hopeful

i believe it was woody allen who said hope was the thing with feathers. but sadly hope is running out as it seems more and more likely that bush is going to get his second term.
i want to like kerry but just can't, there seems to be no substance there. mind you that could be because he is having to spend so much time fighting off attempts to make his military record look like the preening of an imposter (which is rich coming from bush and friends). perhaps if there were more on the issues he would have a chance. i was impressed to see him say the iraq war is the wrong war, in the wrong place and at the wrong time and then to say he would get the troops out.

i still confuse myself when i think about the iraq situation. saddam bad, saddam gone that's good. but there are still a number of issues with the war.
1] we all are pretty much aware the war was waged under false pretenses; no weapons of mass destruction, no link with al qaeda and no material threat to the USA or GB or to anyone other than the people who lived in iraq.
2] we can all pretty much guess that there was an element of bush junior and friends thinking it's time to finish what dad didn't and in the process let's get that oil in them there hills. sadly it seems bush junior really isn't very good when it comes to the oil business.
3] for all the preparations that went into waging the war (and lets be honest there were many critics who thought that when the shock and awe phase was over the street fighting would be fierce were all proved wrong) there was little thought given to the winning of the peace. so now there is a situation where insurgents (call them what you will) are waging a guerilla struggle with the occupation forces and are doing a good job of hurting the allied forces.
4] in the change from finding weapons of mass destruction to the move regime change (and you would have to be a brave person to say saddam didn't deserve to be toppled) you open up the can of worms of what about this regime here, or that one over there - it's a dictatorship, it's flaunting the united nations resolutions, it's suppressing it's internal populations etc etc (step forward zimbabwe, israel, turkey, russia, china and many more).
in iraq it seems that there was an easy "bad guy" that no one was going to complain about if he was toppled, but the coalition of the willing seem quick to turn a blind eye to the rest of the ills of the world.
so no wonder many can scream hypocrisy.

and while this is going on all the contenders for the most powerful job in the world can do is squabble over negative publicity and who has slung the most mud.

still it's not like we in the UK can brag.
new labour are on the verge of a historic third term and the two most powerful men in the party, tony blair and gordon brown, seem to have their mates indulging in playground slanging matches against the supporters of the other.
so instead of sorting out the situation in health, education and transport - they will back bite and spin and brief against each other.
in the meantime the companies who are supposed to be leading the way in PFI style partnerships with the public sector grow fat and rich while the public pick up the tab. not so much free market capitalism as a nice easy earner.
and if it is not that it is the obvious sucking up to the rich and famous.
is it any wonder that we are all losing faith in politics.

never thought i say it i kinda miss maggie at least she was the enemy and you could hate her without any kind of remorse.
it feels so wrong to hate new labour.

still we have four more years of bush to look forward to, and 5 more years of tony.

joy.