To the barricades? - by Richard... Thursday, June 24, 2010

To the barricades? - by Richard... Thursday, June 24, 2010

As noted by my erstwhile co-editor, the EU has taken on extra 18 MEPs for £7 million. Bruno Waterfield is telling usthat this has been achieved by amending "its controversial Lisbon Treaty".

This was done by permanent representatives, known as "EU ambassadors" who met behind closed doors yesterday to sign off the amendment. The amendment must now be ratified in all the Union's 27 countries and will require primary legislation in the UK - "potentially opening up dissent among Conservative MPs who campaigned for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty."

Actually, though, it isn't an amendment to the Lisbon Treaty. According to the EU Council, it is a "protocol amending the protocol on transitional provisions annexed to the treaty on European Union, to the treaty on the functioning of the European Union and to the treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community."

Now, if you can actually work out what that is saying, we are talking about an addendum amending an addendum which sets out changes to transitional provisions. It doesn't even change a treaty. It simply changes the speed at which a previously agreed change to the treaty comes into force. 

Although some activists are hyperventilating about this, a Cleggeron spokesman has said: "This is not a new transfer of power from Westminster to the EU and therefore it doesn't meet the criteria for holding a referendum."

He or she (or it? ... one has to be inclusive these days) has got it dead right. We are not going to the barricades over a protocol amending a protocol.

COMMENT THREAD

Print ready

Obama stuffs the military - by Richard... Wednesday, June 23, 2010

In what must rate of a stroke of political genius, Obama has seen off the challenge by the US military over Afghanistan and, by firing McChrystal and appointing his boss Gen David Petraeus, has dumped the problem back in their laps and told them to get on with it. 

On the basis that there is nothing new under the sun, there must be a precedent for a field commander being fired and his boss being appointed to replace him, but such incidents are few and far between. However, few can have expected that Obama would take this option and, in the brief period while McChrystal's fate was in the balance, you did not see Petraeus's name in the ring.

What we have been seeing is a huge amount of thrashing about, as commentators struggle and largely fail to make sense of recent events, not realising that this was most likely a deliberate ployby McChrystal to destabilise Obama and dump the blame for a failing campaign in the lap of the president.

As such, it is most unlikely that McChrystal's quite deliberate and studied coup de main was done without the knowledge and acquiescence (if not approval) of his boss.

By appointing Petraeus to take over from his uppity subordinate – effectively a demotion – Obama demonstrates the skills acquired and honed as a street-fighting Chicago politician. He has reasserted control over – as The Guardian puts it – a politicised military, with the generals out of control. 

In so doing, he dumps responsibility for success in Afghanistan in the lap of the supposed architect of the campaign, leaving McChrystal isolated and irrelevant. The Army is still very much in the frame and Obama's message about "civilian control" could not have been clearer. 

Hero of the Iraqi "surge" and a Bush appointee, Petraeus must now deliver the goods in Afghanistan or go under. His appointment, to a very great extent, insulates the president from the fray. The new chief is in the hot seat, and with him the military. The game has just changed, and taken on a whole new dimension.

Comment: Afghanistan thread

Print ready

A whiff of honesty - by Richard...

Flash floods in the Ghanaian capital Accra have left at least 23 dead, with the Army called in to deal with a growing public emergency, reports the BBC.

And, as we all know, if there is a drought, it is global warming and, if there are floods, it is global warming. Except that, for once, we get a local commentator by the name of Emmanuel Dela Coffie, with a superb blog, who says otherwise.

Once again torrential rains have hit the nation's capital, creating floods in various parts that have caused great havoc to lives and property, he writes. The ravages and the ruins of the flood captured and highlighted on our television screens and newspaper pages are quite dreadful.

According to BBC report, 23 people have died and several dozens were swept away on Sunday night by rapidly rising waters whiles others were stranded on the roofs of their houses. Transport links between the capital and other cities were disrupted. Daily Graphic on Tuesday 22 June put the death toll to 35 and we are still counting.

As I write this piece, says Coffie, there are scenes of collapsed buildings and fence walls, damaged roads, falling electricity and telephone poles with mangled wires, choked drains, gutters and ramshackle structures, all staring us in the face. It is deplorable and pathetic situation that is unbecoming of the status of Accra as capital of Ghana.

But, he says, the issue of floods has become an annual ritual and it amazes me that the authorities wait till the worst happened before they start announcing their unexciting solutions. Are we reactive or proactive? Why must we wait for these things to happen before finding lasting solutions to them?

Clearly, the problem of flooding in Accra cannot be attributed to the natural course of excessive downpour of rain. Rather the floods are caused by human activities of indiscipline and negligence as well as lack of adequate and effective drainage structures to care for the flood waters.

Indiscriminate disposal of refuse has led to choking of drains and gutters. Houses are built in waterways blocking the flow of rain water, while bad town planning policies and programmes also contribute to the problem.

