help us put it out because errrr it's got a bit out of control. We didn't think it would turn out like this and we are kind of broke" Naturally most of Europe with Spain in the front rank is saying.

" Sorry guys, it's your problem. Check the UK Charter for details of the responsibilities of occupying powers."

EU support of an open ended expensive occupation would also cause a run against the Euro on the money markets. Financiers hate risks which cannot be predicted.

Money

Bush needed to occupy Iraq because he could not go to the polls in 2004 with Saddam in power and 9-11 un-avenged. But he needed someone to pick up a big share of the tab because of the historically huge deficits created by the tax cuts for Dick Cheney and the Frat Pack. Added to this is the little matter of OPECs suggestion that they may move to selling oil in Euros not dollars. Saddam thought this was an excellent idea and like a fool said so. If this ever happens the Federal Reserve could no longer just print more dollars to meet US energy needs. They would have to buy Euros and if the dollar fell , inflation and unemployment could rise sharply in the US. Who said Herbert Hoover?

The Co-alition of the Willin'

More like a co-alition of the 'illin' dude. This is a US War supported by Blair. In times gone by, the foreign policy of Turkey was written in Washington. Two days ago the Turks announced that if the US did not stop bombing ethic Turkmen in Northern Iraq they would cease all co-operation with the US. Newt Gingrich (remember him?) was on TV live from the Green Zone that Republicans established in New York for the purposes of scaring their allies shitless. Newt was in full on BIG LIE mode. Two whoppers

1. " We have many allies in the region. Only Iran and Syria oppose us and that is to be expected."

OK name them! Israel and…..? The Republicans are fixated by French opposition but Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Russia also opposed the war. I mean, even Mexico and Chile opposed a 2nd resolution to authorise for war. At one time these were client states.

2. " There were far bigger demonstrations against Ronald Regan in Europe than against George Bush

Sorry Newt. I was there. Not true The people who opposed Regan were the usual suspects of long haired shabby radicals and socialists. People like me. I was on the anti-Reagan demonstrations (organised by the Labour Party - Blair was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at the time.) in the early 80s. These were huge demos of up to 150,000 people but we were booed by builders and Conservative hecklers as we marched. Police jeered and shouted "Get Back to Moscow". Nearly all the press was pro-Reagan / Thatcher. Twenty years later, older fatter and dressed in a suit I joined the anti-Bush / Blair demos. It took over 6 hours to pass down the broadest streets in London. 2 million people at least. No heckling from dissenters and the police were helpful. They even called me "Sir" and let me through the crowd barrier so that I did not have to walk around the House of Commons. Girls dressed for what looked like a shopping exhibition with nice hand bags and immaculate hair and nails chanting "Drop Blair Not Bombs". To give you an impression of the size of the demonstration consider this. My wife Heather joined the demo at 11.00 a.m. marched for 2 hours and came home. I then left the house half an hour away from the demo and marched for another 3 hours.
Right wing commentators like Max Hastings who are still fiercely pro-Thatcher are going into print in the Times and the London Evening Standard under headlines like " We Were Misled" and " It pains me to say it but…the French were right"

Things are certainly changing this side of the Atlantic. I think Bush will just win, possibly with a minority of the popular vote but even if he does stay the White House there will be no rapproachment. Europe is set on a different course and Blair is heading for the dumper. As for Kerry, he not making much of an impression over here but even many Conservatives want him to win. The poll rating of the Conservative leader rose as soon as he started criticising the White House. The fact is that if Europe were voting for a US President the Democrats would sweep the board even if Charles Manson and OJ Simpson were on their ticket

Solution to this Mess

Yes…. that's two chili dogs, nachos with extra cheese, 3 large sodas and a family ticket for Garfield the Movie please.

Posted 10:20 AM by Paul
Election Fever

I get more excited about US than UK elections. Well there is so much more at stake, particularly now that Dick Cheney wants to rule the world and share the spoils between members of his old frat house. My friend Chris has threatened to gag me - as I drone on and on about it and ruin perfectly good conversations. Heather reminds me constantly that Bush cannot hear me when I shout at the TV. But it makes me feel better all the same.

So, I thought I would make myself a hostage to fortune and share my thoughts with the blogosphere.It all hangs on Ohio. The pollsters are predicting that the three main states to win are Penn. Fla and Ohio. Kerry to win Penn as the President is trying to close it down and sell it cheap to Halliburton. Bush will win Florida by the ploy of preventing anyone with wiry hair and natural sense of rhythm from voting unless they are called Don King. A recent change in Florida law gives Cuban Americans 5 votes each and you only get hurricane relief if you are Born Again.

