The Iranian hostage situation

I suppose this has been covered in some depth in other blogs, so let me add some points of my own.

Firstly, it's going to be pretty much impossible to prove one way or the other where the British boat in question actually was. Maps and evidence can be faked and I don't think the Americans had a spy satellite in the right place at the right time.

Secondly, either the British have done something very stupid or the Iranians have. I'd personally favour the Iranians.

Thirdly, does anyone think that the British military personnel have been tortured or threatened with torture?

Comments are welcome.

An apology

I've been posting my comments on 24 on this blog for a while now, not realising that not all countries have seen these episodes. I apologise to anyone I've inadvertently spoiled the show for and will remove all 24 related posts from my blog.

Sorry.

Abolition of the slave trade

It's 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.

Let's, however, make some points:

• Slavery still continued in the British Empire for another 26 years.
• Slavery lasted for another 56 years in the US.
• Slavery still goes on today.

So let's not get too excited about this anniversary.

Iraq- Four Years On

It's probably best that I link you to my post last year on the matter:

http://thesilenthunter.blogspot.com/2006/03/iraq-three-years-on.html

We should add the words "sectarian militias and death squads" to that.

There's little point in repeating myself again.

Trident renewed

The vote has passed in the Commons, with 95 Labour MPs rebelling.

While I may not agree with the decision, I accept it. However, there needs to be serious work on multilateral disarmament. That will reduce the risk of proliferation.

Trident (again)

As you're probably aware, the Commons is to vote on whether to renew Britain's nuclear deterrent, Trident, on Wednesday. You're also probably aware that a minister and a PPS are resigning over the issue.

I read the Defence White Paper on this today after a recommendation from a Labour-supporting friend. While it's not changed my mind on the issue (I still support non-renewal and negotiations on multi-lateral disarmament, with the Lib Dem proposal as second best), it has clarified a few points.

So let's say a few things:

• The Americans do not have a veto over whether we can launch our nuclear weapons. We do not rely on American satellites.
• It's completely unclear and deliberately so what our targeting policy is. It is by no means a given that Pyongyang, Beijing or Tehran will not nuked. It's also no means a given that they won't. That's nuclear deterrence for you.
• All of the other four "permitted" nuclear states are modernising their weapons and even improving them (Russia's SS-27s anyone?). Britain is merely renovating them. CND would be a lot more credible if they campaigned against those countries as welll, especially the People's Republic. They may well be a British campaign, but their briefings say nothing about the Chinese. Some people would call that biased.
• The subs are, for the moment, pretty much undetectable.

Comments are welcome.

Last Action Hero

Finished off Last Action Hero yesterday, which was reasonably good. The Governator was good in it. Mind you, there was an inaccuracy of action movies in the 'real world'.

America Firsters

One thing that really annoys me are politicians (most often American ones) saying that we should stop "interfering" in the world and deal with our own problems.

That's rather a selfish view, IMHO. Plus, these problems don't get better without outside intervention. Two, if we were to, par exemple, withdraw from Iraq prematurely, there would be a failed state that would cause problems for America, Britain and other countries.

Where are the internationalists in American politics? And don't say the protectionist Democrats are better.

Hot Fuzz

Saw this at the cinema yesterday. I'd highly recommend it. It's laugh-out-loud funny, has some great (and funny) action scenes and a lot of famous UK faces (Timothy Dalton is particularly good). The plot's not half bad either.

Ian Richardson 1934-2007

The first time I saw Ian Richardson was in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and he was great in that. I've never seen House of Cards though. He was great as Death in Hogfather.

He'll be sorely missed.

Doom

Bit gory, a lot of foul language and virtually all the cast end up dead. Some violations of the laws of physics as well (In the real world, people do not fly back ten feet when shot).

The first-person bit was nice, mind.

Gremlins

Finished off Gremlins today and found it OK. The Stage 1 Gremlins were a bit unconvincing (eyes didn't look real), but the second stage ones were better.

Wasn't there a sequel made to this?

My Iraq plan

It's important for those who are criticising Bush's policy on Iraq to say what they would do differently. I'm not exactly a critic, but here's what I think we should do:

1. Place the Iraqis firmly in command. Put their generals and leaders in charge of the Multi-National Forces.
2. Focus our effects a lot more on training the Iraqi forces.
3. Zero tolerance of corruption, police abuse of power.
4. Banning all the militias. In fact, get the Iraqi government to make possession of a firearm, save by the militaries and bodyguards, a criminal offence.
5. Point out who is responsible for most of the deaths in Iraq.
6. When the training of the Iraqi forces is done, start fully withdrawing, but set the timetable privately.
7. Take a tough stance with Iran and Syria. These regimes simply need to stop arming these terrorists. Sanctions would be a good idea, but not war.
8. No use of torture. It just makes us look bad.
9. Carry on with the province-by-province transfer of security, but speed it up.

Comments are welcome.

The hydrogen bomb

I've been watching Nuclear Secrets on BBC2 and found it quite good. The latest episode is about the hydrogen bomb. I wasn't sure whether it was the right decision to make it until I heard some of the stuff about the effects of the hydrogen bomb. It essentially atomises anything within three miles of Ground Zero.

That's far too powerful to be allowed. These weapons should be banned.

Holocaust Memorial Day

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Let's hope and pray that the current repetition in Darfur is stopped and quickly.

State of the Union

I watched Bush's speech off C-SPAN this morning. It wasn't brilliant. It had some good proposals, but the Iraq section was somewhat poor.

Oh, and it's always funny when half of Congress stand up. Does anyone think that Bush was being a bit insincere when he congratulated Speaker Pelosi.

Comments are welcome.

Five Minutes to Midnight...

The Doomsday Clock has moved for the first time in four years.

It now stands at 11.55pm.

This is obviously a bad thing. It's why we need action on climate change and nuclear weapons.

The surge

I always seem to be coming back to an Iraq discussion. I won't insult your intelligence by saying why.

So let's be brief here.

The surge sounds like a good idea. I hope it works. If it doesn't, we should set a private timetable for getting out.

The war was the right decison. It was just badly carried out.

By the way, can someone tell me about the Congressional vote on the surge plan. What type of resolution will it be?

WarGames and Hotel Rwanda

I watched WarGames on Sunday. It's a reasonably entertaining film. Logically slightly insane, but still entertaining.

I also watched Hotel Rwanda. Well-made and educational. It's not really meant to be entertaining.

Cry_Wolf

Wonder what the URL for this post will be. That's not a typo, BTW, the underscore is included in the film's title.

And a pretty good film it is too. Great twists throughout and a great plot. And it's not particularly gory either. I didn't recognise Jon Bon Jovi, but then again I don't really follow 80s pop.