UK Budget under Threat ?

Independent on Sunday: Reports that disgruntled Liberal Democrat MP’s will attempt to block the Budget due to the raise in VAT from 17.5% to 20%. This is the time for Nick Clegg to show his ruthless side if he has one, he has to show he can control his Party; every party has its awkward squad, in the Conservative Party it is the extreme anti Europeans, in the New Labour its Old Labour, thus we see in the Liberal Democrats a few MP’s who prefer opposition to real power. As long as Nick Clegg takes the majority of the Party with him that is good, but he cant allow the awkward squad the chance to destroy this new Coalition.

Afghanistan Plan Not Working!

ABC News: Reports that the CIA believes that the Afghanistan War Plan is not firing on full thrusters, that its harder and slower than first thought by the Obama Administration. Folks any knowledge of Afghanistan and you don’t have to be the Director of the CIA to know that any plan in Afghanistan has never worked, from Alexander the Great, the British Empire to the USSR. The political and military thought that has gone in to Afghanistan over the Centuries could fill in the Moon, there is no WIN in Afghanistan, the place is burial ground of Ego. Thus five years or twenty five years and Afghanistan will still be the same, hard, difficult, backward, tribal, the burial ground of good men and Empires.

Obama on the UK Special Relationship and Afghanistan

The firs Official meeting between the new UK PM David Cameron and President Obama, the President stated the following, “ Now, I want to say that all of us in the United States deeply value the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. And we have been very impressed with the leadership that David Cameron has shown thus far…..we had a extensive discussion about Afghanistan, and the alignment between our two countries in recognizing we have a serious threat to our safety and security that has to be addressed -- that we recognize the enormous sacrifices that both British troops and U.S. troops have been making for some time now, but we are convinced that we have the right strategy to provide the time and the space for the Afghan government to build up capacity over the next several months and years. And this period that we’re in right now is going to be critical both on the political front and on the military front, and there’s going to extremely close consultation between our two countries so that we can create a situation in which Afghanistan and Pakistan are able to maintain their effective security and those areas are not able to be used as launching pads for attacks against our people. ” In many respects both Obama and Cameron want out of Afghanistan, one can argue that PM Cameron has smelled the coffee when it comes to Afghanistan and wants out thus his recent remarks that he would like to see the UK out of Afghanistan by the next UK General Election in 2015. In the case of Obama he has a problem, with the sacking of General McChrystal he has placed the hero of Iraq charge of Afghanistan, thus General Petraeus in 2011 can go to Obama and say that he is winning and needs another year, thus the Obama timetable to withdraw troops form Afghanistan in 2011 would be placed on ice, Petraeus won Iraq and Obama could face a very hostile Republican Congress next that year that does not support announced timetables for getting out of Afghanistan. As long as the US is in Afghanistan the UK will be there, also Pakistan with its nuclear weapons has to be kept stable, thus the US and the UK will be in Afghanistan post 2015 folks, the question is when we leave will we have made any difference, lets hope General Petraeus gets lucky again folks. In Wars you need talent but also luck folks, we know that Petraeus has the talent lets hope the Gods of War smile down on NATO.
　

Newspapers, Pay Walls and the READER

Just read an interesting article in the Sunday Times on why it is to charge on news content, but since its charging there is not link to the page. Thus my problem with paywalls, the Times and Sunday Times is cutting itself off from the the Internet, as in the custom on this blog there is always a link back to the original story but as this blog is a commentary page on American, UK politics and Foreign Policy a lot of news in the public domain, as Presidential remarks and statements from the White House web page, also the BBC has an excellent current news web page. But my main query about pay walls is that current affairs happen in the moment, thus you cant pay wall commentary on a happening event, also pay walls only work if everyone else does the same, once the liberal NYT goes pay wall then this blog will no longer carry links back to its web page. The point of owning a newspaper is to have a political power at the end of the day, so if you cut the views off from your web page what is the point. News is current thus the term current affairs, if your doing business news etc then see the point but with current affairs its a big mistake, readers and blogs will not pay for events that are happening on the news, thus 24 hour news channels. Thus lets fight this folks, lets those in the blog commentary business direct their readers to free news web sites, you don't have to agree with the commentary of that web site but at least its free, its up to the reader to decide if they want to click that link back to the original story, it will be sad lose the Times and Sunday Times but current is current and current is free.