This is how it works..
Iraq has agreed that it's supplies of al Samoud missiles will be destroyed.. this, a day before the deadline set not by George and Tony, or the UN itself, but by no less than Hans Blix.. force majeur indeed..
It was only a matter of timing anyway.. and Hussein got weeks and millions of his enemies marching for him.. for what will doubtless be very little indeed..
But today, it's the 2d UN Resolution that occupies George and Tony.. with the British supplying the diplomacy, and the Americans the cash.. They're buying votes, unabashedly..
Anglola is willing to side with the US, if there's post-civil war aid.. not a sure bet in any case..
The President of Cameroon is under some pressure from his own people to cut ties with the French in this, an election year for him.. but again not a sure bet for the US..
Chile has been outspoken in it's opposition to any war, but economically speaking they can't afford to defy the US when the markers are called in..
Guinea is a Muslim state, and appears to be weighing the advantages of siding with the US.. it takes over the rotating presidency of the Security Council tomorrow.. while officially on the fence, it appears there could be backing for the American stance here..
Mexico is in a political dilemma.. it's election year and the public is against a war.. but the government's anti-war stance has begun to waffle this past week.. a deal regarding Mexican migrants is purportedly on the block..
Pakistan is thought to be one which will abstain.. the Islamic power there and public opposition to war.. another 'million man march' is promised for Karachi this coming Sunday..
These are the 6 countries who could force unilateral action through their own inaction..
We know what France will do.. we suspect what Russia is playing, that being both ends against the middle..
What we will see over the next week or so, is how seriously the major powers take the UN these days.. whether the prospect of a European Hegemony is more appealing to those who pull the strings in that theater than a settlement of a world problem.. whether the promise of American cash will be enough to sway those, who realize the one eyed man is king in the land of the blind..

This is becoming a farce, and it's the scenario both the White House and Whitehall wanted to avoid..
What Iraq has sparked is a reorganization within the ranks of the EU.. and NATO.. and indeed the very concept of what constitutes 'The West'.. Russia's now threatening to use it's UN Veto to scupper the 2d Iraq Resolution.. that puts Russia and France and Germany in an agressive stance concerning particularly the US, but coincidentally Britain.. sets the stage for what France would desperately like to see.. an European hegemony which could concievably rival the economic clout of the US..
An European hegemony in which France plays a pre-eminent role..
So while the various motk's around the globe have been fired.. infused with one or the other stance on the Middle East.. the reality is that the global population is being visibly manipulated into assuming emotional arguments in a situation that hithertofor would have been purely politically driven..
Certainly the average citizen of this world cannot pretend to understand the machinations of government in the Middle East.. even the diplomats there train in the subtleties of negotiation, prevarication, and appeasement for decades before they're allowed to open their mouths in public.. We in the west.. generally forthright and open.. cannot seem to get our minds around the differences between societies.. We are saddled with a sense of guilt for our own success.. a sense of somehow failing the rest of the world because we did it better and faster.. a willingness to decry our own perspective and assume another must be at least partly right..
We're a particularly self-destructive group we are..
And those in the East can see this.. They know, given enough time, we'll argue ourselves from a position of strength to one of weakness.. if only to 'let the little guy win for once'..
The East has learned patience.. It's obvious to anyone that this society of ours cannot last, that it will tear itself apart like a machine.. once well-oiled and tended and now left to run at full speed, reviled and kicked into a corner..
We will destroy this enlightened west of ours, ourselves.. all we need is time.. and those who oppose us are only too willing to give us all that's necissary..

