Is "modern" terrorism just guerilla warefare on a grand scale

Rachel from north London: 339 days left and counting In her post Rachel talks about waterboarding and Dubbya's sanctioning of it. Rachels post sparked off some thoughts on what terrorism is today and the question of whether or not the West is actually operating its own brand of terrorism?

9/11 happens and the US turns left and kicks the living daylights out of Iraq on a pretext of WoMD. Spin it up a bit, hunt for Saddam and remind people about Osama. Oh and the UK blindly? joins in despite condsiderable pressure and opinion from the public not to.

Who pays? Largely the people of Irag, bombed to hell and beyond and left with a legacy of suicde bombers fighting guerilla style. I'm sure lots of those people will view us as terroists. Our course there are soliders, many of whom are just doing their job, and trying to stay alive. The public of the US and the UK are carrying the financial cost, but the soldiers are paying with their lives or limbs or mental health.

It must be difficult for them, in the past armies did as they were told. The ruling (upper class) minority used the lower classes as cannon fodder. (WWI being a prime example). Today it is different, media and information and access to opinion abounds. If I was a soldier I;d feel sold down the road if I was in the middle of a fire fight in a country where I might feel we shouldn't be, not to mention scarred shitless that life might be about to end.

To be a soldier today I think you have to be brave, because ultimately in this type of war they are the equivalent of cannon fodder, the only difference being they can now see the insincerity of the politicians that run our countries today. I feel sorry for US and UK and other nations whose soldiers are fighting, their governments don't care about them. They don't care about the innocent victims in the battleground countries.

Vietnam, Northern Ireland etc, You'd think the politicians would learn that big traditional fighting forces are ultimately no match for guerilla warefare. The modern western army is designed like the old Roman armies. Big beasts to slug it out against equally big beasts on open ground in a very short time.

Gulf war 1, the west wiped out the Iragi army pretty quickly. GWII.....it is still going on, is the West really winning?

Waterboarding, torture etc makes us terrorists too, but the politicians seem to think it is justified. Publicity on all this is only going to incite reaction from sympathetic groups in the West who may endeavour to launch terrorist attacks themselves.

How much of a threat is there? how many threats do the homeland security services in the UK and US actually thwart? Surely they should be singing from the rooftops about the attacks they stop, won;t that discourage local cells from attacking?

No apparently it is much better to keep it all secret. The 7/7 attack in the UK, still no clarity, smoke and mirrors. Political credibility is zero. The arrogance of the politicians to think that they can spin their way out of situations is amazing. The scary thing is the spin instances happen so frequently that next one makes the last one yesterdays chip paper. Look at all the bullshit surrounding MPs expenses and allowances.

Jesus we actually elect these idiots!!!

Somber thoughts: Simon Cumbers RIP June 6 2004

I recently took a course in coaching football and discovered how seriously (possibly dangerously unfit I am)

Its funny the thoughts that arrive in ones head at certain points. Realisation about my unfitness prompted me to think about the death of someone I was friends with as a child, between the ages of 9 and 10 in Longford, Eire. We moved aware when I was 10 and that was that. The person in question was Simon Cumbers who was the camera man killed by Al Quaeda in Riyadh in June 2004. He was one month younger than me. He was a good friend as child in a period of unsettlement for me and I never forgot his inate kindness and good humour.

When Simon was killed he was with Frank Gardner, Frank was shot first and Simon ran for his life...I can't help but ponder how terrified he must have been in the final few minutes of his life. I don't know how fit he was, he obviously had a busy life but whether or not he had time to maintain his fitness I don't know, could it have saved his life?

Why am I asking the question? well I think it is interesting that Simon managed to put 1.5 miles between himself and the shooting of Frank Gardner before he was murdered. I don't know if he was still carrying his camera. What happened him in those last few minutes...did he get caught, or lost or could simply no longer run...

