The US, George Orwell And The New Cold War.

In light of recent events, the rhythms of the Transatlantic cooperation, or Western solidarity, now that the cold war is fully back, have been sounding eerily Orwellian. It must be right if the US says it is right. A faux pas that is a bit worn, a cliche that doesn't even hold water in present day animal kingdoms. The US is not always right, as Tony Blair found out after his tactless haste to deploy British troops to oust Saddam Hussein, an American misadventure based on the fake intelligence that Iraq was brimming with weapons of mass destruction. It is instructive that the architect of that hoax was John Bolton, the then US envoy to the UN under President George Bush and now Secretary of State under President Trump. Not a single phial of chemical weapons was found in Iraq and the whole fiasco should have served as a restraint to Theresa May, an otherwise sensible girl. The presence of John Bolton alone should have sent the alarm bells ringing and with Trump at the helm of affairs, the horror of two reckless Napoleons, crude hardliners, veritable loose canons, should have reinforced caution. Russia is not the same as Iraq and incidents that could trigger skirmishes with a nuclear power need to be handled with utmost restraint. There is simply no guarantee that a missile will not go astray and land in a very wrong place. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is already in place in Syria and acceptable caution dictates that concerned paties should have waited for its findings. A report of culpability would have secured a reasonable mandate from the UN and then the missile strikes would have had a greater impact than the silly show of fireworks many people are now claiming it to be. With his tweets and loose tongue, Trump was always going to err on the side of impulse and Jeremy Corbyne was right in asking huge questions about British involvement in the strikes. Britain is a power on its own and doesn't have to be corralled into doing whatever the US does
 No power is as effective as one that is cautious, reasonable and based on facts. Corbyne has a point and he would have a huge ammunition indeed if it turns out that the OPCW team finds out that that the allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Douma might have been more complex than thought. The UN was established to handle situations like this and its chief was right to remind the allies of their obligations to the UN charter. The Syrian civil war is indeed a very, very complex conflict and truths emanating from such spheres need to be handled carefully, intractabilities Trump was inclined to simplify. Simplicities made worse by preemptive accusations of Russia tampering with the attack site
 The OPCW is a well-resourced technical organization and it should not be difficult for it to ascertain a chemical weapon was used in a place, even a year ago. The next few days should be revealing indeed.

Trump Promised Fireworks: He Hasn't Even Struck A Match.

The President was always going to err on the side of impulse. His tongue and tweets were too quick for caution. As the news of the alleged chemical attacks in by Syrian government forces in Douma, Eastern Ghoutta, broke out, Trump raced out of the blocks instantly, promising retaliation in form of big, bright bombs that were coming in numbers. Of course the flow of adrenalin had ebbed a couple of days later and subsequent tweets on the issue weren't as enthusiastic. Trump should have then proceeded with his tour of Latin America, that itinerary would have certainly yielded more returns than throwing 105 missiles into facilities no one, except Syrian regime officials, can really say with certainty still contain a single phial of chlorine or other chemical agents. If you're going to attack a place, why announce it so loudly? Why shout your intentions from the rooftops? The Russians and Syrians are no fools. The facilities attacked would certainly contain underground passages with designed exigencies to ferry materials through them very quickly. As it is, a president in the habit of shooting off the cuff must have given them sufficient time and warning to do so. It gave the Russians sufficient time to move their big warships out of their base in the Syrian port of Tartaus and there is nothing to suggest evacuation of smaller chemical containers will pose greater difficulty. Hence this brings us back in time, to President Clinton lobbing criise missiles into terrorist training camps in Eastern Afghanistan. As it turned out to be, the camps were empty and the outcome was that al-Qaeda got bin Laden got emboldened and encouraged to the extent of launching the devastating 9/11 attacks on the US. The missiles launched by Allies into Syria are more likely, as Assad had threatened, to emboldened the Russians and Iranians and Syrians into launching attacks on Idlib, the last major rebel-held enclave in Syria. The place had been a dumping ground for defeated rebels in the country and if it should fall, as it certainly will, then we may as well witness the dumping of defeated enemies into the sea. If the rebels are going to fight to death, having nowhere else to run, will their wives and children show the same determination?
The pyrotechnics weren't even spectacular. Israel does a better job of it with far fewer missiles. Better, quieter and more constant jobs. More efficient jobs. Of course the Russians are making huge propaganda capital out of the announcement that 65 of the missiles were shot down by Syrian air defences that were based on batteries manufactured in the old Soviet Union, 30 years ago. This has been corroborated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organization that has been fairly accurate in its reporting and even if can still take this with a pinch of salt, the attacks are not the perfect strikes Trump claims they are. The body language of Gen. McKenzie says it all during his Pentagon briefing. It was apparent he wasn't comfortable with his assurances the missiles achieved all their goals. The whole attack is turning into the most expensive pyrotechnics ever organized. Sadly, we see even a better spectacle at the Sydney harbour, during New Year celebrations.

Mr Comey and Trump's Unending Wars.

In the United States, of late, a new, nasty turn has entered the writing of memoirs. We used to write those books because they give us something to do in the boredom of retirement, could bring in hefty cash and at the same time satisfy some personal joy on the sidelines. James Comey, the ex-FBI Director fired by President Trump doesn't seem to be looking for money, looks very busy and if he's in retirement or semi-retirement, he's certainly deriving no joy from the inactivity. It would have been his wish he was still FBI Director, revelling in the glamour and power of office and he wasn't going to like it at all he was kicked from office by a man who has certainly not filched hair from sheep and whose hands are not really out of proportions as we think, virtually the only positive things he said about President Trump in his trending memoirs. If Mr Comey was out to unleash some vendetta, have some pound of flesh, a direction some memoirs are now turning, he has given himself some relief. Let's be sincere, Comey's sacking surprised even himself, he has been chafing all the while and he was certainly going to fight back and he has done plenty of hitting back in his latest book.
And the book isn't really going to do much more than that. He could write tomes and tomes of horrendous things about his ex-boss and still not say more than what we already know about him. Many of these thing's are in the open: Trump has a mafia-like impulse for elimination and it is hardly all about execution, even the most trenchant exhibitions of loyalty do not guarantee aides they would be spared the axe. What saved you today might be your death sentence tomorrow and in this way, you might liken him to the infamous Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin. In fact, Trump sounds and looks eerie because so many personae swirl around him, images from many outlandish, troubling figures of history. Comey's memoirs will contain so many truths, and a rich sprinkling of outright fables, but it wouldn't matter a jot: Trump is such a grotesque character that anything trivial or prodigious redounds on him. He is a sort of Pandora Box and many of us are resigned to whatever he might throw up.
And out of view, Mr Comey might be silently bitting his ow fingers. If he had been convinced he did right by reopening the Clinton e-mails brouhaha when he did then he wouldn't have been making so much noise about Obama's vote of confidence. He reopened that particular nasty box and out flew a president that would busy himself not with substance but with so many unending wars.