One must say, that up til this point George has stayed on the right side of the truth.. that his claims justifying action against Hussein were reasoned and justified..
But today, the spin was on, and the target audience was the American people, his constituents..
George answered critics, who claim war would destabalize the area, by saying ' A liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region, by bringing hope and progress to the lives of millions..'
That's at best naive.. at worst deliberate deception.
Mind, it would allow the US, while occupying Iraq as a military government pro-tem, to keep a sharper eye on the Israeli's and the Palistinians, and to force compliance from both sides to the strictures of numerous UN Resolutions directed at the cessation of occupation of disputed lands and terrorism..
But as for the average Iraqi.. one doubts they want their country to be 'edified'.. turned into a giant PX.. eventually becoming an eastern copy of Nevada..
They'll never accept the presence of a non-Islamic leadership, regardless of the kind intent or will to help.. and George will have one heck of a job getting an Islamic government in place..
Already there are murmurings among Iranian dissident expats.. who await the day Hussein leaves, so they can go back to where home used to be.. with George saying he'd use some of Saddam's 'untainted' officials in an advisory capacity..
The majority of Iraq is Shi'ite.. the Ba'ath government, and the Civil Service, are for the most part Sunni.. They don't really care for one another.. let alone what they feel about 'westerners' and 'Christians'..
Would have been more honest George, to have shrugged, and admitted ' you can't please everybody'.. and gotten on with the job..

It's a closed session at the UN.. where the US will be working the other members of the Security Council, lining up support for this second resolution on Iraqi disarmament.. Tony's again working his own party, after last evening's mini-revolt.. and Iraq's has moved a unite of the 'elite' Imperial Guard in the north of the country, the first redeployment of Iraqi troops, in any numbers of any importance, since this brouhaha began..
Tell the truth, anything of any real import today seems to be generated from within the media itself..
ITV.. one of the three national broadcasters in this country, has anounced it will move it's main nightly news to 9PM, in the event of a war with Iraq.. This is the timeslot the BBC vacated two years ago, when it became the trend to stay up a tad later, have one more cuppa.. when the murder mysteries were over, time for the news..
But, if we're heading back into a war footing, that must include the public.. and early to bed..early to rise and all that.. has been part of the British war mentality forever..
One wonders if they'll be issuing blackout curtains, or if we'll have to buy them ourselves..
And it's not a beautiful day in the neighbourhood today.. Fred Rogers lost his fight with cancer .. and has died..

See, this is where it becomes confusing..
It's a matter for some jubilation among the public at large, that Tony's had the biggest party revolt since he took the reins of office, and that Jaques Chirac, christened 'le Worm' by the Sun..one of the tabloids.. has had huge support for his 'standing up to the United States'..
There still apears to be some confusion here, as to who wears the black hat in this drama..
Now normally one would be overjoyed, if not downright gleeful, to see Tony in discomfort.. but in this particular case even the Conservatives have to agree there is a case for preparing for war.. and that should Hussein force the issue, it should not be a responsibility we abrogate.. leave for one nation alone to face... especially a nation we've always had strong ties to such as the US..
Although, one of the village political experts did compare the antics of Jaques to those of Joe Kennedy, while London was being bombed..
However, this situation we face today.. it's prompted some shaking of the heads down at the local..
Those who have dealt with the politics of the Middle or Far East are in agreement, that those who have not, don't understand 'shyte from shoepolish' as one sage put it.. This, mind you, while removing encrusted wellies at the front door, proving he certainly knew the difference himself..

Once again I am struck by the inherent difference between even the US, and this Island which spawned it..
One might see George Bush sit down with a carefully selected panel, to defend his stance concerning this impending conflict.. but frankly one doubts it. The American idea of a leader is one who is a step removed from the public, for both the protection of their person, but also the preservation of their image..
Here, Tony has just spent the last 40 minutes on live television, facing eight of those who protested a week ago last Saturday.. who he knew were all going to be hostile to his stance..
The group was again a cross demographic mix.. perhaps representing the range that protested.. the questions all revolved about the 'why' of the war.. both the practical and the ethical...
One found onese'f actually sitting on the edge of the seat.. tell the television to 'just explain it to them as though it was a staff briefing.. tell them the truth..'
But rather, for some reason unbeknownst to us, Tony kept mum.. and while convincing in his sincerity, was too convincing when he repeated he 'didn't have the monopoly on wisdom..'
That statement amounted to preaching to the choir..

