The Policy Blender

Sorry - that was in poor taste, so I've deleted it. I should have gone with my original feeling that X dead Iraqis/US soldiers/UK soldiers/Madrid and London citizens/arguably New York citizens is worse than a damp cigar. Except to the connoisseur of course. There are some things you should never do to a Cuban.

By the way - am I allowed to be in favour of supporting our troops whilst being entirely opposed to supporting the war?

It's an enormous jump, and a pretty extreme view, but one which isn't exclusive to members of Islamic terrorist groups. Not one which I hold without reservations, but of course, I think that London, Madrid and New York have all been targeted following their government's actions in the Middle East. Then we get into 'who started it', and by the time you get into that, then any outside observer will quickly deduce that neither side intend to stop it.

I am, perhaps naively, of the opinion that war should always be the absolute last resort, and that we went too soon. But I know that the soldiers themselves don't have a choice when their nation goes to war, and people are more important than politics, to me at least. I hope he comes home safely, regardless of why he's ended up there.

I'm also glad you keep reading our site despite (I assume) disagreeing with most of the opinion on it these last couple of weeks while Ben is away - too many people are quick to ignore the things they don't agree with.

Bush and to a lesser extent Mr Blair and the rest of the Western governments are responsible for the deaths in London and New York (and anywhere else where Westerners are targeted) although not directly I grant you.

They didn't organise what happened but poor foreign policy is part of the reason the west is hated and targeted so much. Granted there are always going to be people that feel hard done by or that feel we as Westerners are 'evil' but the bad foreign policy of western countries helps a great deal in the recruiting of more 'fanatics', 'crazies' and downright bastards.

Perhaps it is a little unfair to blame Bush for all the worlds ills but when the man and his government often seem to stick their fingers up at the rest of the world in a manner that near as damn proclaims "we are the most powerful and important country/people in the world and we'll do as we please" it's hard to do anything other than sling blame his way.

Actually, siding briefly with Jen here, Bush didn't lie to anyone about the war, as far as I know. Clinton did lie about the intern, on the other hand, and having a liar in charge can be very damaging for a country, as we in Britain know.

And I tihnk it's unfair to say they are responsible for those deaths. Their actions caused the deaths to happen, though through several steps. They knew the actions they were taking would have these knock on effects in some form or other. But it could easily be argued that the actions they took were preferable to not invading Iraq and were thus the only options they had.

I'm not going to argue that though. Perhaps Ben will, when he gets back.

And another thing - this post was really intended as a light-hearted one. Everyone keeps being really serious!

I don't think Bush is one of the worst disasters to hit the US - I think he's probably very good for the country internally. He might be 'one of the worst disasters to hit the rest of the world', but we'll never know what could have happened. Who knows, without Bush's persistent attentions to the Middle East, Iran could have nuclear weapons and everyone in Europe could be dead. Not very likely, I grant you, but we'll never know. And I'm sure Bush had as much of a hand in the slowly-improving situation in Israel as anyone else.

Basically I just think it's a nice picture, and very well timed - I bet pro-Bush folks could smile at it almost as much as anti-Bush.

Some patriotism, and no pacifism, are prerequisites for the military - who would put their life at risk for a cause they didn't believe in? Can you recommend any good blogs by people out there at the moment?

You're right, of course, that the situation is a long standing one - though there's the obvious point that it was another Bush who last took the US to Iraq, it's an even older problem than that.

Perhaps the emergence of China as an economic force to be reckoned with will present us with a different world altogether? I think it would be beneficial for everyone, including US citizens, if there was someone else who is big enough to take responsibility for 'policing the world', as the South Park folks mockingly put it. Might take a while though.

I would hope that troops believe in the reason for them being there. Troops that don't believe in the cause can be very damaging for morale, operations and the general success of any missions they have to carry out (says the man with zero military background). Does make sense though. I'd do a shit job too if I didn't believe in what I was doing.

True, it isn't just Bush's fault that the world sees America and the definition of all that is 'evil' and selfish in the West he just happens (as Matt pointed out) to be president at this moment while we are partaking in this discussion. But, he hasn't exactly helped matters. I think we're largely agreed that Western (America in particular) foreign policy hasn't helped things.

I wonder if someone at Sky News was deliberately trying to provoke a laugh. I had a bit of a chuckle it has to be said.

BTW Jen, I'm glad you are open minded and willing to listen to those with differing opinions than your own. If only everyone were willing to consider the feelings, lives and opinions of others I think we'd live in a much better world.