War..Huh..Good God Y'all

Another year another war to get stuck into. Would David Cameron have believed less then a year ago that he would follow the disastrous escapades in Iraq and Afganistan with further carnage in the Middle East. Lets face it, there is nothing like a juicy war to take our minds of the economic meltdown in the West.

It's not just the collosal waste of money, our interventionalist mentality and the potential deaths to innocent civilians that bothers me. No, what pisses me off the most is the patronising tone from the likes of Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama who treat the public like gullible fools.

Cameron bleats on about not tolerating the use of military force against its own people. Whilst no one can deny Gaddafi is a nutcase and that crushing peaceful protest with military muscle is disgraceful lets us not pretend that the West is some altrusitic white knight riding over the horizon to protect all those who are desperate and downtrodden. We are only getting involved because it is in the WEST's interest to do so. To suggest otherwise would be incredibly naive.

After all, on the day what the UN authorised a no-fly zone in Libya 40 civilians were killed by US drone attack in Waziristan and a further 40 anti-goverment protestors were gunned down in Yemen. This week in Bahrain reformist protestors have been beaten and killed and their camps burnt to the ground by Saudi troops called in by the Bahraini government desperate to keep the status quo. Let's not go into what is going on in Zimbabwe, Sudan, North Korea or China at the moment.

Does the "free world" rush out to get UN resolutions to put an end to these repressive regimes and install democracy in those countries? Of course we don't. Those countries are either too powerful, have nothing that we want or are our buddies so why should we give a shit about their citizens?

Let's be honest for once. The oil dependant West cannot afford an unstable middle-east. Libya is of vital stategic importance in the Meditteranean and has one of the largest oil fields in the world. With the price at the pumps going through the roof and certain parties keen on keeping a closer eye on it's friend Israel the West needs to quickly crack down on the instability in this area.

Gaddafi has outlived his usefulness. We befriended him when he was repressing his people and they had the good grace to keep their mouths shut. Now the people are revolting he is like an embarrassing relative at a party who puts his arm around you whilst making loud sexist remarks about his wife. We just can't wait to get rid of him.

If I was feeling mischievious I might be tempted to suggest that there is good money to be made in rebuilding countries torn apart by war. Not only do the armed forces justify their budgets and their existance but as evidenced in Iraq a whole raft of private contractors with dubious links to the powers that be can make hay out of the destruction. We are always there to sell them the weapons and can get another pay day when we go in and put it all back together again.

Whatever the reasons do not fall for the phoney democracy agenda peddled by the West. War. What is it good for? Absolutley nothing. Say it again.