Unintended consequence is reality’s most profound joke on us all (but particularly on Marx, something Groucho understood but Karl never did)
– Perry de Havilland, said at a Brian’s Friday gathering
|
|||||
|
An article in the Sunday Times today suggests that Tony Blair is exasperated that his wish to see a major deployment of ground troops to Afghanistan is being ignored by George Bush.
Sorry Tony, but whilst you and your new best friend George make a fine couple at photo opportunities, there is no disguising that there are two fundamentally different world views at work here. Tony Blair is the leader of a reformed socialist party who regards it as axiomatic that the role of the state is being ‘my brother’s keeper’. By extension Blair wants to take up ‘The White Man’s burden’ in Afghanistan. He wants stout and resolute British soldiers to prevent those messy Afghans from sliding into barbarism in the post-Taliban order. He presides over a nation which has a realistic view of the realities of war and has fought its last few rather well. As a result, the general British public has quite a high tolerance of combat casualties. George Bush is the leader of a corporatist capitalist party with a significant anti-corporatist and anti-interventionist wing. He has support for a war of retaliation and the destruction of Al Qaeda and anyone who stands between the USA and Al Qaeda. Bush presides over a nation which has a rather squeamish view of war, at least with regard to American casualties, and very little interest in open ended military commitments. Whilst images of women in Kabul walking unmolested without burqas causes Americans entirely justified satisfaction, few seriously think that is why their airforces and special ops teams are killing people in their names. Blair is not just wrong, he is dangerously wrong. An absolute prerequisite for coherent military operations is having clear and unambiguous goals. The Americans have set themselves exactly that: the destruction of Al Qaeda and any who give them succour. What Tony Blair is doing is applying his fuzzy socialist logic to a very simple strategic question and attempting to turn clarity into ambiguity. This is not a peacekeeping operation, it is not a nation building operation, it is not a humanitarian operation, it is a war against Taliban/Al Qaeda in reprisal for the mass murder of civilians in America: to think anything else is just a dangerous distraction. As I have been saying, we simply have no business trying to civilize Afghanistan at bayonet point, not only it is wrong, it simply will not work. Fortunately it seems that Bush and his advisors are able to see that too. November 25th, 2001 | Comments are closed
 News can be a remote, impersonal thing. We see stories about outrages in some far off land and we are duly outraged… and then we move on to the the next thing. Although I live in London at the moment, I used to work in the World Trade Centre and I was there briefly last June, so I must say I took the events of 11 September rather hard, but for others who actually witnessed it, the experience must have been altogether more appalling. My ex-girlfriend lives in New Jersey and watched the entire horror unfold from her bedroom window. But even so, eventually life moves on. Jay Zilber on Mind over what matters writes a thoughtful little personal reflection on this subject along with a dramatic photograph that does indeed put it all into perspective. November 25th, 2001 | Comments are closed
It seems the reporters in Afghanistan have decided to start a little war of their own. As in all wars, a very high proportion of the correspondents are British and they seem to be itching to take digs at each other. Has someone been denying these guys their early morning cup of tea or something? John Simpson has naturally attracted more than his fair share of flak after claiming he and the BBC liberated Kabul ahead of the Northern Alliance. Of course Lara Logan from GMTV had actually been in Kabul for some time before Simpson’s portly frame rumbled into town. And speaking of the truly delectable Lara Logan, ITN’s sour puss Julian Manyon accused her of “exploiting her God-given advantages with a skill that Mata Hari might envy” to get interviews with General Babajan. But note he does not criticize her reporting, which has been just as sound and professional as Julian Manyon. Time for a reality check: if you were General Babajan, who would you rather chat with, Lara Logan or Julian Manyon? Sorry Julian, no contest. Somehow I suspect that if it had been Lara skinny dipping in the Salang Gorge rather than Manyon, the locals would have taken a considerably less hostile stance. And of course, the Guardian cannot resist a little sniping either:
Journalists are a bitchy lot. November 25th, 2001 | Comments are closed
John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” – Samizdata Illuminatus November 24th, 2001 | Comments are closed
I love Star Trek and its’ derivatives as much as anyone else who is a part of (as opposed to accidentally existing in) the Twenty-First Century. I grew up with it. As one of the old space radicals of the L5 Society I highly respect Gene Roddenberry, Majel Barrett and Nichelle Nichols for their pro-space work off stage as well as their marvelous original TV series. I’ve even met some of them at ISDC’s (International Space Development Conferences), the premiere meeting place of the space community. Tonight I saw my first episode of the newest series. I admit that if I had seen it before 9-11 it would not have grated (as much) on me. I was not expecting a “huggy feely they are misunderstood and are just like us” Political Correctness lesson masquerading as a story line. I can’t be the only one who shed all semblance of tolerating these inane attitudes two months ago. I watched the story and knew pirates are bad people. You kill them. They aren’t poor misundersood sentients who would be nice if you just sent them a Christmas pudding. Pirates are nasty, brutish scumbags who go out on the spaceways and make a living by stealing. You would rob a vessel in space the same way pirates did it in the 17th Century … and still do in Southeast Asia… you kill people. Pirates don’t pull up alongside and say, “Would you be jolly good chaps and give us your cargo and valuables? We’d be ever so appreciative. Ah, now that’s a good fellow! Would you be so kind as to not tell anyone what we look like? Ta ta now!” It got worse. I nearly gagged when a black character admitted he knew what it was like being treated as “other” on Earth. This was a total farce. He grew up on a slow cargo ship that spent months and years between the stars. He probably never even saw anyone outside his ship family until he was nearly an adult. Even that is beside the point. Given another two centuries of global travel, communications and capitalism Earthmen will be a polyglot in race and culture. We’ll all be part African and part everything else as well. Visit New York City and see the future for yourself if you