Why didn't he try to hide? Who knows...the sheer terror of his last minutes may have been sufficient to drive his body to cover that distance in a vain attempt to survive.

I would have been unable to move after covering 100 yards...

So what did killing Simon achieve for Al Quaeda? absoutely nothing, short period of noteriety for killing an ordinary man doing his job, an honest man, whose qualities I saw as a child, which impressed at that age and drew me into friendship with him also appear to have carried on into adult life and been apparent to others as he journeyed through life.

So the war on terror is totally senseless, utimately killing thousands of innocet people on all sides...and what for?

GREED

Greed for imposing belief, greed of religion...what is religion anyway...it is thoughts and opinions...nothing more...greed for money, greed for popularity, greed for votes...greed for popularity, greed for reputation that could not ever garner respect (G W Bush a TWAT trying to live up to a family name, first acts, good, bad or indifferent are hard to follow. GW seems to have taken presidential rule to a new level of incompetence with a huge price for the people of the US... I feel sorry for them particularly those that have died for a cause that didn't really exist.

This warrants further discussion.

It is such a shame that so many lifes are lost because of the instruction of a few very misguided individual, western, eastern or terrorist. Worse still democracy presented the US and UK populous the opportuntunity to replace those in power and despite the over whelming evidence of public dissatisfaction both powers survived...

The media has clearly corrupted democracy to massive extent beyond basic spin. Thats scary in a world where in theory we have vast access to information and knowledge and are more empowered than ever to decide in what we believe.

So on behalf of innocent people like Simon Cumbers...shame on those that have in their power to control the events that take peoples lives though violent acts. It would appear Northern Ireland and Vietnam have thought todays politicans nothing. Organised armies never, ever win guerilla warefare.

puzzling question...

A sort of blokey questions though if a lady has the answer I'd be delighted to hear it....


Cement mixer lorries, you know the type, the ones with continuously rotating barrel on the back with the load of congealed grey porridge on the back around the spout.

How the bloody hell do they clean out the insides of these things? Ever mixed cement in a wheelbarrow and left it a couple of hours before trying to clean it? nightmare.

I was in a traffic jam behind one of these things thinking about that interspersed with thoughts of sex every few minutes (cause thats what we blokes think about, apparently....)

It really bothered me, do they just chuck a load of gravel and water in and swirl it round very fast before getting the barrel to spew it out again? if so doesn't that make a whacking great mess everywhere and isn't it bad for the environment?

So who knows how to clean out a cement mixer lorry........answers appreciated please........

Small irriatating observations....

Today I wandered out in the car to buy a newspaper at a local supermarket which is a couple of miles at most from my house. (I did wonder why I didn't walk up to the gargae instead which is nearer, walking being heathier and more useful for removing my extra half stone.

Anyway I got to the supermaket (the one with white lettering on an Orange background, part of my personal crusade not to use the one with blue lettering on a white background) and I lumbered around in the car, tousled hair, scruffy clothes, (unshaven for two days, part of my skincare regime, facial hair liberation, less burn damage from the razor), my son (8) bought me the Gilette Fusion for Christmas, its the one with 5 blades, I think he had some subconcious hope that I'd turn into David Beckham as he asks me at least twice per week if I'm using my new razor (he checks for facial smoothness), I confirm I am and I always see a fleeting look of disappointment in his face. (Nope he still looks like Daddy)

Also the bloody 5 blade razor is hell first thing in the morning if your face is tender, anybody ever get sore hair? well I get sore beard and then I drag a razor across it!! and believe me for some reason the 5 blade version is seriously more painful at this point than the 3 blade "Mach Turbo" (marketing dept getting double speed in the name there, clever bastards!) If I stop using the David Beckam model my son will disown me, if I keep using it I may turn into Becks and end up with Posh! now that would be a nightmare!!!!!! I like proper women me!


Anyway back at the supermarket, I'm lumberingly motoring round the carpark in baglady mode (had brushed my teeth though as I didn't want to cause fellow shoppers anguish and cause them to fall over on a Sunday morning) looking for a parking space, there were none.

