Wars of distraction have always been irresistible to leaders who are in a spot of bother, either because they’ve checked the policy cupboard and there’s nothing there, or because there’s domestic or a ‘can’t keep the cock-in-a-pocket problem’ which won’t be solved by the usual spin or bluster. Sadly, while these wars have horrible consequences for civilians, the so-called collateral damage politicians from the global north and various ‘strongman’ countries south of heaven are convinced they’re necessary to boost their standing at home. Killing ‘people not like us’ just an occupational hazard. Of course, these wars of distraction aren’t sold as popularity contests but as ‘regime change’, as ways of ‘making the free world safe’, which, as a phrase, always conjures up war crimes, mass graves, and wilful ignorance of the Geneva Convention. In effect killing huge numbers of ‘the wrong kind of people’ while continuing to make sure that any natural resources are kept being produced for the benefit of the stock markets and the businessmen (aka kleptocrats) secretly financing and running the war. There’s always money for war and yet strangely there’s never enough money for peace: for health, education, social care, housing and transport etc. A new bomb or missile always takes precedence over a new school (one Tomahawk Cruise missile costs approximately £2.2 million, a new school somewhere in the region of £15 million). A new way to kill always more profitable than a new way to improve life. And on that basis, and regarding all of the above, you’d think The Hague would have a waiting list, a queue stretching all the way to Palestine. The most popular travel destination in the world for deposed leaders and their cadres of murderous lieutenants. But, no, quiet as a fucking grave, mate. The staff there twiddling their thumbs while Netanyahu, Trump and Putin (among many others with blood on their hands) are living their best lives while the people of Gaza, Ukraine and Iran have been and are being killed with impunity. Which always brings me back to what happened at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. “A study by a United Nations panel of experts found that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of fighting. It found that in that period, ‘virtually every hospital in the Vanni region whether permanent or makeshift, was hit by artillery.’”. Quoted from Human Rights Watch under the headline, 15 Years Since Sri Lanka Conflict Ended, No Justice for War Crimes. Which our trio and many others with evil intentions must have noted. Kill and kill carelessly. No questions asked. Yep, we’ll have some of that. Leading to Trump, Netanyahu and Putin fighting wars of distraction/killing people for their own benefit. Still, it’s nice that television viewers in Moscow, Jerusalem and Washington (and beyond) can get gung-ho about death and destruction every morning over breakfast.