Tony's facing the greatest threat to his political career this evening.. at seven o'clock, less than half an hour, the House will vote on the government's position on Iraq..
As mentioned earlier, Jack Straw made his case forst, and then the rest of this afternoon's sitting was dedicated to responses from throughout the House, from all parties..
Comments ranging from 'Saddam only responds when his feet are held to the fire, and the heat becomes unbearable..' from a Conservative MP.. to 'it would be a criminal act of agression, were we to march in following the unilateral action of the US..' from one of Tony's own Labour members.
This is a free vote, which means the members can vote their concience, loosely speaking and assuming some have them. Already some 80 have declared they'll break Labour ranks and vote against their Prime Minister..
This, while George appears to be gaining ground with Mexico.. another fencesitter in the Security Council..
Had we only forseen the consiquences of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.. we might have acted differently in 1918..

An interesting speech from our esteemed Foreign Minister this afternoon.. Jack Straw, while not quite managing to bring the house down, did demonstrate with his answers to what may well have been a series of non-sequetorial interruptions, what the government was having to deal with from those opposing military action, while laying out why military action, is justified..
Jack dealt with the question in five parts.
He saw it breaking down into, why Iraq in particular, why not more time for inspections, why a new resolution if Iraq is already in contravention of an existing sanction, why not a policy of continued containment, and is there a double standard with the government's support of Israel v Palestine..a conflict of interests so to speak..
His answers.. edited for brevity.. were, Saddam's had ten years and disregarded 13 UN Security Council resolutions, still hasn't complied with the terms he agreed to at the end of Desert Storm, and he's a nutter who has a country bigger than France to hide things in.. that further time for more inspections would be pointless. Hussein has been raised in the age old Ottoman style of politics, and what would seem an humanitarian extension for more inspections bu the good folk of the west, would be to him a gesture of weakness, tantamount to permission to continue stockpiling his arms elsewhere while refining his plans against the Kurds and the west. It was also pointed out that when South Africa had to disarm following the abolition of aparteid, it took 9 inspectors three years to assure the world there was nothing that could possibly commit genocide in the arsenal. Iraq has had 12 years, and more than 100 inspectors off and on, and still they haven't a clue...the new resolution, says Jack, is to demonstrate to a doubtfull world that neither the US nor Britain want to rush off, guns blazing, to crush poor Saddam and the Ba'athist government. It is not recissary, as Jack so rightly pointed out, that this resolution even be asked for, becuase Iraq is already contravening the demands of 1441, but it is to allow the well-meaning impediments to a settlement of the problem a chance to see the logic and the right of action.. further containment, said Jack, would allow Hussein more time to increase his arsenal, as he has been doing since inspectors withdrew in 1998, and would serve to increase the suffering of the Iraqi people..
Now as to the last of the five.. is there a double standard in the west when Israel is brought into the equation..?
Yes, said Jack, there is.
Mind you, there is a not very subtle diference between an ally and a declared enemy, one which should be obvious to anyone. Jack continued to say that of course, the government was constantly urging both the Israeli's and the Palistinian authorities to follow the UN resolutions which bind them, intimating that the Middle East as a whole was at this time, a matter for concern.
They vote on the government position this evening. One will watch the results with.. 'bated breath..

Harry J. Anslinger. A man who wanted his name to go down in history.. just as his contemporary Edgar J Hoover did..
But though Harry himself managed, despite holding the office of Commission of the US Bureau of Narcotics for 32 years, to slip un-noticed into obscurity, his legislative accomplishments remain a souce of public interest to this day..
Harry, along with Randolph Hearst, managed to between them turn cannabis use into a criminal activity..
Now, as laws relax around the world on the use of this drug, and as new testing brings forth evidence of medical efficacy.. we have the UN stepping in with a warning to Britain about the relaxation of laws concerning the use of the drug, which take effect this summer.
As if the UN didn't have more pressing items on it's agenda..
Mind you, one can imagine Harry smiling.. somewhere..

