Masopher's Mind

The British intellectual hemisphere has been recently buzzing about the exaggerated end of the American Empire, the decline of the West and rise of the “East”, this is happening as David Cameron heads over to Mumbai to talk about more than the quality of its call centers no doubt. India is the largest democracy in the world and at the rate its going soon to be the most populous. India enjoys a suitable hegemony and sphere of influence even with a braying a mule-ing Pakistan to it’s West. India enjoys American and Russian weaponry and is probably the few countries to have next generation Russian planes as well as modern American weaponry. Massive diasporas exist spreading its political reach and economic access. China may be the sweet spot due to its communist background and place as a permanent member of the security council but India quietly grows in power and influence. Let’s hope David comes back with more than a case of deli belly.

I heard a lecture by Professor Michael Cox at the LSE about America’s still powerful position in the world. Even after then growth of China and India, America still holds the most expensive weapons, largest markets and global currency. People still watch Hollywood movies and look to American presidents for stimulation and/or inspiration. A few days later his friends in Chatham house release a bunch of articles raising the same points, talking about BRIC, China and the costly muddle that the Americans have gotten into bringing democracy into the middle east and getting rid of “safe havens” or ungoverned space.

Britain has vested interests in America’s continuation. While the Prime Minister probably will no longer enjoy a vigorous hand job from the American first lady, the private sectors of both countries are pretty much overlapping. Rich bastards in both countries share a common language and common interests. Arabs, Chinamen, Africans and the like must learn English and lose their sense of morals to join in the fun.

We live in a world that has moved on from Europe, it has moved west to America and it is not moving East but instead further west, or perhaps….north: up through Canada and then south to Russia, Japan, Korea, and west to China and India, It will probably move further west to the Central Asian states and middle east then west to Europe and behold we are back where we started…and China which was once great and The East will go into decline as Western states rise and sooner or later the west will look at a flat map on the wall and start worrying in two dimensions again. Unlike the thinking of British think tanks, the world is round and everywhere is west of something.

Back in the early days of MI5 a lot of very competent women buckled down did their job and kept their mouth shut about what was happening. Maybe Eliza Manning-ham could take a page out of these brave women’s book? MI5 was once a secret agency that worked for the government to keep us safe from threats, spies and saboteurs. Some times MI5 made work for itself and I am sure some of the threats were imagined. When Britain became involved in Northern Ireland then the IRA became a problem for the MI5 and now that Britain became involved in Iraq and Afghanistan people who see this as an attack on Islam become a problem.

Eliza Manning-ham was pretty happy to pretend to chase red ghosts and Irish Catholics but the capacity of her agency to interdict the millions of Pakistani and Somali refugee/citizens as a few among them turn violent is lacking. This is because a) red ghosts and Irish dissidents were both easy and notional and b) red ghosts and Irish threats came from somewhere else. The current threats have lived in London and other cities for decades in communities that didn’t care about Britain and Britain didn’t care about them.

Dame Manning-ham in my estimation is giving the game away, not only are the MI5 complicit in harming individuals for no gain, they are ineffectual at penetrating communities or at the very least keeping an eye out for deviations in the communities core behaviours. I dare not under emphasize that properly functioning communities don’t create threats. Also worth mentioning is that a government that exercises responsible control over its public and its policy does not come into conflicts between the two.

I don’t think Muslims have been recently radicalized. These people were radical and were radicalizing due to anomie in their society and the trouble in the countries they feel more attached to. They have been longing for an excuse to strike out against Western society and in case Dame Manning-ham forgets, Terrorists existed long before 9/11.

I’m not entirely sure what politics she is playing at, but it is clearly a deviation from the public service that the security and intelligence services are known for. She is serving special interests and doing damage to the government and her former comrades in MI5.

Iraq was a bad idea? You don’t need to be privy to special knowledge to know that. It was the job of MI6 to give the government the right intel and the governments job to make the right decision. Commenting on policy notably foreign policy is not the business of MI5. If any comment need be made it is the misidentification and ignorance of the threats posed by badly educated under employed marginalized youth with no one to listen to but violent imams.

MI5 should be poking around in the British society, looking for threats and keeping hush, not sticking its nose into foreign policy and politics.

Afghanistan is a country with very few opportunities. Ravaged by war, inhospitable terrain, corruption, ignorance: there isnt a lot going on for it, and among the few things going for it is the invading foreign force supporting the impotent government.

One of the initiatives that doesn’t involve shooting is giving Afghan farmers something other than opium producing poppy plants to give them livelihood.  Saffron is a popular spice grown mostly in Spain, Iran and Kashmir.

Saffron can cost about $4000 a pound. Not bad.