This blog was always going to go one of two ways. I could either talk about the recent hoopla in England, or talk about the dangers of hitch-hiking. The first plan was to toss a coin and see how I'd go, but then I thought I wasn't going to let some pesky random chance like the rolling of a dice decide my fate for me. We get to make choices in democracies, and damn it, I'm exercising my right to say, "No!".
Good ol' Angry Islam. You just can't shake those buggers can you? Doubtless the powers that be will be denying any link between British Middle-East policies and these angry young men, but hey, a scratched record is just a lazy man's communications plan. At first I was suspicious the whole she-bang amounted to a marketing plan by Coke, you know, to force people to have to drink only their products on planes, but then realised that was just a random and paranoid delusion.
In the end I just settled on being satisfied in labelling 'munters' all the chickhawk types running around with the waving of the arms. What the weekend has established again is that we in fact have less to fear these days that we did in the time before 911. Why? Because back then no-one listened to the spooks. It's well-established that 911 occurred because the threat was not taken seriously. These days though? You can guarantee that any angry young man who decides to strike a blow against the people demolishing Iraq and Lebanon will be arrested and likely locked up.
The upshot? Less fear, more trust in the security guys. You know, the guys paid to be paranoid.
Meanwhile, we get interesting little stories in the papers like this one, which claims that Bush gave the green light to the Israelis several months ago. Why? As a practice round for knocking out Iran's nukes. Ever think that we should maybe have someone watching this guy as well? Previous reports have Bush giving the go-ahead only after the IDF was already in action. I think there's likely more to this story than you'd expect.
Closer to home and with our own concerns, I know that right-wingers and chickenhawks like to take the piss out of 'lefties' and 'socialists' because of the preoccupation with 'root causes', and to be honest that one kinds of pisses me off too. Not as much as the constant carping about 'socialists', mind you. Guys, no-one has taken socialism seriously for decades... And 'root causes' tends to overlook that much conflict is very much rooted in the here and now.
There is no root cause for a pissed off youngster who sees an injustice occurring and has no way to express their anger. Injustice such as the levelling of Falluja under the cover of the Olympic Games. These people just see that their voices are ignored and they become increasingly disenfranchised. Of course, this leaves open the question of why they chose violence, but that's another matter. Most of of the hundreds of thousands ignored before the great search for WMDs in Iraq haven't taken up weapons. Maybe there's more to it then. Maybe being called a 'Paki' and disparaged by every white-trash cock in England could be a reason for it?
Who knows. Whatever the reason, they shouldn't be resorting to finding extremely inventive ways of blowing people up.
It does make me wonder though. Is there a terrorist think-tank somewhere?
Abdullah: We need a new angle... You know, something that just says.. "wow, those terrorist guys really mean business!"
Saddam: Yeah, I'd like to be able to show the boss something that'll really turn some heads you know, but... I'm just not feeling inspired.
Abdullah: [Sigh...] Yeah... When I signed up to this Jihad thing, I thought there would be more travel, you know? And more chicks.
Saddam: What about that trip to the fatherland in August?
Abdullah: Oh, too hot you know, I get thirsty just thinking about it. Pass me that water-bottle will you?
Saddam: Waitaminute....
It's a good thing we don't have to worry about these guys. Big on ideas, poor on execution. Well, that was a bad pun, but you get the idea. Pity to have to screw travel up for years to come though. Which kinda makes me think they're onto a win-win situation for them. Plot works, big drama. Plot foiled, big drama.
Might be time to get the 'root cause' to finally make peace with it's neighbours.
PS. I am humbled in my piss-taking abilities. Hat tip to Grabthar's Hammer