Once again we are at war. The televisions and Ipad screens show images of Tornadoes taking off and going somewhere, over there, towards Syria. To get them. Wherever they are. Apparently they have a HQ where they discuss things from and make decisions before they carry out their murderous deeds. No doubt right now ISIS fighters are squabbling over whose turn it is to get the peculated coffee and whether the blueberry muffins are really ‘Halal’. They have a white-board with distinct markers for who is the enemy. It is ‘The West’ and they too are over there. Wars have changed these days but I get the feeling we’re still fighting in the old manner. It’s kind of like your Granddad trying to work out how to post on Facebook. Germany sent a very large frigate to protect the French aircraft carrier from what I don’t know. If I’m correct the enemies weaponry consisted of second-hand armaments that were hand-me downs from ex-freedom fighters who went back to being unemployed and poor after their ‘evil’ dictator had been over thrown. Western countries feel it’s important to make grand statements via the global media. Hence very large and expensive warships to defeat an enemy more in tune with ‘YouTube’ and hand-held video recordings. At the moment the most powerful nations on earth are putting all their military might into blowing up oilfields in Syria while millions of Syrians up-root and head to ‘The West’ just over there. Maybe it’s just me but I am getting weary of wars in the Middle-East. The whole thing is so confusing. Different acronyms keep popping up each week, and more ‘western powers’ keep lining up to fight elusive groups that expand and change once an area has had the shit bombed out of it. I think if the politicians were honest they don’t really have a clue on how to end the crisis and are stuck in a ‘they hit us’ so we must hit ‘them’, faster and harder. It’s hard to see how after the Iraq war just who is to blame and how can it all end. Did it all just start with 9/11? Was the ‘The West’ idly sitting by and a bored group of terrorists decided to hire jets and attack The West? What about before that in Afghanistan when America was fighting with the Jihadi against the Russians. What about Vietnam when the might of the US tried to carpet bomb the North Vietnamese into surrender. This isn’t history repeating itself. This is a refusal to look facts in the face. Everybody talks about history but it feels like we can’t think past last year. After the Paris attacks Britain felt compelled to react for ‘our brothers and sisters’ and we had to act fast. It was important not to spend to much time thinking about it. And with a plan that basically involved bombing ‘them’ over ‘there’. Who needs to think. Strangely enough anyone who suggested that maybe we should stop and think about our actions or dare I say even suggest dialogue, was branded as some kind of traitor, and made to feel as they were a killer. In the end they got what they want. People who would normally vote with their conscience went with the pack mentality. We must do something now. The votes were counted. A brief discussion was had. And the war against acronyms and vague terms continues unabated with them over there.