A Quick Look At The Papers

I have completed over 100 posts so far. I have deleted a few over the course of time, but this post is number 102 of those that are still available here.

Today's post isn't about anything in particular. Instead, I have decided to just note a few of the events covered by the various papers and news programs that I watch every day. I am not obsessed, just morbidly curious, about current events: how they are linked, how they effect each other, how they affect all of us, and how they unfold on an almost minute by minute basis all around the world.

In Britain today there is much speculation as to how much longer Tony Blair can remain in power. One junior minister and a few parliamentary secretaries have resigned, after calling for Mr. Blair to step down and allow for new leadership of both party and government. Many other high-ups in the Labour party have signed a letter to Mr. Blair asking him to set a deadline for his leaving office. In short, there is rebellion brewing in the governing party, and the main opposition party is making headway with the voters.

Much of this uproar is centered on Iraq. The British troops are stretched and dying daily in wars, both in Afghanistan and Iraq, that appear to have very little in the way of exit, or any other, strategy.

Meanwhile, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the wars go on. The Grand Ayatolla Ali al-Sistani has officially washed his hands of politics because nobody listens to him any longer. He will now take only questions of a religious nature, and he is sure that Iraq is destined for civil war. He is not alone in that assumption. The Iraqi Shias have instead turned to Muqtada al-Sadr, the cleric who has his own militia and offers the Shias revenge for the killings done to them by their Sunni countrymen and counterparts. The level of violence is the highest it has been since the fall of Saddam, who is still alive and standing trial.

In Afghanistan the Taliban has recovered much of the countryside bordering Pakistan. The official government has dubious control of the cities, but the countryside is controlled almost entirely by warlords and Taliban/al Qaida fighters. The opium production is in full swing and it appears to be a bumper crop...so many Afghans in the countryside will probably not starve this winter. The war effort, largely forgotten in the wake of the invasion of Iraq, has fumbled half-heartedly on and on. Lack of troops, strategy, funding, and economic planning has led to a seemingly stalled and forgotten adventure. Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan and shelters many of the Taliban and Al-Qaida cadre', seems to have called a truce with the warlords and clerics that rule it's own frontiers. A sort of non-interference treaty is in place. So much for the war on terror. The Pakistani government, like it's Afghan counterpart, lacks authority outside of it's urban centres, and the will to confront tribal leaders in the countryside.

North Korea and Iran are still undeterred in their pursuit of nuclear power and ballistic missiles. Oil prices are getting higher as supply remains uncertain. In Europe there is a growing drift towards militarism among young Muslims, and small cells of home-grown terrorists are still hatching grand plots in order to make their mark and to hurry their promised entry into paradise.

In the USA there are election on the horizon. The Administration is once again playing on the fear of the American public (which they are very much responsible for implanting in the first place) in order to continue their aggressive agenda, both foreign and domestic. The Democrats are impotent and lack any cohesive policy to counter the right-wing, born-again hawks that they are up against.

Torture, kangaroo-courts, domestic surveillance, and zenophobic paranoia are very much the stuff of the next elections in America, and should make for some very interesting and amusing viewing.

So much for today.