An animal trapped is at its most dangerous

YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN...

From the same source as the previous items, this article notes how Bush has been summoning heavyweights from various previous administrations to ffer "advice" on how to extract himself from the current foreign policy. It is suggested he doesn't actually give a damm for any such advice - rather he wants to pretend co-operation with individuals on whom he can later "pass the buck". Given all his troubles, the fact that he used the holiday reccess of the senate to (legally for once) bypass approval of new political appointments and the creation of the new national police force heralded by many as an "Amerikan Gestapo", suggests he is following an agenda that has no intention of compromise. The totalitarian madness is so transparent that one is almost tempted to call him honest, save for that being a serious misnomer where intentions are concerned.

Scariest of all, though not considered by the writer of this link, is that now the ape emperor has no way to back out of his self-imposed prison, he is possibly at his most dangerous. Those who are finally waking up and demanding withdrawl from Iraq, his impeachment for high crimes, war crimes and other myraid misdemeanours must act quickly. Most of all, they must convince their representatives in the senate and congress to give up their financial sedatives long enough to fix a machinery of state that has entered terminal decline. The people of the USA need champions who address their needs, not the entrenched corruption of the Washington elite and their corporate paymasters.

So too to an extent here in Britain. One of the saddest aspects about the current hounding of the Liberal Democrat party leader, Charles Kennedy, is that it looks set to throw the one political force that opposed our partaking in the Bush wars into turmoil and a temporary uncertainty of direction. As a supporter of that party, I have long felt we needed a stronger personality at the head of the party, but this turn of events has all the hallmarks of a secret agenda to discredit the party and halt its ambitions on the eve of forthcoming local elections. This article holds some information that might give us a clue as to what's really up behind the scenes and suggests certain media may be complicit in the affair.

The supreme irony too is that Britain's other anti-war party, Respect, is currently disabled too. Its leader (and only MP), a certain George Galloway, has returned from extensive touring engagements in the USA only to enter the confines of the "big brother" television house. Whatever the folly (or otherwise) of this move in itself, those familiar with the programme will be aware that he has no contact with the outside world. He is thus oblivious all this Whitehall intruige and absent from the fray when his voice might be useful. Co-incidence probably, but one never knows.

Back in the US, religious mouth Pat Robertson has declared that the fate of Ariel Sharon is "god's will". Bush won't be happy about that one! The Palestinians must be very confused - a couple of decades back it was the Christians who moved in to slaughter them while Sharon directed the proceedings.

My view is that the absence of Sharon on the political stage may be no bad thing. His new centre-party has never seemed like more than a sham to give him the personal authority he needed to engineer an expaned, highly-fortified Israel to the detriment of a Palestine still struggling to achieve statehood. Withdrawl from Gaza was simply a ploy to get rid of a small unwanted region whilst grabbving more territory where he did wanted. That is served as a bit of good well-spun international PR was an added bonus. Given that his new party (without him) will probably not have enough support to form a government, the Israeli electorate will most likely end up with another coilition government. No exactly the best for stability, but preferable to one party following a criminal's agenda.

More interestingly, the departure of Sharon represnts the end of an era. His credentials have always been tied to the perpetration of a non-secular jewish state - a cause he fought for even in days preceding its formation. Whether post-war Britain had the right to cede Palestinian land to what became an expansionist occupational force is now ancient history. That land, and that land only, is now accepted by most Palestinians to be Israel's own and the future lies in co-operation not dictation. Sharon and his generation are ancient history too and the region needs new voices and new attitudes for a new era.

Israel was also one of the sadder failing of the United Nations. Not only did they fail to stop new new state illegally stealing neighbour's territory, but also turned a blind eye to the state's development of nuclear weapons. To this day, no action has been taken - yet all manner of sqawking is going on when Iran is thought to be doing the same. Even as the western world jumps back on the bandwagon to promote nuclear power, we have the audicity to prevent less developed nations doing the same. But I digress.

This link is more bad news for the future of the UN and indeed NATO. As if you hadn't guessed - Bush is withdrawing support for both.

Later.