That 'll be that then :-(

           When I was eleven my father, who had been a Rover fan for as long as I could remember, bought a 1976 SAAB 99 EMS. It was a terrific little car that transported us right accross Sweden for our next holiday, zipping about, taking us from Gottenburg, where we had docked, to Veirserum, where our chalet had been booked and later to Stockholm to see extended family. From that moment on I was smitten, every SAAB was fantastic to young eyes, espescially the 900 turbo which I would later go on to drive and love even more.
           The one pictured (a 1980 SAAB 900 turbo 8v inca) I consider to be the quintessential SAAB, black, sleek and conmpletely at odds with what might be regarded as 'Industry Standard' of the time. It was so good that it was featured in the James Bond book 'Licence Renewed', he did go on to crash it into as ditch but it was enough of a p.r boost that SAAB actually built a mock up of the 'Q' car for special appearences and such. My own love affair with this extraordinary car manufacturer has seen me own more examples of their engineering than I would care to admit. I have become a true 'SAAB Saddo' so it was inevitable that my first car would be one. A biege SAAB 99 l 4dr was given to me by my mother for my twentieth birthday and for a year I drove around in it with a big smile on my face. Over the years I've had a multitude of cars from these nordic warriors and all of them have given me the same inane grin whilst driving.

1.          1973 SAAB 99l
2.          1978 SAAB 99 turbo 3dr
3.          1984 Ford Escort mk4 (financially challenged)
4.          1988 SAAB 9000i 5dr
5.          1985 SAAB 900 turbo 5dr
6.          1985 SAAB 900 turbo 16v 's'
7.          1990 Lancia Thema turbo (fancied a change, later wished I'd hadn't)
8.          1991 SAAB 9000 cdxs
9.          1995 Rover 414 (financially challenged again)
10.          1988 SAAB 900 turbo 2dr (owned for a month and sold it for double what i'd paid for it)
11.          1983 B.M.W 325i (when the Rover threw it's cambelt)
12.          1983 SAAB 900 GLs 5dr
13.          1988 VW Golf 1.8 L (financially challenged yet again)
14.          1984 SAAB 900 4DR
15.          1988 SAAB 9000i 'se'
16.          1984 SAAB 900i 3dr (when the 9000 was written off by a 'speeding' motorcyclist)
17.          1994 SAAB 900 (gm) i
18.          1991 SAAB 900 turbo 5dr (raven) in black
19.          1984 SAAB 900 2dr (my father's old car after he died)
20.          1995 SAAB 9000 cse lpt
21.          1997 SAAB 9-5 4dr 
22.          1990 SAAB 900 turbo 16v 's' convertable
23.          1995 SAAB 9000 cse 'anniversary' lpt
24.          1991 SAAB 900 i 16v
25.          1996 SAAB 9000 turbo 'griffin'   

        In that list of the twenty five cars that I have owned since 1991, when I passed my driving test, twenty of them have been SAABs, so what's the point of all this I hear you ask? Well, today SAAB filed for bankruptcy, they are officially dead as a car manufacturer. Hmm! :-(
        So who is responsible for this? Well I believe a multitude of factors have all combined to form the demise of this really great car company and I have to admit a cirtain level of responsibility myself. You see I have never really been interested in the modern products that SAAB dished out, mostly because of the 'Industry Standard' way they were designed and produced but if a car company is going to survive then I, and people like me are going to have to support their new models, and I for one didn't. Whether that is my fault or the fault of General Motors for pushing SAAB into the 'mainstream' in respect of their designing and their manufacturing techniques is a matter of conjecture that I don't feel qualified to answer here. Bottom line was I didn't like what the products were becoming, so I didn't bust a gut to buy one. Trouble is there are an awful lot of people like me around, the facebook SAAB 900 fan page has over 3000 members and they like me didn't seem to be supporting SAAB in the here and now either.
         Truth is nothing lasts for ever, the SAAB 900 is without doubt my favourite car on the  face of planet earth and that was 20 years ago now that production ended. So do with that being the case, do I truely love SAABs, I guess not. I have always felt a kind of emotional connection with the cars that they have produced in the past but that was then, the new 9-5 held a cirtain level of promise but would it have dissapointed as much as the original 9-5 did. Guess we'll never know, I suppose all that needs to be said now is Thankyou to all those people who worked so hard to make the motor industry a more interesting place. Thankyou to all those who built all the cars that I and countless others have enjoyed for the best part of 40 years. The 96, 99, 900 & 9000 were great and I've had countless hours loving them but if SAABs hour has come then so be it.
                    
                      but to all those at SAAB i'd like to say a hearty,

                                                                 Goodnight & Thankyou.

American forces finally capture International 'Hide and Seek' Champion.