Interestingly row 2 & 3 out 10 rows of spaces are all for disabled drivers, which is excellent and as it should be of course......but really 40 disabled spaces, occupied by 3 cars! is it really really necessary to have sooooo many diasbled spaces?

So there are 2 possibilities, either I've missed "disabled shopping" time which I always appear to have an uncanny knack for doing or proportionally they've allocated too many spaces for disabled parking.

Also the penalties are draconican, clamping is mentioned in abundance (individual signs every two spaces for those that are hard of seeing), fines etc, I stopped reading for fear of a threat of prison. I eventually got a parking space but was left wondering with some annoyance as to why there are so many disabled parking spaces in supermarkets when clearly they don't get used. Other than its down to legislation can anyone provide me with an answer?

Next week I might be brave and position my car across 2 or 3 of the spaces as protest, I wonder if I did this would it legally be classified as parking? If it is I might just say that Jeremy Clarkson left my car there.

and don't get me started on "Shop Mobility" anyone else notice these in covered car parks? again no issue with the principle, just the volume.

It is clear I'm turning into a Grumpy Middle Aged Man and I'm not 40.......yet.

Went to see Arsenal play today....stange experience!

Today we went to see Arsenal play Wigan, at the emirates stadium. I've not been to a premiership match for many years. Myself, my partner (shes the true Arsenal supporter!) and our 8 year old son went. It was a surprise for my son and amazingly we were walking down Gillespe Road with all the other fans and he still didn't twig that we were going to a match. He thought everyone was out for a nice Sunday walk! Ahhh the innocence of childhood.

We had paid a friend of my partner's for the use of 3 season tickets from her family, we were seated behind the Goal where all three goals were scored, Block 07, rows 5 seats 220, 221, row 4 seat 220.

Now that the scene is set here come my thoughts on it...

Going down on the train we overheard a conversation (friendly banter) between an Arsenal fan and a sometimes Tottenham fan. The Arsenal fan was a proper fan, working class man attending his teams matches week in week out, truely loyal. Knowledgeable about the game, his team and indeed knew more about Tottenham than the man he was having the conversation with.

Anyway the conversation got round to the price of season tickets and it was clear that both men felt that they were too expensive, indeed Arsenal fan had clubbed together to buy his with a mate. Tottenham fan couldn't afford one and occassionaly borrowed his brothers. In fact Arsenal fan is not going to buy one next year as he doesn't feel it represents good value.

Tottenham fan left the train at Stevenage at this point and we continued our journey to Finsbury Park, us enjoying our sons blissful ignorance of the purpose of the journey, Arsenal fan lost in his thoughts as the train gradually filled as we stopped at the remaining stations on the rest of the journey.


So we get to the stadium and find our way across to the "orange quadrant", its all very impressive from the outside, in fact I'd even go as far as to say it has a majesty and presence that I felt was lacking once we were inside the stadium.


So we queued up to buy a couple of small bottles of water, a hot chocolate, and two kit kats.....little change from a tenner. Train journey £27, tickets £120. So then we went to our seats. I read some of the programme (£3, thought that was reasonable) and was astounded to discover that the band of seating that runs below the boxes and above the lower tier of seats is called the Club Level and costs per SEAT somewhere between £2500 and £4750 per annum!. Theres' over 7,000 of these seats and to get on the waiting list for one costs £250!

The seats we were in cost about £1000 each for the people who own them, (one of them waited 13 years on the waiting list to get one). The views are not great, one's eye level is about player hip level. There are probably cheaper season seats available but I'll bet they aren't much cheaper. So this is what's happened to the working mans game........its got bloody expensive. Wigans season tickets by comparison are about £350 per season.


On to the match itself. Overall I thought it was pretty disappointing and I couldn't lose the thought that a number of the men on the pitch were running around quite daintly for £75,000 plus per week! I could run around just as daintly for a lot less per week!