This is becomming something worthy of Tristan Tzara himself..
The international support Hussein has received over these past few months has given him such incredible leeway, that he now has the affrontery to turn western politics against itself, by demanding a public debate between himself, and George.
Now this cannot be taken seriously, for the Iraqi leader hasn't even spoken to a western journalist in ten years, let alone showed any willingness for dialogue..
Having said that tho, this request for the debate was spoken to Dan Rather, as he did the first interview with Hussein in the afformentioned timeframe. Saddam put on his pious face for the occasion, and stated 'this is an earnest proposal, made out of his respect for the people of the United States and those of Iraq..'.
And now he'd like you to look at this prospectus for land investment in Florida..
Hussein has also intimated he'll not follow the demands of the arms inspectors, and order the destruction of the al Samoud missiles which Hans Blix says contravene the UN resolution.. This is a direct result of the idiotic peace demonstrations held worldwide ten days ago.. now Hussein believes the West is split, that he's managed to do it single-handedly, and that he can do as he pleases with impunity..
Of course, the stance that France and Germany are taking helps Hussein as well, for if NATO falls..there's one less coalition to concern himself about while he continues his regeme of repression and atrocities.
It's time for the western man to take a wakeup call.. to shed this caul of guilt.. this denial of success.. and the glorification of those percieved to be 'weaker'..
It's time we grew up.. for those enemies we do have in the Middle East, will next look to Israel, and will test the commitment we have to that ally.
And never for a moment believe that by appeasing Hussein, we will see an end to terrorist attacks.. for we are still and will always be, the Infidel.. and the enemy..

Now here's a point to ponder..
Folks turned up in their millions nine days ago to march against the war in Iraq.. some notable celebrities took their chance to do a Geldorf and have their photo's taken as they put on their 'Man am I concerned' faces..
But not one of them has come out with a protest song..
Are we that jaded.. perhaps uninspired by this..? Deep in our hearts.. do we believe.. that we shall overcome..?
One saw seasoned protestors out there weekend before last.. but no chants.. no beating of drums.. nothing to infuse the masses with a sense of urgency, unity, and passion..
Janis McNair, who teaches at Caledonian University's Center for Political Song.. no, not making it up.. says it's ironic, but the sheer mass appeal of the anti-war movement rendered it silent.. That there was too much of a demographic swath cut.. for any camaraderie to form..
Only one heard deserves a mention.. and it's to be sung to the tune of 'If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands'..
"If we cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq..
If the markets hurt your Mama, bomb Iraq..
If the terrorists are Saudi and the bank takes back your Audi
And the tv shows are bawdy, bomb Iraq.."
Yes.
And to think it took John Lennon ten minutes to write 'Give Peace a Chance'..

Some political posturing from Labour today.. with Geoff Hoon announcing to a less than enthusiastic Kuwaiti audience that Britain is 'poised for war'..
That's taking British understatement to an extreme.. the whole bloody navy, airforce and most of the troops this country posesses are mucking about in the sand, while this diplomatic charade winds it's way towards the inevidable..
Geoff's main issue is argument against those who would want 'unlimited' time for the inspectors to wander about.. used phrases the likes of 'abdication of responsibility on a massive scale..' and Saddam's 'endless procrastination'.. warning of 'dire consiquences' should this man be allowed to snigger, openly, behind his hand, at this dance the west is performing to accomplish that which he'd effect with a wave of his hand..
Meanwhile..George is suffering.. image-wise in Europe.. The ubiquitous 'Senior American Official Who Has Access To These Reports' says it's astonishing, that nobody sees Hussein as the bad guy here.. One ambassador to a 'friendly' Arab state bluntly reported that the US had become 'the enemy'.. one would put money on that envelope bearing a Saudi postmark..
It's not quite the reaction from the world at large that the Americans had been expecting.. especially in the wake of the World Trade Center incident..
But therein the inherent problem with American diplomacy.. they've become so big so fast.. they've either forgotten the unshakeable pride, perhaps hubris, of the far more ancient European nations, or they've never bothered to pay it much attention.. This oversight has given the Europeans a 'moral ascendancy'.. completely spurious in nature but still a viable force, and left the Americans wondering what it is they've done wrong..
It's not the easiest job George and Tony have taken on here, and it may well spell the end itself for Tony.. but then perhaps history will treat them more kindly than do their countrymen, when all's said and done..