             It's been nearly ten years since the 'September 11th' attacks on the 'World Trade Center', the Pentagon and the, as yet, unkown target in Washington D.C, and since that fateful day Osama Bin Laden has been running and hiding from american forces all over the far east. Well, American forces finally caught up with him this week, in a compound, in Abottabad, in Pakistan and rather than all that tedious mucking about with a trial that would undoubtably cost the American tax-payers an absolute fortune, like Saddam Hussain's, they decided that it would proberbly be better for all concerned if they just shot him in the head! Fair enough...... I suppose.
         
              Seems to me though that America really doesn't learn from any of the conflicts that they managed to get themselves embroiled into during the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries, so how could their war on terror end any differently. Korea and Vietnam were both un-winnable conflicts, mostly due to the fact that the enemy's combatants weren't civil enough to wear a uniform declaring their hostile intent. Their use of civilians and children to blow shit up was also a contributing factor in why the U.S personnel on the ground, didn't know who the hell needed shooting, causing countless G.Is to question why they were even there.They were there because of the Cold War, they were there because J.Edgar Hoover and his buddies at the F.B.I had managed to get the whole of the American public absolutley paranoid about the spread of 'Communism'. The mere fact the governments of these supposedly 'Communist' states threatening to spread themselves over south east asia, were more dictatorial regiemes than they were communists states. Seems that every 15 seconds or so there some sort policing campaign, or liberation of a down troden society or out and out conflict and it always seems to have the U.S.A in the driving seat.

                                    Korean War 1950-1953

                                    Vietnam War 1963-1975

                                    Operation Urgent Fury-Grenada 1983

                                    Operation Just Cause-Panama 1989

                                    Operaton Desert Storm-Iraq 1991

                                    Operation Restore Hope-Somalia 1993

                                    Operations in Europe-Bosnia 1990's

                                    Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan 2001-present

                                    Operation Iraqi Freedom-Iraq 2003-present.

                                     Laberian Civil War 2003

                                     The Second Gulf War 2003-2010

                                     The Haitian Rebellion 2004

                                     The Afganistan Conflict 2001-present

                                     Lybian Civil War (operation Odessey Dawn) 2011-present

                                                                                                                
       This is just the edited highlights of the conflicts that the U.S has been involved in since the end of World War 2, for the full, unabridged and staggeringly lengthy list of American Foriegn Policy go to :

                               http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
                 
               I have discussed before why the Americans feel the need to be constantly going around dictating how other governments should behave so I won't re-itterate it here, what I will say is that they don't like being given a bloody nose by anyone let alone a terrorist organisation, and all of their technological warfare advancements, that has burned through a mind melting amount of money in the last fifty years, didn't seem to help their forces on the ground. Policing campaigns are dangerous places to be and there are three of them going on right now. The remnants of the 2nd Iraq War, The Afganistan Occupation and the Lybian Civil War, all of which are involving a supposed multi-national taskforce, all of which show no signs of abaiting and all of which are costing a staggering amount of money to run. And yet, initially, all three of these campaigns seemed simple, so why has it taken so long to sort out the Iraqi and Afganistani situations when America has the largest, most advanced weapons arsenal on the face of planet earth?

                 This question, I would greatly appreciate someone answering for me because I have am at a loss quite frankly . Why, also, did it take 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden when the U.S also has the most advanced technological surveillience and intelligence systems the world has ever seen? Again I would appreciate an answer because it baffles me. Maybe it's a case of international resentment, from various states, against America and their foriegn policies? Possible and more than a little understandable, after all there is a financial incentive in everything the American government takes on. They do have a tendancey to do what is good for their country and Sod everyone else! Their refusal to sign the 'Kyoto Accord' for example.

                  Bush's concept of a blanket 'War on Terror' was at the very least, mis-guided and quite possibly farcicle, after all, how does anyone fight an enemy when they don't know, who he is, where he is and what he looks like. I hasten to add that it's only terrorists with America in their sights that are the targets for this campaign, after all, there don't seem to be many american service personnel in spain helping seek out members of the Bask Seperatist movement, or in Ireland searching for members of the Real I.R.A who have taken a step backwards by starting to blow stuff up again. No America only cares when America's financial interests are somehow impeached.

                   After Bin Laden's assasination, President Obama has re-assured the world that the 'War on Terror is not a War on Islam, it is a war on extremism not on the Muslim community. That's all very well but if America's foriegn policy continues to service just American global interests then it is highly likely that their war on terror will never end. There will always be a new group ready to take up the sword to fight the political boheimouth that the U.S.A has become. As long as there are countries and populations that are run over by American foriegn policy, then there will always be people ready to become the next Bin Laden, to fight the good fight regardless of how many innocents get caught in the crossfire. Nothing breeds terrorists like political indifference, when people feel maginalised by governments, ignored by politicians, stamped on by corperations and ripped off by all of the above, how else can they get political attention?

