Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

London Bombings

A witness, one of the survivors, of these terrible bombings described fire crews waiting in the wings whilst victims died without  first aid. Apparently they were under orders not to put themselves in danger in case there was a second explosion. If this is correct it is a national disgrace.

The emergency services have a duty, it is inherent in the vocation, to put themselves at risk in the course of protecting, aiding and rescuing victims. We do not need to go back to the blitz to know how true this tradition is. It gives the whole country a sense of pride in its emergency services, akin to that of the armed forces.

If  some daft adherence to some safety protocol comes between that duty and its application, then it, together with those mindless zealots who apply it, must go. There is no place for it or them in any situation which calls for bold and heroic action to save lives and help the suffering. This is not a country deaf to screams of agony.

What a tawdry contrast to those brave firemen in New York, over two hundred of whom died trying to rescue the trapped on 9/11. I have said before that if you create a procedure manual you empower the fool. I will now add that you also licence the coward.

Iran in Iraq

Perhaps the most intersting  piece of real world news yesterday was a story carried in the Guardian about the active part the Iranian authorities are playing in brokering a deal to break the impasse in the government forming process in Iraq, following the deadlocked elections. If this turns out to be correct, Iraq will have a government close to, and an ally of, Iran.

Pragmatically one must say that anything that produces a functioning government in Iraq, which also has the backing of Iran and Syria, must be better than the present vacuum. However if we refer back to the battle plan of the Bush Blair war with its neo-con drumbeat, an Iraq counting Iran as its principal ally, was not an outcome even contemplated in the wildest nightmares of the Pentagon and its trigger happy followers. Added to the fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction, the trigger for war, and you have what is without doubt one of the most ill advised and futile wars in history.

That so many brave lives have been lost among the military of America and Britain and innocent civilians in Iraq makes this foolhardy adventure one of the darkest episodes in the record of the Atlantic Alliance.