It would make a grown man weep..
This computer is a monster y'know.. it's churning out millions of children who cannot spell.. cannot understand the basics of grammatical construction..who's vocabularies are miniscule.. and who's social skills can be called tribal at best..
Now typo's, and those words which might be construed as 'difficult' one might excuse, but when a grown woman in the western US constantly writes 'witch' when meaning 'which'.. or we can see statements the likes of 'asl..duz enny1 wanna chat w/me' as a mean.. then we must examine the cost of this progress against that which is lost..
In the meantime.. remedial spelling courses should be manditory.. if only to assuage the pedants out there..

UAV's.. the future of warfare..
The newest generation is called the 'Global Hawk'.. costs £25million.. can fly itself at 65 thousand feet from California to Australia and land itself.. without even a ground controller..
At the moment they're used for reconnaisance.. but as the technology improves.. it could be the end of manned bomber aircraft entirely..
Science.. it's wonderful..

The story of Europe's current fracturing is replete with ironies, outsize personalities and conflicting national interests, all three of which were on display in the one might think deliberate destructive intrusions recently by Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary. Historic elements have overshadowed the fact that there is a genuine argument to be had about the wisdom of rushing to war against Iraq. To worry that the march to Baghdad might kindle rather than douse the fires of terrorism or to fret about the legitimacy of preemptive war is not to be anti-American, merely obstructionist.
But listening lately to the discordant voices of Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder and others has led one to believe that the source of the tension runs deeper. A decade and more after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Europe is only now confronting the consequences both for the transatlantic relationship and for its own identity. The countries of Europe may agree to make common cause when the issues are small -- a peace-keeping force for Macedonia, a few thousand troops to help stabilize Afghanistan. But once the geopolitical stakes rise, national interests and pride win out over solidarity.
While the United States is pursuing those who launched the attack on the World Trade Centers, and those who support the 'cause' that led to 911, Europe is left standing, somewhat ineffectually, in the wings.
There are cocerns within the courts of Europe that since 1989, the US has been so preeminent, that eventually a western hegemony will emerge, and the EU while expanding, is not the vehicle for solidarity it had been expected to be..
Chirac and Schroeder lead the EU a the moment, and are well aware that their positions in the heirarchy are precarious, with membership in the EU burgeoning from 15 to 25 over the next few years.
This action against the Middle East may well be justified, but what Europe wants, which even Britain wants, is action that will eventually lead to a settlement of the Israeli/Palistinian problem.. and that is not on the American agenda at the moment..

Right then.. it seems the US, with Britain in the wings, is clearing up the diplomatic debris and is about to call time gentlemen..
George will allow the UN one more chance to examine the evidence and see what he sees, one more Resolution while the inspectors set a seven day deadline for the destruction of missiles that should not exist, one more chance for those Iraqi ships to end their endless cruise in the Indian Ocean.. to drop anchor and submit to examination..
But it's all a bit late in the game for anything other than war at this point..
The question is how many fronts..?

