1-2 million people, 99% redundant message bearers
Problem is that people are hideously misinformed and seem to have forgotten the 12 years Iraq has had to disarm, the time it STILL has to disarm and the 16 UN resolutions it is currently in breach of. The UN security council acknowledged this in signing 1441.
Our prime minister is taking a lot of flak from people who haven't thought things through. Some people have intelligent reasons for marching. Most however just want to wave a sign which says "war is bad". Ffs everyone knows it already and the Prime minister has made no assertion to the contrary.
To say its about Oil is insulting to the moral obligations of nations like America to safeguard both its own citizens and prevent the proliferation of both weapons of mass destruction and tyrranny.
All the people questioned during the march admitted that Saddam Hussein was a tyrant guilty of hideous infringments of human rights and yet all they effectively acheive by marching is his continuing status in power. After several years of MUN participation I've been a big suported of the UN. I agree with Kofi Annan that there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy of UN mandate. However I must concur that the political posturing of France in this issue is akin to the debacle which led to the destruction of the League of Nations. If they are unwilling to fulfill their international obligtions to safeguard the peoples of the world then they should relinquish their seat as a permenant Security Council member.
In the event of a terrorist attack on their soil the same countries which complain currently would EXPECT the US to be there to hand the terrorists' asses to them.
I am a believer in peace but not to the detrement of world stability. I think its intellectually bankrupt to sing the song "All we are saying is give peace a chance" when peace has been given 12 years of chance. To be honest I don't care how the inspections are doing because unless saddam effectively drops his trousers and shows UNMOVIC the full monty he's not fully cooperating which was the point of 1441. The point was not to get inspectors into iraq, the Resolution, as Mr Powell pointed out was not about inspectors it was for Iraq to make a full declaration of its military assets and to facilitate the destruction and confiscation of those assets through the use of Inspectors. Think Chess not Cluedo.
I don't want war and Saddam can stop war but he won't unless the call to disarm is backed up by credible force. If reasoning worked with Saddam then he would have disarmed 12 years ago, he's had every reason to and the obligation to do so placed upon him by a number of UN resolutions. If he didn't do it then then why should he do it now without any consequences being prescribed?
*Indiana Jones Theme Music*
The choice of title has to do with the fact that like Harrison Ford's alter ego I have managed an impossible escape. Namely getting out of the flat before my grandmother depressed the hell out of me.
She's like a never-ending prophet of doom.
Whilst I was in Hong Kong and there was a constant atmosphere of optimism amongst family members she was completely unable to off-load all her guff and depression onto everyone else and she would do things like this:
Sitting room is empty apart from myself reading the Newspaper, my dog Toffee and Granny.
Granny: (looking very sorry for herself)
Me: (Doesn't look up from his paper)
Granny:..... Toffee's getting old.. He's going to die soon isn't he hmm? his breed doesn't live much longer than his current age
Toffee: Gets a quizzical look in his eye and then turns back to his sleeping
Except in England she's got people to off load her guilt and grief onto. Well she had until my mother decided she wasn't going to take the crap anymore and that therefore leaves only one target: Me.
I had 3-4 days of her constant pessimism as she tried to wriggle out of selling the Stud Farm and tried instead to sell the flat to keep her record-loss making Horse Breeding program running. Then she started to indoctrinate me in "What's really going on". Thats right folks. My grandfather's conquest of 2 big law firms in Hong Kong and their amalgamation to create the premier solicitors firm of Hong Kong is "A very bad idea" and Robert Wang is selling out because "He's got huge debts from the firm".
Unfortunately this time I knew exactly the state of the situation and knew what a load of bollocks she was talking. She went onto many other threads but by the end of the day I had had it and I left to go back to Colchester. At first I was sad that the rest of her family really didn't want to help her but then I realized they always do, they have tried for years she just doesn't want to be helped. Its like she's some kind of doomsday junkie. I was totally deflated when I arrived in Colchester but thanks to a chat with parents I was topped up again.
I've honestly had enough of her palming off her depression onto me as she did to my mother for the period when my mum was helping her with the horses. I'm just going to have to adopt the Swaine 'ear of indifference' and ignore her on every non day-to-day topic of conversation.
If she doesn't like it she can just shut the hell up and kick her ass into gear.
Saturday night's alright.. Oh no wait its not
Its saturday and we can't use the farm and since my mates seem incapable of offering their own dwellings for use (I mean 2 years of only using MY house to visit is a bit out of order) we're apparently doing very little despite matt actually making it down this weekend.
Ben is absolved of any responsibility though as he has a smaller room and I wouldn't want to impose upon his family. Matt's family more or less ignores him from what I've heard and whether he even has a room anymore is doubtful but Richard's room is.. well.. roomy I suppose.
Its just a bit annoying to be the perpetual host to people who can't clean up properly, unless we have Matt with us which is about the only time that we live up to the standards of my mother. I mean the guy was nicknamed 'Scrubber boy' summer 2001 because he pretty much scrubbed all summer round. Did the dishes, hoovered. I mean it wasn't even his house but because he wasn't exactly in a 'mutually beneficial domestic environment' (read: His family doesn't seem to give much of a shit about him, just a prima-facie observation) he tended to like hanging around in our house and doing cleaning and what not. I would get all psychological and say he was living vicariously through us but I tend not to like to analyze things as it inevitably leads to the assertion that there is something hideously wrong with you. Put simply he's a nice guy with way to many millstones weighing him down. He needs to cut a few loose
Well anyway we're probably going to meet up in town later and do whatever. Not sure what but something will come to mind.
Later folks!
John
Posted by John Swaine at February 15, 2003 12:51 PM