Eshin Direct

Who cares about the WMD?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a political post but I felt inspired after I watched Matt Damon’s Green Zone. The film tackles the issue of the questionable intelligence surrounding the weapons of mass destruction that drove the US and the UK to invade Iraq.

It’s an action flick and a fictionalizing of the search for WMD. It takes a left turn about a quarter of the way in with the main protagonist, Chief Warrant Officer Miller, essentially goes rogue and operates outside the US Army structure to help the CIA, that veritable institution of truth, to bring stability to Iraq.

It’s a fanciful tale and even with a stretch of the imagination, highly unlikely. Most audiences will know better than to take it as gospel which means our dear American friends probably will.

After all, didn’t most people take the notions of an Iraq being armed with weapons of mass destruction seriously? The film alludes to the mainstream media’s culpability in driving home that notion. Ironically, the film’s main protoganist is called Miller and the journalist considered instrumental in forming the popular opinion was New York Times’ Judith Miller¹.

Of course it would have been nice to have other people brought out into the limelight for their complicity in fabricating the most costly hoax of all time – Hans Blix, Colin Powell, and probably the Rupert Murdoch’s entire publishing arm.

Is it a small thing? No, we went to war over it and oddly enough, people are still dying in Iraq for it.

But I recall a conversation I had with a friend of mine way back in 2003, on the question of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. His point, and these days I tend to agree with it, is that regardless of whether or not they find these WMD in Iraq or that we were misled on the road to war, the fact is that the US and the world is embroiled in that country and will be. The solution wasn’t going to be the withdrawal of the US from occupying Iraq as we had long moved past that point, making the WMD issue a moot point.

Would I love to see Blair and Bush on trial for fraud? I sure would but like the trials of so many war criminals in this day and age – Radovan Karadzic, Sloban Milosovic, Augusto Pinochet and Saddam Hussein – who really cares by and large?

1. In the film, the journalist is called Lawrie Dayne and the publication she works for is the Wall Street Journal, reference incorrectly to URLs on Google that us twsj.com. [↩]

Microwaved

I recently had a discussion with Mrs. Eshin and her uncle regarding microwave ovens. She’s convinced the damned things are harmful when they’re busy superheating water molecules in our food. Her uncle, a wise gentlemen of electrical technical engineering experience, confirmed this but said that he wasn’t sure about the microwave ovens as he didn’t know how well the protection plate at the front of the oven insulated against harmful rays.

Of course, I scoffed at this notion. Given the millions upon millions of microwaves sold in the world, surely they would be made safe. The US government, no less, would have had a field day with the FDA infractions if it was an unsafe technology.

Mrs. Eshin’s uncle did remind of something one of my old teachers mentioned – you should remember who is telling you something to evaluate its trustworthiness.

Here’s a little known fact – Percy Spencer, who invented the microwave oven, worked for Raytheon at the time. Raytheon is a major American defense contractor that works tightly with the government.

You be the judge.

On the Run

Maybe its a cultural thing or not, but it is interesting to see the two different reactions two countries take to their criminals. In New Zealand, an escaped convict is fast becoming a Robin Hood type figure as he elludes police. Nabbing food from dinner tables and building a large online social network, William Stewart remains on the run from authorities who are derided for not being able to even “catch a cold”.

A far cry from Singapore where the security services lost their number one terrorist suspect last year, and had to rely on Malaysian security forces to apprehend their man. Of course, public opinion was never really in his favour but apparently trying to escape hasn’t endeared him to the local populace as they creatively suggest he pays the prices for the security forces own incompetency by restricting his privileges.

Of course, Stewart hasn’t threatened to bomb Changi Airport but then again, Stewart has already been found guilty while the other is still awaiting due process I believe.

Smoking Singapore Sense

I am pleased to note that the crusade against smoking is firmly taking hold around the world. The motherland¹ has decided rather annoyingly to ban smoking at the airport of all places. You actually have to walk out of the building. Nice for travellers needing a fix to see them through the next 12 or so hours. Nope, not a faint whiff of a sealed room to smoke your own cigarette (and the cigarette smoke of the 30 other, usually male, occupants of the hermetically sealed zoo exhibit).

Continue reading ‘Smoking Singapore Sense’

1. The Netherlands is the motherland since I’ve never actually lived there but they sure as hell can repeal my sorry ass if they wanted to. [↩]

Che Guevara

I was walking behind a group of Malays this afternoon on the Padang¹ and I noticed one of the chaps had the iconic Che Guevara t-shirt on. I did feel like asking him how goes the revolution but I realized he might not actually see the funny side of it.

Of course, there was nothing funny about our dear Che who is probably turning in his grave at the thought of his image being used to feed the wheels of capitalism. Continue reading ‘Che Guevara’

1. The Padang is a field used for recreation, F1 gatherings, and impressive displays of might by the 72,500 strong Singapore Armed Forces. Also used as an impromptu gathering point for expatriates by the Japanese during World War 2. [↩]