Thought

No truth is ever over heard.

History is the icebergs of the future

Planetry is a meditation on the comic book genre, not just a revision but look back on the event that formed the comic book world of today but by destroying it finding out what this means for the futrure.  Almost all Warren Ellis books look at the future in this manner.  We live in a present fromed by a fantastical past but oftern find our selves too close to understand what we see.  I mention ice bergs because that is a metephore for what I see.  The past towers above us to a point we cannot reach, but below our present.  At the water line of the ice berge events created continue to grown in complextion and consequence.  This is a bad explanation but it is all I can grab hold of at the present.

Israel Lebanon

http://www.writetothem.com/

Dear Mark Lazarowicz,

Reading the news this evening I was stunned to see the continuing destruction civilian infrastructure by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). I do believe it is the right of every nation to defend its self and its citizens but the deliberate targeting of the civilian infrastructure of Gaza and Lebanon has left me feeling numb. The ability with which the Israeli Government is able to explain such violence reminds me of the excuse and explanations used by Hezbollah..

I know there is little you can do in this case but I would appreciate it if you where able where possible to lobby the government, on my behalf, to put international pressure on Israel to restrict its use of force to combatants.

Yours sincerely,

Damian Sefton

Accepting the theory of Global Warming

Despite what appears to be consensus amongst the press about the truth of ‘global warming’ I know a number of people who say they still remain sceptical. I have two thoughts on the current global warming debate:

Firstly I do not like it when scientific theory is misrepresented as ecological fact. We can only really know if the theory/theories of global warming are correct after the fact. Unfortunately the theory is presented in this way in an attempt to engage as many people as possible but we as discerning gentlemen should rise above this.

Secondly I am not convinced by articles about the science of global warming because I do not have the theoretical background to make those judgements. What I am convinced of is the reports of scientific consensus around climate change. This creates two questions, is there really a scientific consensus and if so are they right. As I said I am convinced that there is a growing consensus around climate change amongst the scientific community; especially as the only reports I have heard discrediting the global warming theory are commissioned by suspect sources and as these sources are championed by the opponents of climate change I assume they are there most credible sources (or this could be part of a massive double bluff but I can’t cope with that). If the scientists are all wrong (it has happened before) we need to wait for the next paradigm shift to advance learning and despite my genius I do not think I will be the one to provide this.

So I am wondering are you convinced that there is a scientific consensus around climate change? If so what judgements do you make from this?

Letter to MP – Afghanistan

Sent to Mark Lazarowicz via writetothem.com

Dear Sir,

As a student of both political history and military history I am aghast at the cavalier approach this government has taken towards deploying British forces in Afghanistan. Given that Afghanistan has been a grave for some of the greatest armies in the world I am astounded in how easily we have committed ourselves to this region without proper planning or a clear mission. After the debacle that Iraq has become I should not really be to surprised.

If an army has no more strategic goal than to engage in a war of attrition against the enemy then it has already failed. An army needs clear objectives to plan for, before setting out on a campaign, then it need correct intelligence both before and during its mission in order to create a plan to achieve it objectives. Lastly it need the resources to carry out its mission. I am afraid I do not believe this mission has a clear objective or has been properly planned so it would be impossible to ascertain what the correct amount of resources could be. Please could find out from the ministers responsible for me the following in order to set my worries to easy.

1. On whose orders were British troops sent to Afghanistan

2. What was the conclusion of the advice as to the threat level British forces were likely to encounter and did this include advice from the American forces previously operating in the area

3. What was the mission of the British force

4 What were the estimated level of troops and equipment required to carry out this mission

5. Did the government receive any advice and criticism of this mission, such that it is, from within the Armed Forces

6. If we wish to stop the Afghan people from growing poppies for opium why are we allowing the Afghan market to be flooded with cheap grain

If the answers to any of these questions fall under the umbrella of ‘national security’ and are therefore not able to be give out please could you either gain answers for yourself and let me know if those answers were satisfactory or inform me who is providing oversight of this mission so I can contact them to ask for assurances. I would like at least answers to items 1, 3 and 6.

Yours gratefully,

Afghanistan

In response to:

All the greatest missions have crept spectacularly. This is no exception

There may well be good reasons to be in Afghanistan, the removal of the Taliban was a positive thing for the world but Afghanistan has been the grave of some of the greatest armies in the world. Success, in whatever you are doing, especially in Afghanistan requires a clear mission, good intelligence, proper plans and the right equipment. I just don’t think that is happening. All the evidence I have seen suggests that as we have seen time and again that the present British administration is unable to hear advice. Worse it decides on a course of action, then ignores any advice which may contratict that course of action, no matter the source.

Although I do agree with many of the intentions of David Aaronovitch’s articel I would prefer to really know what was happening in Afghanistan instead of journalists endlessly discussing the opinions of other journalists.

The Past From Above

Excellent arial photography of some wonderful historical sites.  Including the hilltop fotress in Aleppo, Syria.

The Past From Above 

Roosevelt – Buchenwald

'…and of those most miserable and outcast in the world, a few raddled survivors of a Nazi concentration camp, ennobling this universal shudder with a gesture typical of its poignancy and helplessness, raising up a torn black rag over Buchenwald.'

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/biography/0,,1799437,00.html

LS11

Post code for Beeston, area of Leeds where two of the 7th July bombers come from.

Churchill and prisoners

'Almost 100 years ago, Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, sought to define a civilised society by the way it treated its prisoners. He said in 1910: 'A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the state, and even of convicted criminals against the state … these are the symbols which, in the treatment of crime and criminals, mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation and are the sign and the proof of the living virtue in it.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1800442,00.html