ahh.. the ubiquitous gaffes from John Prescott have tongues wagging again..
He announced today that there would be a Labour leadership convention called 'very soon'.. and even though Tony's stated quite firmly that he'll still be at the head come the next Party Conference, there is always doubts spawned when comments such as those from Prescott come to the public ear..
Of course, this could be a case of wishful thinking on the part of Prescott..
More to come..
On to the events unfolding in the Middle East. There was a discussion last night, of how Israel was alienating itself from Western sympathy for the destruction of so much Lebanese real estate, with the commensurate loss of life. The position taken was, that diplomacy should have been a viable option for the Israeli's, rather than the continuous lobbing of bombs into what were thought to be Hezbollah strongholds.
Now let it not be said one can realistically be a proponent of the death of innocents, but again the point must be emphasised that there is nothing.. nothing at all which separates by visual identification, a terrorist and a civilian. Even children in that society carry firearms, and are well trained in their use.
The question which must be asked, is what choice does Israel have?
The terrorists themselves, were they that concerned about collateral damage, should at very least wear say, an armband, a beret, a distinguishable mark which says 'I'm going to attach the State of Israel'.
The conclusion which must be srawn is that these terrorist group.. Hezbollah..Hammas..al Q'aida..Taliban.. all use the fact they blend in with innocents as a weapon in itself. These groups all count on civilian deaths to draw worldwide attention to the fact that a state such as Israel is carrying out warfare indiscriminately... and such a conclusion is damning, and a chimera.
Extremist groups rarely care any more for the man on the street than they do for their own welfare. Their aim is to cause as much damage to Israeli innocents by the continued shelling of targets which are known to be peaceable. They even commit these acts against their own, by car-bombing markets and areas casual labourers gather to wait for employers to give them a days work. They kill theirt own as indiscriminately as they kill their declared enemy.
Point being, a terrorist is nothing short of a calculated murderer. This label cannot be attached to Israeli forces, for their intent is not to massacre as many Lebanese as possible, but to wipe out those who are in Lebanon only to attack Israel.
Warfare always has the effect of killing those who would normally be doing nothing more than carrying out their daily routine, but guerilla warfare counts on innocent blood being shed, and on the condemnation of those who cause that damage.
This is exceedingly worrying, this which is going on in Lebanon and Israel, because it's drawing lines.. segregating one religious group from all others. It would not at all be within the bounds of reason to suspect all Muslims to be extremist, yet those who are, count on this effect. Their aim is to make this a global confrontation, and unless clear heads remain in control, this could easily escallate into an issue which will eventually engulf us all.
There is not any country in the West which is not home to many faiths, including Islamics. Let not these innocents become targets for localised distinction, for the sake of terrorists..extremists..who in no way represent them, or their faith.