The Shadow Of The Gallows

So, they finally got around to condemning Saddam to death. After months of wrangling and shouting, the much anticipated death sentence has been handed down, despite serious questions about the legitimacy of the court which tried him.

Now, don't get me wrong - I have no time for this numbskull, and I will shed not a tear for him when he hangs. Indeed, I was protesting against Saddam twenty years ago, at a time when the US was supporting and arming him.

However, it is interesting to reflect that a lot of what he says is perfectly correct: this is a kangaroo court with no real legitimacy, he remains the president of Iraq - despite the illegal occupation of his country and the verdict was such a forgone conclusion that it is hard to imagine him getting a fair trial. To be tried by your peers is bad enough, but to be tried by your enemies is a very bad thing indeed. And probably not the best way to ensure that due process is observed.

Again - to be clear - I abhor Saddam, and will shed not a single tear when he dies. But if the occupiers want to string him up they should just do so. What sickens me is the shabby facsimile of a court hearing that we have (sort of) witnessed. I think the US administration has reached a point where it no longer matters how wafer thin the pretence is, they know that they are playing only to their supporters. Those who oppose them will oppose them in any case.

I suppose that this bogus trial will go down as just another footnote in the history, that will one day be written, of this awful and stupid middle-east adventure.

Methinks that 100 years from now, sooner probably, Bush will be looked upon as a turning-point president. The one who turned the world against America. And turned America's back on the world.

A Bit Too Close To Home

I was looking at me hull earlier tonight, as the old girl bobbed and lurched with the motion of the briney. I thought I spied something amiss with her, but it was only a patch where the water left an unusual mark last time I was in port. Over the years I have had all manner of things bump and bang into the side of my little boat - they rarely do any harm, and if they do it is easy to put right.

Y'see, the sea isn't the natural enemy of the boat or the sailor. She is our friend, our protector, our reason for being. And although many's the man and boy that has lost his life to her, sailors are generally very affectionate towards "the big pond." And, although she sometimes carries things which harm, she carries us too. After a few years at sea, a man gets kinda used to her sweet embrace and cannot feel utterly calm anywhere else. I, for one, never get a solid eight hours minus the sway of the ocean.

Sailors have good hearts, by and large, and this leads them to love and respect the potentially lethal waters on which they sail. But we are a superstitious lot too - always fretting over inauspicious omens like dreading the appearance of a black cat on the dock afore we ship out. But in reality we generally don't have much to fear and are a hopeful lot.

How unlike America, and its current head-in-the-sand approach to the world. It has become so insular and fearful of its own people that it seeks to keep them in a constant state of fear. Why else would it behave as it does? Remember, all of the nonsense spouted by "Brains" in Washington and his band of merry men is targeted at America and Americans -- he is long past caring what the world thinks of him. The rationale seems to be that the population must be kept compliant and obedient. So, America must always have big, scary enemies.

If America doesn't have an enemy, it creates one! The policy seems to be that there must be a Bogey Man to fear at all times.

Though in some cases America's enemies are more than illusory spectres. Take Osama - created by the US and supported by the US when his particular brand of evil was of use. Now the US terror-training has been utilised to destroy American lives, rather than the Soviet and Afghan lives at which it was aimed.

And before guys like him, it was Gadaffi - another pawn in the US's game-plan. And before him it was "the communists" and God knows who else. And as a side-show we get characters like Saddam - also a product of American meddling. He only ever wanted to be America's friend, and this was the case until the the US attacked him, not the other way around.

Years and years of this have had an impact on the popular consciousness. America has become fearful - because the powers that be want it to be fearful.

Fearful people are compliant and allow you to enslave them - and you get legislation like the Patriot Act, which probably would not have passed parliament anywhere else on earth.

Americans seem remarkably unruffled about their recent loss of freedoms, suggesting that they are either on-side with Bush and his corhort -- or that they are ignorant of the changes. Either is very worrying.