No Justice, No Peace

So the government launches a new, new (and new) counter-terror initiative Contest Two. Well this one, like all the other ones, is doomed to failure. Why? In a word, Palestine. Our (and the US) government has been pouring billions and billions in troops, aid, support and schemes like Platform 2 over the last 8 years to combat radical terrorism and what have they got to show for it? Iraq is not in full-on civil war, but still violent, riven and bloody and every day there are several attacks on US forces. In Afghanistan the most advanced military force in the is bogged down to a stalemate by a mixture of part-time farmers with AK47s and a bunch of religious zealots. Given the money and resources the US/UK has, it's frankly embarrassing. But they have the guns, but not the understanding.

Here is the UK, the government wants moderate Muslims to act as a block of the radicals. That's a sound strategy as if there is no supportive community it is hard for terrorists to thrive. But (and this is a big 'but') you have to have credibility with that community for them to trust you. And Neo-Labour - the Labour of Iraq, Afghanistan, George W Bu$h, Guantanamo, MI5 torture collusion and selling weapons to Israel - simply does not have it.

The current row with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is indicative of this. The MCB is a pretty sizable group who have worked with the government before. Now they are in a row because apparently the top MCB guy made supportive statements of Hamas. If there was nothing else going on in the world at all, I could understand this. But (again a big 'but') while this war of words is going on the evidence of Israeli war crimes mounts ever higher. I have not seem any word from the government on this at all. Total silence.

So while there is no justice, there will be no peace.

This applies to all - so it would be no good giving in to Hamas's ridiculous demands to destroy Israel. Both sides have to gain (or not loose) enough to make it not worth fighting for.

No justice, no peace. It's counter-terrorism 101.