What, War Drums.......AGAIN!!!!!!

            It would seem that the good ole U.SofA, under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize 'Winner' Barrack Obama, has decided that the whole worlds just far too quiet these days and what we really need is the distant sound of cruise missile explosions to liven the place up a bit. And, seeing as we have a bunch of chinless Oxford wonders governing the U.K at the moment, we'll be dragged down another warmongers road that will undoubtably end with another financial recession caused by the collosal amount of money that these sort of policing campaigns,  flush down the damn toilet. The truth is that, yet again, this is all about oil or the lack of on the world market. Negotiations between Coronel Gadaffi (didn't think coronel was that high a rank in the armed forces, surley Marshall would be better)  France and Britain about the sale of Lybian oil to the world market broke down about two months ago and America has made up a load of old pony about the infringement of human rights going on in Lybia as a justification to remove Gadaffi from rule.
               
              Now look, the whole world and his wife knows that Gadaffi is an arsehole, the whole world and his wife knows about the lybian connection with the bombing of the Pan-Am flight that went down over scotland, and the world and his wife knows damn well that Lybia is not the kind of place that wins a five star rating from Amnesty International over the treatment of political prisoners.This stuff has been known about the place for eons so why in the name of all that's holy are we all of a sudden rattling sabres? Oil is a powerful motivator in international politics these days. It's running out all over the world and the western governments need horrendous amounts of it to keep thier economies moving. Unbelievable amounts of the stuff actually and Opec won't produce enough of it. They're not stupid, they know that the less they produce, the more the price of a barrel of the stuff goes up. As a by-product of this thinking, also the less they produce, the longer thier reserves last and the more money they make.
           
               So what does that mean for us? Well, we, the everyday joe in the street end up paying through the nose to put any kind of fuel in any kind of motor vehicle. Truth is, Britains oil production is painfully insignificant next to say, Saudi Arabia's and the oil that keeps our country trundelling along has to come from somewhere. So, yet again the governments of the west call the shots, fire the artillery and it's the tax payers who end up footing the bill, and what a grossley exaggerated  bill it is. The way that arms are produced in the U.S.A is hardly now, nor has it ever been, cost efficient. As way of an example, most motor companies need thousends of individual componants for the vehicles they manufacture. Say Vauxhall need a headlamp switch for their new saloon car, they invite tenders from componant manufacturers from all over the world. ( actually they will have a list of the componant manufacturers that General Motors will allow them to commision parts from, but we will come to that later  ) These companies design or redesign an existing componant that satisfies the technical requirements of the switch needed and give a cost per unit of manufacture back to Vauxhall, and , because Vauxhall is run by accountants not engineers, they will almost exclusively pick the lowest quote.

                  The American arms manufacturers run a slightly different ship so to speak. Yes, they too need componants for the weapons systems that they produce but the lowest bidder rarely gets a look in. They will tender out to manufacturers worldwide but the companies chosen to actually make the part in question, will almost cirtainly be affiliated to say, a Congressman who wants technical manufacturing done in his particular constituency or a Senator who just happens to be on the board of 'Switches R Us' or a Vice President who is favouring one tender over another purely for political reasons. Add to these shannanigans, America's secret funding for black operations, secret organisations, or top secret weapons developement all coming out of legitimate costing from arms manufacturing and all of a sudden the price of said switch goes through the fucking roof. This is just a switch remember, put two thousend of these parts together as a missile system and all of a sudden you have a invoice that would make Bill Gates swear. These weapon systems are being used on Lybia as I type this out and Britain is paying for a very large chunk of the bill.

             
             So what do we conclude from this political mess? Seems America stands to make an awful lot of money from deposing Gadaffi, also from the armourment used during the campaign, the bill to put Lybia back together again afterwards and of course the oil that they will have access to thanks to the America friendly eagit that they put into power afterwards, we get to pay through the nose for the armourments used and the fuel to drip into our audis, hey presto everyone's a winner. Not quite. You have to ask yourself, 'Is this anyway for the most powerful nation on earth to behave'? America behaves as the police to the world but who police's the police, cirtainly not the U.N. America never takes any notice of them at all, they didn't in Iraq why should they now. Truth is America is only interested in America's interests, sod everyone else and I for one am getting more than a bit sick of being part of a nation that is considered 'America's Special Friend'. Britain needs a government with backbone enough to tell the white house to 'SOD OFF WE CAN'T AFFORD IT'. With this kind of foriegn policy, the U.S.A is going to find itself with no friends at all. As Jimmy Carr once said "in the future, the world will only have two flags, America's and a flag for everyone else, and the 'everyone else' flag will be identicle to America's, except it will be on fire.

Feel free to leave a 'Comment' that way I'll know that I'm not just talking to the wall!