Sometime

It's been a while since I sat and placed metaphorical pen to paper in the ether. In my defense this was in part because I was actually using genuine pen and paper to berate my MP. There is a link on the Royal British Legion's site for The Broken Covenant in which their is discussion about how we as a nation have broken the covenant that exists between us and our Servicemen and women. Whatever your view on the wars that we are currently involved in we should never lose sight of the fact that we as civilians have the luxury of debate. The squaddie has none. He/she has signed the dotted line, taken the shilling and must troop off to whatever foreign clime deemed by the British Government to have caused offence or be in need of our assistance. I would urge anyone who peruses this rambling to have a look at the Royal British Legion site, whatever your view of the merits of the war in Iraq or Afgahnistan remember that it is the people in the uniform who are on the frontline that guarantee us the right to express those views. Consider this, Pakistan have this week insisted that You Tube block certain feeds, China blocks some of the BBC content, Zimbabwe doesn't even allow British journalists to report from there, we, within reason have pretty much unfettered access to all manner of information, news and content. We also have the right to express ourselves freely, again within reason. These were hard won freedoms, won by servicemen in uniform putting it all on the line. Support or don't support the war BUT ALWAYS SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!

Zimbabwe

We sit here with our troops at risk in Afghanistan, Iraq and goodness knows where else. The reason we supposedly went into Iraq was because Saddam had clearly identified WMD ready within 45 minutes. We all now know that this was an absolute load of tosh, the reason we went in was to effect a regime change, so that Bush Jnr could finish daddy's handiwork, so that Haliburton could get all these contracts and make vast sums of money. If we went into Iraq on the basis of a regime change then why aren't we doing the same in Zimbabwe where you have a country that could be the granary of South Central Africa, a tourist paradise but is in fact a basket case with inflation running at 7000%, an oppressive regime that sees torture and murder as adjuncts to the way it runs the country. This year World Food Programme will have to import and feed the starving populace. WFP will probably have to use vehicles that are provided by Mugabe and his thugs who will charge a fortune and also control who the food gets distributed to. Thus food will become political currency. There is a forthcoming summit in Lisbon and despite there being sanctions against Zimbabwe and it's corrupt rulers, no doubt some way will be found and Mugabe and his cronies will turn up in Lisbon. Why do these governments that throw our troops into harms way in such a cavalier fashion ignore Zimbabwe. Surely it cannot be linked to the lack of oil!