One has to shake one's head sometimes, at the well meaning bumbling about of those who live with a vibrant 'social concience' but no sense of how to apply it..
So many who will accuse themselves and their own of wrongdoing, while excusing the transgressions of others with all manner of sincerity, and great expense..
The tenor of the talk in the chats is changing from bemusement, to near universal condemnation for action against Iraq. The cost has been quoted at one trillion dollars by some who've read the extremist press and who take that figure at face value, without understanding the machinations of a war economy..
As Pope said 'a little learning is a dang'rous thing..'
Meanwhile, the inspectors protestations of non-cooperation from the Iraqi's is being buried, even disregarded completely by those who would sooner allow Hussein to continue than face the reality of the situation..
If only the masses understood what leeway they've allowed the Iraqi leader.. what weight they've given his cause, even at home..
One would bet good cash that the organizers of this protest understand the ramifications, and that in itself still has one's head shaking in puzzlement..
To what end..

An auspicious date aproaches.. one which should be noted for, if nothing other, coincidence's sake..
Twelve years ago today, George Senior told Iraq they had til 5 tomorrow afternoon to get out of town, or there'd be a showdown..
If we transposed.. that would be Sunday at 5pm..
A dozen years ago Monday morning, in the early hours, the shooting began..
And they say history isn't cyclical..

Y'have to love this island, and most of the people who live on it.. The wit and knowledge of those about you is astouding at times, and indeed the national identity is in large part based on knowledge, of something or other. Real in depth knowledge that is.. And the wit is inbred.. one is reminded of a taxi driver who when driving across Westminster Bridge mentioned this was where Wordsworth wrote quite a few of his famous lines, and when the recent arrival asked in all innocence, 'what.. right here on this bridge?', was told 'well no, he probably went home to actually write them down..'
Wit.. knowledge.. British.. tradition..
One actually stood, stock still in the doorway of the kitchen this afternoon as Anne Robinson worked her caustic paring down of the weakest British links,while one of the contestants, when asked in which Commonwealth country is the Province of Ontario, answered..after a pregnant pause mind you..' America..?'.
This proves inarguably that the US does not have the monopoly on general ignorance or downright stupidity..
Mind you, it took a lot to top the article in the Washington Post that informed it's readers that 'Scotland, is a country to the north of England..'.
Or Brooke Shields profound statement against the evils of smoking.. "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.."
Or Mariah Carey reaching right to the very heart of Third World problems with " Whenever I watch tv and see these poor starving children all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean, I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.."
Yes.
None of us care much for those damned flies..
And those Americans in Ottawa.. ruining the bloody colony, they are..

As the anti-war movement plods it's way through yet another workweek, for as we know even those with moral ascendancy do need to eat and pay bills, those plodding in the other direction are working out the final details..
One topic that's been quite popular with the motk, is what's going to happen to Iraq once Hussein's no more than a blurb in the history of what will soon become just another Middle Eastern country again..
Well, they've been busy, those boys in the back room..
Among the other parts of the post-Hussein plan..
Iraqi military forces would be gathered in prisoner-of-war camps.. Ba'ath opposition members now receiving U.S. training at an air base in Hungary serving as part of the guard force. The Iraqi troops would be vetted by U.S. forces, and those who were cleared, beginning with those who "stood down or switched sides" during a U.S. assault, would receive U.S. training to serve in what one official called a "post-stabilization" force... Now there's a time-honoured tradition being maintained.. find those who can't be trusted to have strength of conviction and give them a rifle and the power to use it..
U.S. forces would secure any weapons of mass destruction that were found, including biological and chemical weapons stores. "At an appropriate time," according to an an official, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency might, let's stress that word might, be brought in to examine weaponry, scientists and documentation.
Now, as well as a 'consultative council', an Iraqi commission would be formed to reestablish a judicial system. Yet another commission would write a new constitution, although officials emphasized that they would not expect to "democratize" Iraq along the lines of the U.S. governing system. Instead, they speak of a "representative Iraqi government"..whatever that might be.. considering the differences in religous denominations, tribal affiliations, and general traditional trains of thought..
They say the decision to install U.S. military and civilian administrations for an indeterminate time, stems from lessons learned in Afghanistan. There, power has been diffused among three power bases..U.S. military forces still waging war against the remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda, a multinational security force of several thousand troops in which the United States doesn't take part, and the interim government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. And they're having a wonderful time.