The Dogs and War

Big speech from Tony Blair today. Short version: We're in for the long haul.

Slightly longer version: It took a generation for the evil in the middle east to develop, and it'll take us as long to quell it. So don't even suggest pulling the troops out. No one else is strong and rightous enough to do it, so we will. Oh, and America too.

He said "we" can beat climate change, global poverty and S.P.E.C.T.R.E with a combination of "hard force" (guns and bombs) and "soft force" (sanctions and diplomacy). So it looks like the White Man's Burdan is back in fashion.

I thought the injection of 21,000+ troops into Iraq was for a symbolic and fraudulent last ditch attempt to gain control, allowing the occupiers to leave claiming they'd done all they could. But no, it seems the American ruling class really are determined to go for broke - control the world or destroy it trying.

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Meanwhile, on the principle of "think global, act local", I get to spend tomorrow pushing election leaflets through towerblock letterboxes.

Tune in tomorrow for the Mutt Report. That's my statistical summery of dog ownership in Portsmouth. There's 5 basic types, namely dogs that:

1) ...bark from the hallway when you post stuff through the letterbox
2) ...try to batter their way through the door
3) ...try to scratch their way through
4) ...are asleep
5) ...eat the leaflets

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And then in the evening, I'm singing! Yesterday I was solomnly advised that I shouldn't try to sing like Kate Bush, because her voice has four octaves around the tennor range while mine has two around the baritone. Obviously I hadn't worked this out for myself, only having spent the last month working on a series of Kate Bush covers.

I've never quite understood the need intelligent people have to explain the bleeding obvious to each other.