Mick Smith - Times Online - WBLG

Gaza Attacks and Olmert's Threat to the Innocents Damage Israel

There is no doubt that Hamas has provoked Israel with rocket attacks from Gaza onto Israeli territory, but the disproportionate response unleashed yesterday will do Israel nothing but harm. Commentators have suggested that retaliation would be difficult because there is an election going on in Israel, but the unavoidable conclusion is that the election, and the tightness of the race between the candidate of the Kadima party Tzipi Livni, and the Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, is a key factor in the decision to take such dire action. Both candidates have promised to act tough and the ironically named Operation Solid Lead means Livni is now able to claim that she can be as tough as Netanyahu.

Nigel Antony Richard Backhouse MVO - 1956-2008. A Great Loss.

I went to the funeral of a man I was proud to call a friend today. The mourners packed into the pretty church of St Giles, Ashtead, near Leatherhead, bore testament to the ease with which Nigel Backhouse made friends. There were many people there today who had lost a very good friend and will have been helped in their loss by a beautiful service. I am sure their hearts went out, as mine did, to his young family. How to explain the death of someone so young? One of the readings came from The Prophet by the Lebanese poet and philosopher Kahlil Gibran.

    On Death
    By Kahlil Gibran

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and
expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Nigel Backhouse, a good friend to many, a man who will truly be sorely missed.

Letter from the Left Coast: The Cabinet, the Legacy and the Law

Ian Bowater with a Christmas Special from the Left Coast

Here’s change you’re gonna have to put up with… Barack Obama ran on the left to beat Hillary in the Primary. At the general election conventional wisdom dictates that he would move to the centre to get elected. When in office he will naturally drift back to the left. The Republicans forced change on him by playing the Pinko, Commie, Socialist card. Instead of running to the middle, he stayed left because it worked for him and none of the calumnies heaped on him by the McCain campaign worked for them. Now in the transition we are learning what sort politician he will be. He is governing from the right, appeasing some pretty nasty folks while he builds his big tent. Instead of ringing the change bell there’s a load of old Clinton clangers in his first Cabinet.

A Christmas Message from a Soldier's Mum

Here's Mandy, our soldier's mum, with her annual Christmas message

ON THE 1ST DAY OF CHRISTMAS...  A fleet of military helicopters buzz the skies in the East. Gordon Santa then. On the front line. Bearing gifts? This Christmas, named parcels only are being accepted by The British Forces Post Office with the lamenting MOD citing the need to use military helicopters for operational requirements only. But it’s ok. Gordon is aware that the charity UK4U will supply all our brave soldiers with parcels. How the elves distribute them in the Sandy Land is completely up to them.

Pakistani General Murdered to Stop Him Naming Generals Who Shied Off Fighting the Taliban

General Amir Faisal Alavi, former Pakistani special forces commander, with General Bryan 'Doug' Brown, who was then head of US Special Operations Command

There is a remarkable story in today’s Sunday Times about how a former Pakistan special forces chief was murdered after alleging that senior generals were paying off Taliban leaders and refusing to fight the war on terror. Maj-Gen Amir Faisal Alavi, former head of the Special Services Group, the Pakistani equivalent of the SAS, was particularly angry about a deal with Baitullah Mahsud, suspected of being the mastermind behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Alavi had repeatedly fought inside the Pakistan Army for change and his men had led the battle against the militants bravely but there were a small number of generals who were not only trying to prevent the army taking on the militants properly but in some cases were backing them.

Soldiers Return from Afghanistan to Fine Welcome from the Prince or a Good Beating from the Police

Mandy our soldier's mum, seen here with son Ross, reports from a reception this week for the paras and their relatives on their return to Colchester after a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Emotions were high and there were tears. Of course. None more so than when Lance Corporal Tom Neathway, who lost both legs and an arm in an explosion at Kajaki, stood up from his wheel chair and walked across the parade ground. It was right and fitting the members of the Parachute Regiment were honoured for their service in Afghanistan. It was also right and proper that Prince Charles held a private audience afterwards for the families of the injured and for those that died.

British Forces Chief: "Why Our Allies Messed It Up For Us in Iraq"

Every Christmas it is traditional for the Chief of Defence Staff to address the members of the Royal United Services Institute. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup did so this evening, and since the media reports seem likely to focus on what he said about Afghanistan and Mumbai, it is worth separating off the Iraq section which is a spirited defence of British operations in southern Iraq, with a sideswipe at our allies who have been so quick to criticise the British efforts. It is well worth a read:

Thank you, chairman, and good afternoon everyone.  It’s a great pleasure to have the chance once again to speak here at RUSI; to be able to share some reflections with you as the year draws to an end, and 2008 has been eventful in so many ways. Since I spoke to you last year, 47 of our people have lost their lives on operations, and many more have been wounded, some very seriously.  2008 has seen some hard fighting, some significant military successes, and the continued development of some significant obstacles to success that will make 2009 particularly challenging. One of the biggest steps forward came early in the year, in Iraq.  Although operation charge of the knights got off to an inauspicious start, its eventual success and subsequent developments have transformed the situation in Basra.  But the operation has also attracted a degree of controversy, particularly with regard to the British role.