In particular a number of players appeared lazy and unfocused and to be fair the Arsenal fans were appropriately critical of their teams performance. Unfortunately our day out was marred by the abuse dished out at the Wigan Goal keeper by the chap in seat number 222 in row 5 block 07. He obviously didn't like Mr. Kirkland and in true gladitorial nature wished to make this fact known. Generally I've no problem with this desire, what I do have a serious problem with is the language with which this individual chose to make his feelings known. The air was lumious blue and laced with a violent intent that was over the top. All of this in presence of a number of children under the age of 10.

My son's jaw dropped a number of times and at others he was quite clearly frightened by the obviously violent intent he could see in this mans face. This man should be ashamed of himself, he was clearly not interested in the sporting spectacle merely in venting his latent inner violence. (He wasn't a regular in that seat either)

We went out for a day out to see the beautiful game, to give my son a taste of the exhilaration of a live mass audience event. Instead I certainly came away disappointed wondering what has happened to the football, it certainly appears to be drowning under the weight of corporate finance, the working mans game is now the business man's and greedy capitalists game.

It is a real shame and I hope my son will still enjoy his football and not be fazed by the attitudes we saw today. For me, well I dispair, the money is spoiling the game and preventing the working class people who invented it actually enjoying it live due to cost.

The last point to disgust me was the Arsenal senior squad of 25 players or so only consists of 4 English players, (Wigan have 11 in their squad). Maybe it is just me but I'd expect top flight UK teams to consist of a larger number of national players. FIFA should do something about this and the FA need to do more for grassroots football at school level to nuture talent and create desire to play football for one's country, when I was a kid that was the ultimate goal, that and winning the FA cup.

Nowaday's young boys are dreaming of all the money, the cars and the pretty girls, football itself seems to be something of an appendage.........NOBODY should be paid the silly amounts of money these guys are paid for kicking a ball on a rectangular piece of ground.

Its a shame the game itself and its spirit is disappearing before our very eyes. Arsenal don't have a family atmosphere anymore. Such a pity.

6 Weeks since I last wrote on here!! disgraceful!!

Gawd, I broke my New Year's resolution before I even got to New Year! How awful. Christmas seems like such a long time ago, is it just me or does anyone else feel like they are living at warp speed or the female equivalent which is warp speed in parallel 'cause ladies can multitask and blokes can't!


Quick update on Mr. Litvinenko, did anyone see the panorama programme on the case? very interesting. 2 Russins that the CSI Vegas or New York crews would have wet themselves over. The nuclear versions of the poli-lites would have been blown across the room such was the forensic evidence that these guys have been carrying Polo 210. The programme named and interviewed them supposedly in the pub where they met Mr. Litvineko. They had beer, he had a cup of tea. The tea cup alledgedly was covered in Polo 210, the source of his ingestion. Interestingly they also had a proper real life representative of the KGB doing some PR for them, he wasn't overly convincing, his body language says he was lying through his teeth.

There was also a third russian mentioned, but he was focused little upon in the programme, one got the impression that further nvestigations very going on and he could well be involved, he was at the original meeting in the pub as well. The mystery goes on. Hard to believe in this day and age of mass media, all ultimately with a limited lifespan, shelf life or audience retention that someone would be killed because of a book they might write. Can't help believing there is still loads more to this than meets the eye.

Any comments or thoughts?

The Litvinenko Case

This has died down somewhat.....but still no answers as to why the killing happened in such a dangerous and gruesome manner. Latest news from 16th Dec says it was because he held a dossier on a top Kremlin figure.

Again extreme killing method for a piece of paper that Litvinenko could have published before he died after all he was ill for a number of weeks and knew he was dying. So the chances are he knew his killers and of he had something to publish he had the opportunity but he didn't and he had the media at his bedside.....

So why not publish? to protect his family from harm....? a good reason of course

Anyone else have any suggestions?