So it is down to Ohio. My gut felling is that Kerry will win the poplar vote by 500K but Bush will take the Electoral College - just. This reported 11 point Bush lead has already been denounced as a scam by Gallup and others. Kerry needs to develop a sense of humour before the debates. Righteous indignation excites the core but not the floaters. Various major media players having a major pop a Bush on his record in the National Guard. By all accounts the boy was out on the razzle all the time, which is great if only he were not lecturing other people about doing their duty. But it means that the Frat boy vote is safe. The idea is that other guys from trailer parks and projects who are not members of of Omega-Delta should go and fight and die for their President whilst they have keg parties. The story circulating is that Bush bunked off a training exercise designed to counter a surprise attack on the USA - ironic or what?

Clinton will I feel do something come late October, possibly in Arkansas from a wheelchair or iron lung surrounded by crippled children and puppy dogs. The heart attack is a god send for the Dems. He is now forgiven for his sex sleaze as illness has conferred some kind of secular sainthood on the flawed genius. Clinton will milk his heart attack for every vote. Gag Gore. It is a shame but his just too bitter. He needs to move on by offering to lead the Labour Party, but he is too left wing to get the job. All this is up in the air if Kerry is assonated by an NRA activist in which case Edwards to win by a landslide and Bush to be court marshaled in 2005 as a deserter

P.S get ready for the Soviet Union to be re-branded and re- launched.

P.P.S My good friend Tom Watson MP is up in Hartlepool working his guts out when he should be having a rest where the rather sad and lonely Peter Mandelson has just stood down to take an important job with the EU (Brussels - they will have anyone). The bye-election in in three weeks. My worry for Tom is that he will help Labor secure a third term with a reduced majority but lose his own seat. Then the people who he helped will conveniently forget his contribution ot the cause. Tom if you are reading this - Go back to your home base and prepare for battle.

Posted 3:59 PM by Paul
Family Life

Mum died a year ago today and just like this time last year the weather has been perfect. At some point I intend to extend the short eligy I wrote for her to include bits that could not have been read out in church.

On the one hand it seems like mum died last week and on the other it seems like she belongs to a distant age. Her memory a beautiful myth. I had thought of doing something to commemorate her death but it just didn't seem right. Instead I decided to have a family day in and take the kids for a picnic in the local park, which in many ways would have been a fitting commemoration of her life because she was always put family first.

I say, "would have been" because we had to abandon the picnic after a few minutes because Emily was stung by a wasp. She was very brave about it and it wasn't too serious as we were only a few minutes from home. Heather applied the anti sting cream and Ems was fine. We then decided to go for a swim but could not get in the pool as they has already reached capacity due to the hot weather and the fact that one of the life guards had not turned up. This often happens when there is a heatwave. Insurance contracts limit them to a ratio of 30 swimmers per life guard so I explained to Emily that we would go another day and I would buy her a comic to make up for missing swimming. "Good idea!" she exclaimed. It's the kind of thing my dad used to do when things went wrong, buy some chocolate or a comic and the world was instantly put to rights. The comic included a free sparkly skipping rope so she was very happy.

Emily and Alice are in bed and I am sat hear reflecting on parenthood and thinking of my mum and dad, content in the knowledge that, for me at least, there is nothing better than family life.

At the other side of Europe in Southern Russia people like me and Heather are burying their children in the aftermath of the attack on the school in North Ossetia. Others are wandering the streets disconsolately holding up pictures of their kids holding out the faint hope that they are in a hospital somewhere and not in the smoldering ruins of the school's gymnasium. That is what we would all do, cling to every last fragment of hope in a world that seems to be returning to the middle ages.

The attackers clearly had no intention of releasing the children and started killing adults almost as soon as they had taken control of the school. They had no real demands. They were seeking Armageddon. They even intentionally prevented the children from drinking or eating to add to the hell. De-hydrated, unconscious children are more difficult to rescue and easier to slaughter.
The people behind the attacks want to start an inter-communal war and provoke reprisals on Moslem communities in Chechnya and beyond. There is clear method in their horrific actions.
It is a tactic straight out of the 13th Century. Some Moslems might say straight out of the Crusades.

It seems strangely naive now to remember how hopeful we all were when the Berlin Wall came down. It felt like the dawn of a new age, free from the fear of nuclear war that had formed the backdrop to our lives and rid of the awful political system that had tortured millions.

Since the Wall came down, over 100,00 people have died in former Yugoslavia, Chechnya and the Caucusus. Perhaps the end of cruel totalitarian communism was not entirely a good thing after all. No one knows where all this will lead. A new Stalinism probably. Geo-politics aside you just wonder what kind of world your kids will grow up into - if indeed they are allowed to grow up at all.

Next week the kids move to another after- school club (the one at their school is over-crowded and bullying is rife) which is a 10 minute walk from their school gates. Alice will walk there with Emily three days a week through fairly quiet streets over one pedestrian crossings. I was doinf for more dangerous trips when I was 6. But still I worry. The kids see it as a great adventure, but both me and Heather are already having anxiety dreams.

So tonight, I will go up to check them one last time and think about my mother and fatter - thankful that all their sons and daughters survived them and that they died in bed.