Keeping my fingers crossed

MI5 have uncovered a plot to blow up a number of planes flying between the UK and USA, pretty much all airports in the UK are at a standstill. Aircraft, unless already airborne, will not be allowed to land at Heathrow. People lucky enough to get on their flight, can not take any hand luggage on board. This is f**ked!

I’m supposed to be flying to Vienna tomorrow morning out of Heathrow. Something tells me I might not make my flight. Even if I do I won’t be able to take my PSP on board! But I suppose that’s not too much of a tragedy. Rob and I are supposed to be making a pilgrimage to Schnitzelwirt in Vienna this weekend; he is heading back to Australia in a month’s time so this will be our last little trip together. Fortunately for Rob he is already on the continent and shouldn’t have too much trouble getting to Vienna from Frankfurt. I will be very angry if I am unable to join him there.

I will not however be angry specifically with the so called terrorists who were going to blow up the planes. Although I certainly don’t sympathise with them at all, and in fact think they are pathetic and cowardly little worms; I blame Tony Blair and George Bush, the democratically elected leaders of our nations.

They are as neanderthalistic as the people they dub terrorists. Attacking Iraq is one of the major causes of people wanting to blow up airplanes in the UK and USA. How on earth is it a good idea to ‘fight terrorism’ by going and starting another war? Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been killed in Iraq since we invaded the place and it’s not getting any better. Sure; there were probably plenty of people out there who didn’t like our country, but that’s life! By invading Iraq all we have done is given organisations, which our leaders like to call terrorists, further motivation to come and attack us. It must be so much easier for these people to recruit people to their cause now, all they have to point at the absolute carnage we have caused in Iraq; they must have potential recruits lining up around the block! Sure, there are plenty of people out there who will hate the West no matter what, but some of these guys are probably just fighting back. They’re pissed off that we went and started blowing up Iraq and so they figured they should blow us up as well. They don’t have the same kind of means as our multi billion dollar armies, so they use what they have to make the most impact. Yet this makes them terrorists! They are no more terrorists than the armies of the UK and USA, and no matter how many times they are successful in bombing us and no matter how many civilians they kill; it will still not be as many as the number of innocent people who have been killed by our armies!

This whole incident will very conveniently move the Israel – Lebanon conflict from the front page of the newspaper. We won’t be talking about them for a little while and both sides can continue to show scant regard for international law, and kill more innocent men, women and children. The unwavering support that the US has shown for Israel in spite of many countless UN attempts to condemn its actions is another reason why the US is so hated. Again this time, the US will oppose any attempt to censor Israel and the conflict will continue, and it will continue further back in our newspapers, to join the reports of another 50 civilians dead each day in Iraq, on page 12 or 13.

Let me stress that in no way to I condone the actions of the people who mean to blow us up, I despise them, but the blood of every person they kill is on the hands of our leaders. They are no more terrorists than our government are. However having said all this it would appear that all those arrested are in fact British born. Which doesn't make them crusaders for their cause, fighting for their brothers in Iraq; it just makes them dickheads.

All short Haul flights in and out of Heathrow have now been cancelled for today. I really hope I get on my flight tomorrow; as I check flight information, I can see it has already been delayed by 90 minutes. That however is not necessarily a bad thing as it was supposed to be a 7.30am flight which meant I was going to have to fork out 27 quid to get to Heathrow on time. At least now I can get there on public transport. So I suppose every cloud has a silver lining. I hope my silver lining stays and I can get to Vienna in time to see my best mate and the best schnitzel that I have been waiting more than 5 years to taste again.