A Collection of Writings
It's a year since I last shot my mouth off. It all seems so pointless. War President and Dictator Bush continues to live on another planet and believes that he has done the world, and the Iraqi people, a service by tearing Iraq asunder without the slightest idea of what he is going to do about it and Democracy has been replaced by the politics of fear and hubris. At last there does seem to be a chance that America might abandon its school yard bullyboy tactics and rejoin the real world. But naturally that can't be done without a lot of acrimony and opportunistic bad mouthing. I must say I'm inclined towards Barack Obama although I think that Hilary Clinton is vastly more experienced and knows her way around the Oval Office. It's just that the former has already been painted black and will get a racist reaction from many of the Rednecks and the latter is decidedly creepy. At one time this wouldn't have even popped up on our Radar but the USA has become so bloated and overpowering and the rest of the world so servile since the implosion of the Soviet Union that the President of the United States is universally acknowledged as the most powerful man in the world. Whatever self-deluding minority groups might say.
The other point that I have been shaking out for a long time is the way history has been re-written. Very few people now realise that there were other countries involved in both WW1 and 2. The cinema is so strongly influenced by the US that anyone under forty would be forgiven for thinking that the Yanks were out there on day one of each war kicking butt. They dismiss the fact that they stood by as the Nazi hordes rampaged across Europe. Cynically supplied England and Russia with weaponry to keep the war going so that at the appropriate moment they could move in and reap the rewards. Just the other day I had a letter from an American saying that the reason they did nothing was that there was a high degree of Isolationism amongst the voters. What an excuse. The writer ignored the fact that in 1939 America was only just beginning to pull itself out of the Depression and the progress was accelerated by setting its factories up to supply war products for Europe's fighting forces. This calculated practice kick started its economy and led to it being the only country in the world that came out of the conflagration richer than when it went in. And there is that other little bit of business which is generally ignored. The German-American Bund and the participation of many high profile Americans co-operating with and even financing the Nazis. In some instances even speculating on the probability that Germany would win the war and even continuing to work with them after hostilities had begun.
Equally irritating is the fact that a criminal act perpetrated in New York has been repeatedly held high and claimed to be the greatest calamity inflicted on a civilian population since Caligula was given his first pair of boots. No one denies it was horrendous. But where does the hyperbole surrounding 9/11 put the slaughter of civilians by the Nazi V1 and V2 weapons which killed thousands during 1944 and 1945? The estimated total of civilians killed in the UK is approximately 68,000. Russia sacrificed over 11,000,000. Some sources say there were no civilian deaths during the same period in the USA. Criticism of the European performance on the field of battle and behind the lines by American politicians does not win friends or influence people. Perhaps now, under a new President, America will begin to understand that it will get a lot more respect from the rest of the world by acting as a friend than as an overbearing school yard bully. Lets hope so!
Criticism of America in any form always conjures up cries of 'America Bashing" It's the price the wealthiest and most militarily advanced country in the world must accept. England still gets accused of all sorts of malpractices from the time when it ruled the waves. Brickbats and very few bouquets are what goes with leadership.
And how does Britain stand? I think the answer to that is - badly! The light comedy drama of Blair has been replaced by the dour farce of Brown. For entertainment value you have to lean towards Blair. He worked the nation up nicely, let it be known that Brown was a whizz-kid with the abacus and then with the practised ease of a torero, left the cape fluttering in the breeze and nipped off to take his bows on a wider stage while the flat-footed Brown was left floundering around the corridors of power on the horns of Blair's unleashed Minotaur. Britain still wants to be seen as a world leader but is increasingly seen as the little snide who sucks up to the bully. And bullies are notoriously fickle. It seems the Brits are happy to throw away a thousand years of civilisation and lick any boot thrust at them to be loved by anyone with attitude. King John might not have wanted the Magna Carta but it is the most important act that has been accomplished in the last couple of millennia. Now we seem to be determined to use it for toilet paper to please the host of religious and cult sensitivities which grow daily stronger. The joke about War President Bush suggesting Congress should give the American Constitution to Iraq as the US wasn't using it, could be applied equally to the Brits - except they would have to go right back to the original shrine of civil liberties - the Magna Carta.
I'm too old to suffer the malaise that has settled over the world. The possibilities of Terrorism, endorsed by politicians, have scared us witless. That, and the spectre of Global Warming, is enough to make normally rational people willing to forget thousands of years of civilisation and give the nod to any half barbecued idea that has the fear factor labelled on it. The undeniable fact that Planet Earth has gone through violent temperature changes since it first spun into orbit is undeniable. The insistence that the present apparent warming is due to the puny effects of man is just another instance of piling on the fear factor. In this case to facilitate the growth of the tax industry. Making the atmosphere breathable is a worthy ambition but we shouldn't have to be frightened into it. It doesn't work for me. For sure I'm not eager to shake hands with a suicide bomber or have sewage gushing over my fourth floor window sill. But I will probably be long gone before the after effects of the present sewer politics have the end effect. But what about my 7 year old grand daughter? What sort of world is it going to be for her to grow up in?
And now we have some dotty old cleric telling us that we should abandon Britain to the sort of religious fervour the world suffered 600 years ago. O for the wings of a dove!