Giving Credit

Well, it's probably over - at least in the sense that the US is now able to extract itself from the bloody mess.
 
The War in Iraq, that is. And the Right in the US want to take credit.
 
They're welcome.
 
4287 Americans KIA and 30,182 wounded.




107, 152 civilian casualties.

 

1,785,212 Iraqi refugees.
 
The country still has no government.
 
The Coalition took its eye off Afghanistan in favour of Iraq, and we see the consequences. The balance of power in the Middle East has shifted in favour of Iran.
 
They want credit? They're welcome.
 
Click on the post title to watch an interesting Video

Bottlebrush

I planted this 12 months ago.

It's done well.

Keys n Things.

I've been skiting about how reliable the MX5 is.

Big mistake. After I'd said something like - "Nothing ever goes wrong with this thing" - something did. I have an excuse for my big mouth. After owning many Peugeots, the Mazda's reliability is a constant source of amazement.


What did go wrong was merely inconvenient. The car continued, as they say in the classics, to proceed.

It proceeded, however without benefit of radio or remote locking. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the battery. Both things failed at about the same time. This battery is original. As a 2003 model, it's getting on for seven years old. I don't drive the car every day, and when I'm working west, or travelling interstate, as I have been lately,it can sit for days (and over the last few months - weeks) without being started.

There is therefore a good reason why the radio started flashing "code" at about the same time the remote locking device also lost its memory. According to the techies at Mazda, if the voltage drops below a certain point, it can confuse the in-car computer which remembers stuff like codes. The strange thing is - the car continues to start first time every time, and it cranks over enthusiastically.





Because I'm not the original owner, I didn't have the radio code. It was necessary to take the car to an authorised Mazda dealer to have both radio and remote re-programmed. Apparently they plug a laptop into the system somewhere and mutter incantations as they reset everything.


I can't complain - it cost all of $21. I can't remember the last time I parted with such a small amount of dosh at a garage where something had actually been fixed.

The battery will cark it eventually, of course.

But now I have the magic code.

(Both these shots were taken with an iPhone).

For What It's Worth

Illustration: Andrew Dyson- The Age










I've refrained from commenting on the current controversy about the three Commandos charged for their actions in Afghanistan for two reasons.
 
One is that every second blogger has already done so; the other is that I'm not sure I have anything to contribute.
 
Having said that, the issue nags away, and I feel very uncomfortable about the whole notion of serving soldiers being treated in this way.
 
My memories of service as a rifleman are also a factor. The army must be a very different organisation these days from what it was back in 69-70. The notion that soldiers could be charged with manslaughter after an incident in which they were under fire would have seemed fantasy back then. This incident was not, I understand, a situation anything like, for example, My Lai, where without question action against the individuals involved was justified.
 
Personal recollection of being under fire is that the last things on your mind are the legal niceties. A whole bundle of more basic emotions kick in. Funnily enough, the relevance of the identity of the person doing the shooting tends to fade - I remember being so angry that someone out there was trying to kill me, that all I wanted to do was fire back. At the time, it didn't matter to me that the people doing the firing were "friendlies". Little lumps of 7.62mm diameter lead coming at you at supersonic speeds don't sound friendly.
 
We didn't fire back, of course, because we couldn't identify targets, and rules of engagement demanded we were sure of our targets - very fortunately as it turned out.
 
My point is that individual actions in situations such as these have to be viewed through a prism much wider than the narrow legalistic one apparently applied here.
 
Which leads me to some questions - hopefully someone out there can answer them.
 
Why were reservists involved in such an operation? Were they trained sufficiently? How well were they briefed? Did they fully understand the rules of engagement? How reliable were the communications used? What were their orders? At what level were these orders given, and how specific were they? What options did they have?
 
And in terms of how the incident has been dealt with -
 
Why has it taken so long for charges to be laid? Who made the decision to proceed? Did the person/persons making this decision have experience of combat as well as knowledge of the law? Are the rumours that the charges were laid to prevent the ICC from taking action true, or a media beat-up?
 
And so on…..
 
Until these questions (and many others) are answered, the whole question remains deeply troubling, and must be doing incalculable damage to the individuals involved in particular and morale in general.
 
And no matter what the Court Martial outcome, nothing will bring those kids back. This is something the soldiers involved will have to live with for the rest of their lives.