Another day, another delay. More my fault as I had a busy weekend and forgot to do a few things. There should be a bit of filler coming in the next 24 – 36 hours and the comic in the next few days.
In the meantime, lets go over a few the events for the past few days!
Sanity and common sense has returned to the good land of Israel tonight after gaffe-master general (and Foreign Minister) Avigor Liberman was locked in a cupboard and Benjamin Netanyahu decided to participate in a UN inquiry into the Gaza Flotilla fiasco (otherwise known as FAIL on the high seas).
This is probably the smartest thing the current Israeli government has done for a while now. To put it rather crudely by negotiating with Turkey and the UN to get a balanced team of 4 investigators Isreal has at last found that its better to be in the tent p*ssing out than out of the tent being being p*ssed on. The team consists of former Columbian President Alvaro Uribe, former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoff Palmer and one nominated person each from Israel and Turkey.
This has at a stroke pacified international critisism, satisfied Turkish demands for an independent inquiry and healed any rifts that were developing between the two previously firm friends. Nobody in either government wanted things to get out of hand which was why Turkey limited itself to hysterical vocal condemnation while Israel circled the wagons and ignored everything coming its way. Many people suggested that Turkey escort the next convoy but that was never ever going to happen. Ever. The entire Turkish military would mutiny before the order left the Turkish PM’s office.
Speaking of international spats, Britain finally came out and said what nobody in CENTCOM, Pentagon, State Department, or White House were too cowed or too embarrassed to say: that elements in the Pakistani government and military are colluding with Islamic extremists and as a result are exporting terror worldwide.
I’m actually glad its finally been said because the amount of damage terror sponsored by rogue Pakistani elements has caused stretches from Mumbai, through Afghanistan all the way arguably to London.
What Pakistan is doing basically constitutes burying ones head in the sand and playing loud music. It is a symptom of a country in very violent denial about what is a very serious problem.
Terrorism stalks Pakistan and has done for years. Car bombs, as well as attacks from gunmen and suicide bombers initially targeted only Western targets and then symbols of the then dictator President Mushraif but have now turned into a sectarian nightmare of unprecidented proportions.
Bombs have demolished mosques, women and children gunned down even the country’s cricket team, idolised by millions in Pakistan, now have to play their home games in Dubai or the UK as no team will tour after the Sri Lankan team was attacked in Lahore.
Yet depite all of this, nobody in Pakistan either in government, the military or the media there will seriously entertain the notion that all of this has been caused by Islamic extremists sitting on the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Instead they blame a variety of shadowy players mostly America, Britain, China, the EU and India.
These conspiracy theories continue to grow despite every new attack making the obvious even more so. The desire to ignore the huge elephant with a black turban sitting in the room baffles and confounds those trying to help Pakistan like America, Britain and even China. This is what makes Cameron’s comments so welcome. Its tough love.
Or at least thats what it seems like on the face of it. Remember that UK Prime Minister David Cameron had a rather topsy turvey visit to the United States at one point appearing to stand firm and shoulder to shoulder with Barak Obama and then cocking it all up by basically bending over to four cynical American senators anxiously chasing mid-term election success.
Then on top of this he then flies to Turkey and enrages (quite rightly in my opinion) half of Europe by strongly advocating Turkey’s entry to the European Union and then flies onto India and drops his Pakistan hearts terrorism bombshell.
Cameron is right to campaign for Turkish entry to to the EU and to condemn Pakistan for not getting a grip on rogue ISI and Pakistani government figures but this is such a topsy turvey foreign policy we are seeing so far developing that it is hard to call what Cameron will say next.
Then again after spending much of the past 30 years tied to America firmly it is refreshing to see Britain do what other nations such as Australia, France & Germany do so well: exert soft power overseas and on a budget no less. Fans of George Bush and Tony Blair skipping hand and hand through Camp David or moving capital wholesale to Brussels take note: Britain can survive on its own without being a poodle. Shocking I know.
