Sim-O

Lenins’ Tomb:

The ubiquitous “analysts” are also agreed that this crisis has checked NATO’s eastward expansion for the time being. However, this doesn’t mean the crisis is over. The longer term effect of this war will be to sharpen the struggle for energy resources and to increase America’s determination to somehow rein in the local power. Russia will almost certainly throw its weight around a lot more in the Caucasus and Central Asia, probably arming and subsidising local proxies. America and those who support it globally will flood regional allies with weapons and money, build up the ‘lily-pads’, support any potentially secessionist current within Russia, anything that might be destabilising and drain resources, try to lure the country into a war it can’t win, and so on. In short, as I’ve said, we’ve just watched the world become more dangerous. Those who thought it would improve stability if US power was ‘balanced’ by two, three, many imperialisms were mistaken. Watch the arms race resume, see that new generation of nuclear weapons proliferate, observe as the mini-conflicts and conflagrations sponsored by different players leave thousands dead, and witness the deadly escalation in global tensions… and then you’ll see what I mean.

[[image:06-08-2008_21-13-06.jpg:20-08-08 StWC:center:0]]
Stop the War Coalition:

It is a disgrace that New Labour is still supporting these [Iraq & Afghanistan] wars. Gordon Brown has promised to schedule getting the troops out of Iraq, but there are still thousands there and the government has increased its war budget this year. The billions being spent on war could be used to invest in housing, pensions and services.

For all these reasons Stop the War is calling for the widest possible support for the demonstration at Labour’s conference on September 20th. Please tell your friends and workmates about the demonstration.

Look at the pictures.

[[image:karadzic_1995.jpg:Karadzic circa 1995:left:0]][[image:karadzic.jpg:karadzic before and after a shave circa 2008:inline:0]]

The first is Karadzic circa 1995 (original from here) and the second are before and after his shave this year.

How much persuasion had to happen to get him to have a shave and look like the eviiil bastard pictured in ’95 again?
I’m not entirely sure. You’d have thought (well I do anyway) that after having grown and nurtured a beaut of a beard like that for so long that matey would’ve been a bit reluctant to lose it and end up looking like Mr Murder again.

Perhaps that’s where Saddam went wrong…?

Hitchens recounts how he was lashed tightly to a sloping board, then, “on top of the hood, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose … I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and – as you might expect – inhale in turn.”

That, he says, “brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, flooded more with sheer panic than with water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal” and felt the “unbelievable relief” of being pulled upright.

source

Video

Via Lenin

Bingo! The real mission accomplished.

Wikileaks:

The manual directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and (under varying circumstances) the suspension of habeas corpus. It directly advocates employing terrorists or prosecuting individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists, running false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists. And it repeatedly advocates the use of subterfuge and “psychological operations” (propaganda) to make these and other “population & resource control” measures more palatable.

Via

Financial Times:

Mia Farrow, the actress and activist, has asked Blackwater, the US private security company active in Iraq, for help in Darfur after becoming frustrated by the stalled deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force.

Ms Farrow said she had approached Erik Prince, founder and owner of Blackwater, to discuss whether a military role was either feasible or desirable.

“The people in the camps would say ‘we don’t care whether it’s Blackwater, any-water, as long as they help us’,” she told the Financial Times.

No, no, no, no, no!
First off, asking mercenaries if a military role is ‘feasable or desirable’ is going to come up with one answer. Yes. Because they will find a reason.
And secondly, Blackwater? Has Mia seen Blackwaters CV? How many Dafurians(?) is Mia willing to sacrifice?

Via

Some pictures from my trip to the capital on Operation Manticore.

http://moblog.sim-o.me.uk

FT:

Britain became the world’s largest arms exporter last year, according to government figures released yesterday, overtaking the US which normally occupies the top slot.

The UK won £10bn of new defence orders in 2007 from overseas, giving it a 33 per cent share of the world export market…

At last, we’re in the top slot for something other than teenage pregnancies and heart attacks.

The Americans aren’t gonna like it, because doesn’t 33 per cent market share constitue a monopoly…?

Ooops, nearly forgot the hat-tip to Liberal Conspiracy

Via