Usually in the event of the flood disasters, the authorities go on an inspection to assess the extent of damage and make promises to address the situation but as soon as the water dried up, everybody go to sleep.

It is very disturbing to wake up every day after heavy downpour to hear of lost lives and property as a result of poor structuring of houses in the city. How many deaths do we expect to occur before our leaders would take a critical look at the situation and come out with urgent solutions to mitigate this flooding problem? Are lives of innocent people precious to us?

Inundated nature of Accra after down pour has always been disastrous and the nation spent millions of Ghana cedis to provide shelter, tents and relief items for the victims. Why can't our leaders re-structure the city to avoid the incident from occurring again?

You do not have to be a pilot to understand and appreciate the power of navigational system. These days most new cars are equipped with navigational system to save us time on a trip because it helps us to avoid needless delays by simply telling us where we are in relation to where we are going. This device is capable of showing the best route to take. So why are our leaders refusing to think outside the box?

As a nation, do we know where we're going? The apprehension is that, how long does the nation have to wait to find solution to the flooding problems? How far can we see the problem? And whose job is it to protect us from this annual ritual of flooding?

We are literally in crises situation as a result of persistent flooding yet we're busy building houses on water ways. So how far can we see the future? Who is responsible for the quality of our lives?

To be able to see clearly, we have to think outside the box. The Ghanaian attitude to life is just horrible. It is a tragedy, anytime life is diminished by persistent flooding when they could have been fulfilling their potentials in making instructive contribution to the nation and mankind.

We have a capital city that is constantly swamped under water anytime there is downpour yet despite the fact that this problem has been there for ages, we like the proverbial vulture, would always want to wait till tomorrow to solve our problems. Must we always offer curative measures instead of preventive?

These are not funny things neither are we in funny times so that someone must continuously drum it into the minds of those whose duty it is protect us.

Until we are able to control the problem of plastic in our cities, no drainage will solve the problem. The Korle and Odawna lagoon says it all. Why should we be dumping raw sewage in rivers and streams in this 21st century? Our engineers should study the problem and take holistic measures than pulling down structures which is not the main solution to the flooding.

It appears that our leaders have over the years played so much politics with settlement and unauthorized structures on water courses thereby leading to the very avoidable flood disaster we are experiencing today. It has become a yearly ritual to be talking about flooding with no concrete action taken as we forget as soon as the rains subside.

Let's walk the talk and do a little bit and find solution to this annual ritual of flooding in this country, Coffie concludes.

And rarely do we find such honesty and clarity. Not a mention of global warming – no attempt to dump the problem on whitey. "Our leaders have over the years played so much politics with settlement and unauthorized structures on water courses thereby leading to the very avoidable flood disaster we are experiencing today."

Governance ... poor governance, pure and simple. But hey – I am sure the warmists will have a different diagnosis.

COMMENT THREAD

Print ready

What are we doing there? - by Richard...

A Royal Marine from 40 Commando died today during a fire-fight in Afghanistan - the fourth to be reported killed in four days, bringing the total to 303.

This death comes against the background of the Rolling Stone article, with Gen McChrystal in Washington (pictured) and his fate in the balance.

Reading the article, one finds that McChrystal, like other advocates of COIN, readily acknowledges that counterinsurgency campaigns are inherently messy, expensive and easy to lose. "Even Afghans are confused by Afghanistan," he says. 

But even if he somehow manages to succeed, after years of bloody fighting with Afghan kids who pose no threat to the US homeland, the war will do little to shut down al Qaeda, which has shifted its operations to Pakistan. 

Dispatching 150,000 troops to build new schools, roads, mosques and water-treatment facilities around Kandahar is like trying to stop the drug war in Mexico by occupying Arkansas and building Baptist churches in Little Rock. "It's all very cynical, politically," says Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer who has extensive experience in the region. "Afghanistan is not in our vital interest – there's nothing for us there." 

"Throwing money at the problem exacerbates the problem," says Andrew Wilder, an expert at Tufts University who has studied the effect of aid in southern Afghanistan. 

"A tsunami of cash fuels corruption, delegitimizes the government and creates an environment where we're picking winners and losers" – a process that fuels resentment and hostility among the civilian population. So far, counterinsurgency has succeeded only in creating a never-ending demand for the primary product supplied by the military: perpetual war.

And the reason we are wasting blood and treasure on this failed enterprise is?

Comment: Afghanistan thread

Print ready

Quote of the week - by Richard...

From Munguin's Republic: "I didn't want to blog on the budget, I'm already sick of hearing about it."

Labour government – taxes go up and we get screwed. Cleggeron administration – taxes go up and we get screwed. The faces might change, the voices get shriller (squeaky even) and the rhetoric is different(ish). But somehow, the outcome is always the same – we get screwed.

What really tees me off though is this bullshit that "we're all in this together". "Who's this 'we' white man?" as Tonto said to the Lone Ranger (according to the old joke). Hardship to this bunch of creeps is having to let the second butler go.

COMMENT THREAD