A large Ferris wheel ...

12 December

Yer man Putin must be laughing his socks off at the West right now. The US is ripping itself apart over Farter Trump; the UK is doing the same over BREXIT; the EU is fighting hard to keep itself from falling apart; the Arab/Islamic nations are fighting among themselves, and while all that is happening he is happily rubbing his hands together while he bombs the hell out of Syria. I have a feeling he’s also laughing at all wasted efforts of predecessors in the Kremlin who were fighting to keep the USSR at the top or the power race. Right now the world is going to pot and Putin sits there laughing as he looks on, waiting to slid right in and take over what is left over after all our petty squabbles.

The West has never really trusted the Russians, even when we fought a common enemy in WW2. The alliance was only in place because of the need to fight Germany at that time. After 1945 the truth became really clear when Stalin annexed so much of Eastern Europe and the cold war began. In October 1945 the United Nations was set up in an attempt for nations to live together in peace, hopefully preventing another war on the scale of 1939/45. Nations living together in peace, ha, what a joke. Think of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, all the various conflicts in Africa, Indonesia and Malaya, and don’t forget the Falklands War or the Troubles in Ulster. At least the UK had armed forces worthy of the name, if anything major blew up now we would be hard pushed to meet it at our own shores, let alone be on any offensive.

Look, I’m not all that clever a man, and yet I can see all this. Surely there are people in power who can see what I see and can read between the lines of the headlines. So why is that lessons have not been learned? Millions of men died during the conflicts of the 20^th Century. All it needed in 1914 was for one world leader to say, ‘No, this can not happen!’ for it all the have been prevented, but none of them did because they didn’t want to be seen as being fearful, or being afraid.

Of course, things are different in the 21^st century where militant Islam plays such a huge part in so many lives. Now men and women go to their deaths happily because they believe they are doing God’s work. But is really all that different? Islam has its strong leaders who can incite followers and stir them up to action by big promises of paradise awaiting for them. If paradise is so good, why aren’t the leaders at the fight of the fighting? For the same reasons as in every conflict, they live to give orders, not to die for the Cause. The difference is only in the reason behind the greed for power and wealth.

Coming back Yer Man in Moscow then; even he isn’t immune to attacks by the fanatics of Islam. Russia has been hit a few times by them over the years since communism fell. And just like so many tyrants of the past, he too will be brought down when he least expects it. Sadly though, some other unstable person will take over from him it will all start again, and the UN will continue to sit back wringing its hands and begging everyone to please stop what they’re doing and live in peace. And the Ferris wheel of life goes around and around … … …

Today’s photo …

The clock tower, Leicester.

Today’s funny …

 After suffering through years of his wife's awful coffee, the man spat it out and took the coffee maker to his lawyer.
Dropping it on the attorney's desk, the man growled, "Here they are!"
"Here are what?" the startled lawyer asked.
"Grounds for Divorce."