A battlefield of lies and language

The news has been too disturbing to take in the last week or so, hence a lack of more regular updates. The political sphere has, once again, bound itself up in a whirlwind of tough talk and arrogant planning, leading to the all-too-familiar fall-back of tougher laws and a hard-nosed attitude. Despite the continual claim that the "terrorists will not win", support for further government/police power to save our doomed arses is up and rolling. The lists are being drawn up, but it remains to be seen who gets to question who or what is on them.

The BBC reports that Blair is meeting police and intelligence to work out what new police powers we need (including phonetap logs as permissible evidence in court) to prevent crime - no, wait - to prevent ideology. Blair has already shrugged off yet more criticism of the Iraq war, following a leaked government document that claims the war continues to act as a focus point for terrorist motivation. A point that Chatham House and the ESRC agree with in their "Security, Terrorism and the UK" report.

The BBC quotes Blair as saying:

"Of course these terrorists will use Iraq as an excuse," ... "They will use Afghanistan. September 11, of course, happened before both those things and then the excuse was American policy on Israel."

The FT adds to this:

"We have got to be very careful that we don’t enter into a situation where we think if we make some compromise on some aspect of foreign policy, these people are going to change. They are not going to change."

Will Mr Blair sweep the views of Ken Livingston* aside too, in his quest for world peace? Or will he continue to delude himself (and us along with it) into thinking that we're being attacked just for who we are?

As far as I can see, Blair accepts no responsibility for the games he and the rest of the leaders play on the global stage. The world of political spin he wants the media and the people to believe is a fantasy world in which good fights evil and light will defeat dark. Alas, the idea of the chosen one prevailing only worked for Keanu Reeves because he went out of his way to look good. Without the magic of Hollywood, Blair's going to have to face up to the real world some day. In the meantime, people can keep on squabbling and dying.

* Ken manages to over-simplify some things, such as the American's relationship with Bin Laden, but generally points in the right direction (which is as much as any of us can ask for these days).