More ramblings from this idiot

Can’t say that I know much about international politics (just like most of you I would suspect) but I do wonder about our preoccupation with the way other folk live.

Two nights ago I listened to a programme on Radio 4 that was reviewing how things are these days in Basra. Almost everybody they talked to said things were better under Saddam. These were not politico’s or the like, just ordinary folk like you and me who try to get on with their lives in whatever setting they are given. Whilst William Hague and Barak Obama shout about how wonderful the freeing of the people of Iraq from the yolk of totalitarian government is, those same people see it differently.

One woman said that the after effect of the toppling of Saddam was a rise in Islamic extremist thinking, she said she could no longer go out on her own and, given that she doesn’t chose to wear the garb of the extremists which is designed to make women second class citizens, she wasn’t even safe during the day.

When George Bush invented the Iraq threat and suckered the United Nations and Tony Blair into believing him, he didn’t give any thought for the people who lived there. Neither did his tiny mind compute the wider effects of what he did. We know the Yanks wanted the oil (ironically they don’t need it anymore because of embracing fracking across the States) and getting that flowing was about all they bothered to do. Then we imposed Western Style democracy onto the country.

The ‘liberation’ of the Iraqi people caused a stir across the Middle East and we’ve now seen the fall of Mubarak, Gaddafi and, anytime soon, Assad. Our leaders shout loudly applauding the ‘rebels’ and ‘freedom fighters’ who fight to overthrow these dictators, but what is actually happening?

In Libya, Islamic militants are now setting their positions, Christians are being killed and the laws are being changed to make anything other than Islam illegal. In Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood take power and within three months the people are back on the streets as a form of military dictatorship re-emerges. In Syria, Islamic fundamentalists seem to be winning their war against another dictator but they have no interest in democracy and are imposing Sharia Law in the outlying areas of the country causing people to flee the ‘liberated’ areas in greater numbers than they flee from Assad.

I wonder if it ever occurs to the clowns who advise US Presidents and British Prime Ministers that maybe, just maybe, the Muslim faith cannot handle our particular sort of democracy.

It seems that Islamic states need strong, dare we say despotic, leaders who will crush the discontent that exists in Islam between everyday people and the sectarian leaders. All of these countries: Libya, Iraq, Egypt and Syria were safe places for everyday people to live under the old regimes. Sure there were secret police (we have those here remember – hello SOCA) and if you put your head above the parapet it would more than likely get cut off, BUT you could walk the streets, have a coffee with your friends, go to work everyday and buy stuff. That’s no longer true in any of these countries it would appear.

In the past we imposed our laws and values on other nations. Here in Britain we do seem to love to meddle in other people’s business, and history always shows it ends in tears. Sure you’ll always find somebody who will tell you Rhodesia was a wonderful place and look at it now, but the fact is it was a fantastic place for the colonial rulers not the every day folk. Now, with its Western Democratic model it’s not a good place for anybody it seems.

It’s true that we value democracy, although there’s a big debate to be had about just how much ordinary people actually influence anything in the UK anymore, but why should we assume it’s a one size fits all model.

Would the Chinese be better off with democracy? No doubt Mr. Cameron would think they probably would and I’m sure the socialists would insist it would be better – but would it? They do say the Chinese have a personality which instinctively mistrusts democracy, who knows.

We have meddled in the affairs of other countries, in the case of the Middle East, countries where their daily lives bear hardly any similarity to our own, and we do so in the name of ‘progress’. And because we don’t understand that daily life is about ordinary people doing ordinary things, we fail.

In a few years Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Syria may well all have political systems similar to Iran’s. Will WE feel safer then? Of course we won’t and our politicians will bleat on about the ‘threat’ these countries pose to us.

Why don’t we just stop meddling in things that don’t concern us?

We no longer have an Empire and I doubt Great Britain figures large in the everyday conversations of Libyans or Iraqis.

Maybe it’s time to accept that military and diplomatic intervention in the affairs of others is no longer our job. Maybe we should stop judging others and get on with becoming a world trading giant (which we won’t while we openly criticise China and India).

Personally I’d rather hear what our politicians intend to do for us rather than what they think about some other place.

We have rising Islamic militancy in this country. Reports of Muslims trying to impose Sharia Law over here, Pakistanis still forcing their daughters to marry men they don’t know and mutilating them for some obscure ‘religious’ reason. Can we put our own house in order? Can we start to address the problems that mulit-faith is bringing to these shores. And can we try to be honest about it?

Perhaps the leafy suburbs of the stockbroker belt ,where all our politicians seem to come from these days, don’t have those problems – but they will, and sooner than they think.

My point?

Well I don’t think democracy and Islam go together. In the Middle East it will dislocate and fall again. Here our lack of willingness to address it will crumble our own society of we’re not careful.

It isn’t racist to say not everything fits together as we’d like it to. Is it?