don’t believe me. It would require a victory of “multiculturalism” over human nature to preserve races, let alone racism, that far into the future. The lines were gratuitous and given that a black actor was forced to deliver them, real racism. Why do black professionals have to be singled out for the “victim” mantle? Isn’t the Colin Powell/Condelezza Rice image a hell of lot more positive for kids? Screw the victimhood. Teach kids that they CAN, not that they can not try and then blame someone else. The traders of the story are supposedly rugged individualists who “solve their own problems”. But the First Officer was just an unlikeable strawman for the PC story line and was certainly no Signy Mallory. The Second Officer was just a wimp who’d have been tossed out the airlock by age 10. He spent most of the episode looking like he needed a diaper. The political subtext was so blatent I couldn’t abide by it. The Free Traders are attacked by alien pirates. They beat the shield frequency codes out of one they capture. Fair enough. Pirates are pirates. I have no problems there. They should have dumped him out the airlock after they got the codes. But it was all done as a set up so the Captain of the Enterprise could pontificate about how the pirates were just misunderstood. The Enterprise arrives just in time to save the traders, negotiate a settlement and show that Law’n’Order and the Great State now Rules The Spacelanes. None of that naughty self-defense now! Then everyone gets out their teddy bears and has a hugfest. Roll Credits. I really hope the producers notice attitudes have changed. Perhaps they should invite Virginia Hienlein to advise them. If they did the Enterprise crew would just space the pirates next season instead of talk to ’em. Now… the question that might have occured to some of the more observant readers: how did I see this episode in Europe already when it won’t air here for some time? Well kiddies, that’s another bedtime story. In the next chapter Uncle Wiggly will… oops! Wrong lifetime! November 24th, 2001 | Comments are closed
I can forgive the fact that our intelligence personnel and police missed the bits and pieces that might have prevented 9-11. Despite the excellent hindsight of some writers, it really isn’t all that easy to put such together. Security and police around the world held pieces of the puzzle; but they did not share them because they did not know there was a puzzle. Some of the kamikaze war criminals crossed paths with law enforcement; but in a free society law enforcement does not breathe down the neck of every “suspicious” individual they run in to. Above all, no one… not me, not you, not the head of the CIA, not even Tom Clancy… could have imagined what was to come. But my forgiveness has its’ limits. The following is simply beyond the pale, an inconceivable level of incompetence on the part of our public servants:
I would very dearly like an explanation why our multi-billion dollar intelligence service didn’t have anyone in those houses in Kabul before the media. Perhaps we should just replace the lot of them with the reporters. But what are we to do with all the failed spies then? Are any small towns perhaps in need of dogcatchers? Our ex-intelligence people might, just might be on the ball enough to find a lost dog if it’s big enough. And in a safe suburban Beltway neighborhood. In the middle of the street… …with a dayglo “Stray Dog” sign hung around it’s neck. November 23rd, 2001 | Comments are closed
I never thought that the US state which gave us the supreme statist elitist mouthpiece of Ted Kennedy would ever be worthy of anything other than derision and contempt, even from a resident of the “Socialist Republic of New Jersey”. Carla’s tea party clearly demonstrates I was wrong and I humbly apologize to the libertarian residents of Massachusets. Hail and well met! I will be very curious to see how the mainstream media handles this tax revolt. Personally, I think they will treat it the same way they do most of the “Shall Issue” right to carry a concealed firearm legislation so popular in the US. Namely, avoid it as much as possible, then give it very minimal airtime during which you ignore all the great positives, vastly inflate the very small negatives, and spew dire warnings of calamity and anarchy. When the people get the law passed anyway and none of the horrendous predictions comes to pass, just pretend it never happened but work to get the law repealed by publishing every story of gun violence you can find, even if they occur in countries far removed culturally and geographically. Think I’m making this up? At last count 33 of the 50 states have some form of “Shall Issue” legislation. Another 11 have a more restrictive form of carry laws. Only 6 absolutely forbid it. A show of hands, please, from those who learned that from the big media. In the case of tax repeal, it will be interesting to see how the self serving career politicians supping at the trough of our tax dollars will argue that we need to keep the status quo. Look for a smoke screen of the beneficial state protecting society’s down-trodden and sheltering us all with its superior security. It should be very enlightening. November 23rd, 2001 | Comments are closed
I saw this on Natalie’s blog and it was just too good not to share:
November 23rd, 2001 | Comments are closed
Congratulations to Steve Bennett on the unmanned test flight over Britain of his 38 foot (11 metre) Starchaser rocket. The launch took place at Morecambe Bay in Cumbria. Bennett described the launch as being “85% successful” due to the fact that two of the three parachutes became entangled, causing the expended reusable rocket main body to return to the mud flats of Morecambe Bay rather faster than hoped for. The unmanned passenger capsule detached and landed perfectly however. Despite having many detractors, Bennett intends to be the first passenger once the rocket is ready for its maiden manned flight. This is yet another indication that privately built and funded manned spaceflight is drawing ever closer. I wish Bennett and all the other pioneers of non-governmental spaceflight the very best of luck… for they are the very best of us. Per Ardua ad Astra November 23rd, 2001 | Comments are closed
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. – Benjamin Franklin, 1759 November 23rd, 2001 | Comments are closed
There is a splendid little article about Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) by Gary M. Galles which give a good overview of what the man was all about. I have always though modern anti-statists would do well to emulate Bastiat, because as well as being extremely coherent, he was a very witty satirist (for example his Petition of the Candlemakers for state protection against the unfair competition of the sun). Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek called him a “publicist of genius.” November 22nd, 2001 | Comments are closed
|
   |
||||
All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
|||||
Recent Comments