No Oscar for Osama Bin Laden's home videos

You've been badly framed!

The White House has taken great delight in releasing some boring videos that they found in the Bin Laden compound. There aren't many laughs in them, so the comedy element is lacking. The wardrobe department is also rather lacklustre. All we see is Osama rambling on about the ills of the world as he sees it. His compound looks an untidy mess. I doubt he got his electrical wiring checked. It looked highly dangerous on the pictures. He could have set the house on fire just with his VCR collection.

No doubt all this plays well in America. President Obama's poll ratings have rocketed, all because of this feel good factor. But Bin Laden's death isn't going to help the deficit one iota. Americans are still fighting a war in Afghanistan on the ludicrous basis that he was thought to be there but he isn't there now because he's dead. He never was there, or at least not since 9/11. Pakistan was always going to be his best bet for a man as corrupt as he was knows a thing or two about corruption in a country like Pakistan. Also, he could have been bombed with impunity in Afghanistan if found out. Not so easy in Pakistan. He just didn't reckon with the navy seals. Neither did Pakistan for that matter.

al Qaeda is like some spore carrying fungus, popping up here and there where the ground is reasonably fertile. But it is also fast becoming a footnote in history. None of the franchised cells are having any influence in the Arab Spring. The vast majority of Muslims find the organisation objectionable. al Qaeda remains a threat but no more than it did last week when Osama Bin Laden was still checking over his video collection.

With the arch-terrorist dead, what now for the war in Afghanistan. The training seems to be taking for ever. Surely the Afghan police know how to make arrests by now? The Afghan army can shoot straight and obey commands, surely? The Taliban were never our enemy. They might have been the enemy of freedom for Afghans, but history tells us the Afghans are better off fighting amongst themselves. The only problem left is the wretched poppy crop and President Obama has done as much as his predecessor on this one. Diddly squat!

Afghanistan's poppy harvest by CNN_International

Slow work in nobbling the Taliban's poppy crop!

I thought I'd investigate a bit more about the Taliban and the opium poppy. This is going to be a long hard slog seeing as we've got cretins running the war (politicians that is!).

Nice piece from the New York Times by James Risen. "Donald H. Rumsfeld and military leaders also played down or dismissed growing signs that drug money was being funneled to the Taliban, the Pentagon officials said." One has to wonder what use Rumsfeld was to the American people. A man who shook hands with Saddam Hussein once and really thought the war in Iraq could help his oil baron buddies!

"The eradication program is rife with corruption. Farmers know they must offer bribes to avoid having their crops destroyed, American and Afghan drug officials said. It is often only those who lack money or political connections whose fields are singled out." Is this war being waged in your name? Perhaps the British Army could march into Downing Street and remove the hapless Brown?

Here's how the slow progress at destroying the poppies is done. One man and a tractor! Sounds like a title for a BBC show.

Jack Straw's fish out of water feeling!

Jack Straw is the kind of politician who is rendered speechless in front of unadulterated truth. With him, it causes something similar to that of a fish that has been rudely hurled onto the beach by a freak wave. No freak waves this week, but on Tuesday morning I heard Straw on the Today Programme in conversation with "a prisoner". Evan Davis asked the inmate what was generally the problem. The prisoner, a lucid and straightforward guy, said he thought his crime, drug smuggling, was caused by two factors. His greed and the ever-increasing poppy harvest in Afghanistan, giving him the ability to make money. Davis asked Straw what he thought. Time for the fish impression!

The prisoner was right. He admits to being greedy, and sort of suggests that he should be helped. We have anger management courses, sessions for smokers and drinkers, and of course drug addicts. Why not for greedy people too? Possibly if these were offered to a variety of people, we might cut crime.

My anger at the greedy finance guys who used the so-called sub-prime market to enrich themselves could be assuaged by such courses. Greed management - sounds good! These sub-prime cowboys were greedy, preying on ignorant people who were taken in by the blandishments. There is a fine dividing line between the two kinds of greed!

With regard to Afghanistan, we are fighting the wrong enemy. Tribal warlords who may or may not know where Osama Bin Laden's cave is are no great enemy to the West. Their vast poppy harvest is, and all the business emanating from it. Jack Straw has no clue how to deal with this. My cynical side suggests that tackling the problem may cause a whole raft of agencies to collapse, ending with the demise of the sniffer dogs. Who wants to be put out of well-paid employment? Keep the poppies growing, keep the soldiers dying, keep "the War on Terror" going.

Isn't there a better way? If the prisoner is so clear on this, I'd give him a period to try it out. After all, he could be better than the fish impersonator!