Am I the only sane one?

Several annoying things that I have read today and have to comment on:

One. Please stop whining ... Yeah, so you were blindfolded wherever you went and separated from your mates ... this wasn't holiday camp, this is a war .. of course they blindfolded you ... of course they separated you, interrogated you and used mind games ... see it all the time on law and order don't you ... what did you expect!! You're soldiers!! You would have done the same or worse if it was the other way round!

Consider yourselves lucky you weren't captured by the more civilised Americans ... you would have been shackled, kept in cages, subjected to sensory deprivation, deprived of sleep and god only knows what else ... the truth only coming out years later when someone gets hold of a soldier's mobile phone.

To be fair to the UK soldiers .. I don't think they were whining so much as the media was trying to persuade us that their portrayal of Iran is still accurate. I was amused to hear that Sky had actually suppressed footage that they had confirming that part of the soldiers mission was to obtain intelligence information on Iran, for fear that it may have repercussions on the men whilst in Iran ... so there was some truth to Iran's complaints then??


Two. Suicide cricketers - apparently PJ Mir is concerned that religious extremism played a part in the Pakistani cricket team loss ... "It was beyond the limit, this religious influence, and the players were even made to offer prayers during the flights" he is quoted as saying. Well some will say .. perhaps they should have prayed a bit harder, they might have won! After the reported murder of Bob Woolmer I bet several of them were praying hard on the flight back just in case they were next on the list!


Three. Whilst the UK grieves for the soldiers killed in Iraq and the teenagers killing each other in London and the life and death matter of whose parking space it is .. here are some news items which didn't make the UK front pages:

Somalia - more than 1,000 people were reportedly killed or injured in four days of fighting recently.

Pakistan - about 40 people have been killed and more than 70 injured in violent clashes between Sunni and Shia Muslims in northern Pakistan.

Sri Lanka - seven people have been killed and 26 injured after a roadside mine hit a civilian bus.

Palestine - Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian fighter and wounded two in what is believed to be the fiercest exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters since a ceasefire agreed in November. Helicopters, reportedly, fired at least two missiles at Palestinians near the Jabalya refugee camp.

Just another normal day for the rest of the world.