The way of the exploding milkbottle*

[davywavy]

The best thing about terror alerts is that they make it a lot easier to get a seat on the tube to work in the morning.

First up, thumbs up to the security services. If half of what we're being told is true (and it looks as if it is) then they've done a bang-up job. Needless to say I expect that the usual conspiracy theorists will pop out of the woodwork to claim that this is all a fit up by Blair and Bush, but I'm always remnded of the Watergate conspiracy where Nixon couldn't keep a lid on a conspiracy involving six people. Suggesting a conspiracy involving what would have to be hundreds is so unlikely as to be unbelievable, so stop it before you start. Thumbs up for James Bond and his International Pals. Let me buy you a pint.

Overall, though, I'm not actually surprised by any of this; either the efficiency of the security forces, or the fact that the bombers existed. If you were to say to me that in a nation of 60+ million people there existed maybe 20-30 people willing to kill hundreds, my reaction would not be a breathlessly horrified "Really?", but more surprise at there being so few. On any bell-curve of population, every Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela has to be offset by the odd frothing lunatic. All that has happened in the last few years is that the internet has made it easier for said frothing lunatics to hook up with one another. The good thing, on the reverse, is that the internet has made it more convenient for the rest of us to ruthlessly mock them.

You shouldn't be surprised that the Frothing Lunatics^tm are targetting civilian populations. There are two reasons for this:
1) It is ultimately, an admission of defeat.
As the IRA only started to mostly target civilian targets when they realised that they'd effectively lost, so our current batch of frothing lunatics (FL's) are doing the same. I've said it before, but it bears re-iterating. We (as in the western cultural/economic hegemony, not just me and my friends list), have won - at least until the Chinese decide to make us their bitches, and whilst the FL's might be a danger to our lives, they are most certainly not an effective danger to our society.
It's a situation analagous to, say, Accrington Stanley playing Bayern Munich; eight-one down with five minutes to go, plucky little Terrorism is still going for the ball and making like they can come back to win it.

2) The above (1) is because the fight here is not actually one of weapons, but it is one of ideas. As most people seem outraged that the FL's are targetting non-military targets, there's something else to bear in mind. We are all, in their eyes, 'enemy combatants'. If you happen to think that Bacon Butties are a grand idea and compulsory bushy beards for men aren't, then you're actively engaged in a war of ideas whether you like it or not, and some people are willing to detonate themselves to prove you wrong.
The problem is that in this war of ideas, one side has belatedly realised that they're unarmed and they've started throwing their toys out of the pram with explosive force.

Like I say, though, for all the hoo-ha about the FL threat, they're not much of a threat to our overall society. I'm more concerned by the fact that John Prescott is currently wedged into an overstuffed chair in No.10 with one porky finger on The Button and another on his secretary's arse than I am about the possibility of getting blown up on the tube home tonight.
They threaten my life, but all they've actually managed to do this time round is make some people cancel thier holidays. Thanks to our fantastic police service and their own ultimate ideological failure, they're unlikely to manage much more than that.
And, when it comes down to it, there's really only one thing to do with people who aren't really that much of a threat to our way of life:



^{*flywingedmonkey: After our conversation yesterday, I thought "Sod it, this one is too good not to use."}

Comments

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

The oil running out wouldn't be a good thing for exactly that reason. Currently, the Saudis at least have to pay some form of lip-service to the idea that they don't approve of all these terrorists, oh lordy me no, but once the revenues dry up what do they have to lose?
The great tragedy of the Middle East is that Saudi didn't go the same way as the UAE and pour their oil revenues into the development of infrastructure which would provide revenues and work once the oil ran out. So effective has the UAE policy been that they'll be able to turn the oil off in 2010 without damaging their economy. By co-incidence, the UAE doesn't appear on any lists of states sposoring terrorism, because people having good jobs and aspirations makes them less likely to go off on killing sprees.

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

Strange coincidences like that. :)

The rare-ish examples of moderate and sensible government like the UAE are exactly what we should be encouraging. It's also why I think we should have "Marshall Plan"'ed Afghanistan and Iraq, made them into relatively prosperous beacons.

It's also why the situation in Lebanon is so tragic. They had a largely moderate government which was promoting infrastructure and economic development, and the country was doing well. Which is exactly why Hizbollah made a specific effort to provoke Israel, because they saw the writing on the wall if Lebanon was a moderate, semi-secular and prosperous state - there's a lot less room for militant Islamic terrorists. Now Hizbollah, despite provoking the situation that has ruined that improved prosperity, can puff their chests out and get all the locals to see them as their heroes again.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember reading an article recently about how Beirut was the Paris of the Levant in the 70's and then it all went to pot, but how they'd recently been rebuilding and the fashion stores and indicators of prosperity were flooding back in.
Bloody Hizbollah.

[elbly.livejournal.com]

because they haven't got anything else to export except terrorists.

I'll remember to mention that to the very talented scientists and engineers I know who have come from the Middle East ;o)

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Pax MacDonalds; middle class people don't like to blow themselves up, but rather buy bigger SUVs.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I'd prefer it if they had a civil infrastructure over there which was appealling enough to make them want to stay at home and help there rather than emigrating. I suspect they probably would, too.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Quite so. At least we can tax SUVs out of existence, which doesn't work with the alternative.

