Blogging from Abroad

I sit at the keyboard, tap-tap-tapping at the keys from the desk of one Kerrianne Flett. An empty tea mug rests next to me. Out the window, the bright green and red signal lights are the only sign of the Tay Rail Bridge, engineering landmark in its time, now shrouded in the cold Scottish darkness that descends on this town at half four each afternoon around this time of year. Across the canyon of blackness above which the signals gleam, the lights in the homes of Tayport flicker their Morse code message of coziness, warmth and interestingly boiled and fried foods.

Yes, I am blogging from that fabled city of jute, jam and journalism: Dundee.

What do I have to say, I wonder? Should I talk about the anti-American sentiment I felt at the ferry terminal in Belfast? Sounds too whiny, I decide. The debauchery of yesterday's "guys' night out"? Too self-congratulatory (though I will admit I was unable to finish the Eight Shot Challenge... "Too old", I told them). Perhaps the wonderful cooking made earlier by my gracious host, Annie? Still too full to start on that.

No, I think I'll talk foreign affairs.

As I write this post, Israeli ground forces are moving into Gaza. Does this come as a surprise to anyone? It shouldn't. What does an army usually do before moving in on the ground? Bomb the area it's about to enter. Israel has been bombing Gaza for about a week, and now they're rolling in with tanks. They're not the first nation to this. In fact, any nation that's ever come even close to conducting a war has done this. Those who are surprised at the developments of today are, in this bloggers view, rather naive.

Which brings us to the reasoning behind the situation. Let's say you lived in a country with your family. With me so far? Now, the authority in another region has the stated intent of wiping you and your kind off the map. They refuse to maintain law and order in their area of control, even going so far as to allow people under their control to attack the country in which you live.

Does this situation sound familiar? If not, maybe the reader should direct their attention to any article on 9/11 (or any of the other several similar terrorist attacks carried out by those under the protection of friendly governments) and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan.

This, then, is the situation in which the average Israeli living near Gaza finds themself in lately. Rocket attacks have been coming from Gaza into Israel for some time now. Are these rockets aimed exclusively at military targets? Do the rockets have a special setting which says "only kill military personnel"? I haven't actually seen the rockets, but I'm fairly certain they don't.

So now we have Hamas, the organization which heads the government of Gaza. As the legal authority in the region, it has, to use the least inflammatory language possible, been unable to stop these attacks. This should in turn warrant a response from Israel. A government which did not respond would be viewed as ineffectual by its people, and in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers, deserve to be removed from power.

So Israel responds by launching an invasion with the intend to remove from power a government which allows indiscriminate rocket attacks. And the response internationally is protests thousands of people strong, condemning Israel as murderers. Where were the protests when the rockets were being fired? Where were the protests when men and women with explosives strapped to them walked into Israeli markets and detonated themselves? The fact is people react to concentrated episodes, not widely distributed trends. Rock-stars like Annie Lennox, finding themselves with nothing particularly important to do, gather a bunch of similarly idle people together and get up on their soapboxes.

And so, here we are. A nation tries to defend itself from an aggressor which refuses peace, and the world protests. Nice job, everybody.

Busted, disgusted and not to be trusted,
-Nick