[(Anonymous)]

tbh the oil running out would be a horrific thing because it's the Saudi's who prop up our stock market - when they started to suggest they were going to pull out of it some time ago the market nearly crashed. I found it interesting that the US started to step up their "interest" in the middle east around the same time... a warning to the Saudi's to keep us all afloat maybe?

[silver-blue.livejournal.com]

:)

That's a brain drain rather than an export though. Presumably those scientists and engineers got out of there because they are educated and marketable, and they couldn't take full advantage of that in the countries they left. It's a demonstration of the failure of Middle Eastern governments that their best and brightest feel the need to leave for democratic and capitalist societies in order to take full advantage of their skills.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I'm not convinced that it's solely the Saudi's who keep the international wheels of trade turning, although I've little doubt that now Gordon is slurping an extra £5bn+change a year out of pension funds their contribution is not unwelcome. However, the loss of Saudi money from the stock market causing a crash? I find that one difficult to ttake on face value. Have you got any references?

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry sir, you must pay the £458.07 self detonation tax and fill about a 47B/6 before you activate that suicide device"

[elbly.livejournal.com]

Currently it's a brain drain yes. However you suggested by your statement that the only people the middle east churned out were terrorists.

My point regarding the scientists and engineers is this: they come from the Middle East as well as the West and the East meaning that they would be perfectly capable of producing decent exports if they didn't have to leave. Though to be fair most of the engineers and scientists I met were while I was at Uni and most of them returned home after their study.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't need your patronising advice, actually

H

[(Anonymous)]

I dig green taxes, they create demand for economical cars, which keeps me in a job. Likewise emissions legislation.

Plust, expensive fuel reduces the number of untidy poor people clogging up the countryside spoiling my enjoyment thereof by attemtping to carpet it with stella cans & burger wrappers.

[(Anonymous)]

Hizbollah can't exist without Israeli aggression, that's why they provoke it.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Likewise I'm a fan of Green Taxes. Putting the revenue into the hands of Iron Broon is what I'm objecting to.

[(Anonymous)]

Possibly the only good thing about Tony Bliar is he isn't McBroon. That said, Broon is such an unconvincing bufoon he would never have sold war in Iraq to the Commons.

Blairs' main problem is that, as a trained barrister, he's used to spinning up facts to convince the jury, on a case by case basis. He's been lumbered with the same jury for the last 2.5 terms, and we no longer believe him. If he said the sky was blue I'd go outside & check.

Hence, his next job will (I confidently predict) feature lying to a new set of people who are not yet wise to his unctious ways. the UN perhaps, or the US lecture circuit.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

There was a theory a few years ago that this long term angle was president of a federal Europe. Fortunately he seems to a buggered that one up good and proper. One wonders if that's why he's stayed on for so long after promising Broon he'd quit - i.e. holding onto the reins for a long as he can now he'll never have another chance?

As may have been said already by others...

[applez.livejournal.com]

re: 1.

I quite agree. That's why all the post-9/11 talk of "a new Cold War" and "mushroom clouds" seemed entirely nonsensical to me. Al Qaeda has the organisational acumen to blow up multiple planes or ships or trains at the same time, killing hundreds, even thousands - but they in no way measure up to the threat of annihilation we grew up with during the Western-Soviet idiocy.

In terms of wrecking the nation, only the citizenry and the government have that ability.

re: at least until the Chinese decide to make us their bitches,

Repeat after me: "Wo Ai Ni" ... best learn the lingo friend. ;-)

re: 2 - war or ideas

I agree that this should primarily be a war of ideas, but I don't think the US, at least, is anywhere near 'victory.' Frankly, the US has betrayed too many of its own principles to be a beacon, a natural moral leader, in this war of ideas.

Re: As may have been said already by others...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Depends what those ideas are. It's undeniable that shopping, booze, Lordi winning the Eurovision song contest, women getting some choice in who they go to bed with, and being able to buy Gilette Mach 3's without having to resort to the black market are a whole lot more interesting and enjoyable to the vast majority of humanity than anything else currently on offer, especially from the Frothing Lunatic corner.

[applez.livejournal.com]

FYI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_tigers#Human_rights_and_terrorism_issues

And the previous President of Sri Lanka lost an eye in a suicide bomb attempt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrika_Kumaratunga

[applez.livejournal.com]

Buggering up a federal europe? Then clearly he's doing something right for Britain! ;-)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

He's not necessarily buggered up a federal Europe - he's just buggered up any chance he ever had of running it. Screwing up the entire idea would be soemthing I'd've had respecty for him for, but he's not managed it yet.

Re: As may have been said already by others...

[applez.livejournal.com]

It's worth noting the partial and wholesale rejection of these offerings for a life of "meaning" has its own popular wing (beyond the lunatic fringe), even in the nativist US of A.

[applez.livejournal.com]

Clearly he should've listened to Sir Humphrey more closely. ;-)