Syria

a far-off country of which we know little. Not. Back in 2011 I advocated air strikes to stop Assad slaughtering his own people, some of whom had risen up in the Arab Spring and were looking for freedom. It didn't happen. Obama too fearful and pusillanimous, Cameron wanted to do it, sort of, but couldn't get it through Parliament because of an outbreak of silly not-in-my-namery (they're only brown-skin Ay-rabs, so it's not our fight, says the Left). France actually did do it, and has continued to do some of it. Whatever Francois Hollande might lack, it is not political courage. And, of course, Russia has got involved. Now why might that be? Ah yes, those pesky Chechens and Dagestanis and Ossetians. Muslims, every man jack of 'em (the women don't count, natch). Putin, and to some extent his predecessors, didn't dick around when it came to dealing with those towel-heads, oh, no. Invade Georgia? Sure, why not? Did that, in 2008. The world said nothing. Crush the Chechens? Yeah, after all you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. Chechnya, Dagestan and both Ossetias are corrupt hell-holes where human rights are non-existent. The world said nothing. Putin installed a tame warlord, Ramzan Kadyrov, there in 2007. He has red hair, see?

pic Oleg Nikishin/Getty

 

Kadyrov likes wrestling and Kalashnikovs. So, where was I? Ah yes, Syria. Russia wants to keep Assad in power there, because the savage civil war has allowed that thing sometimes called ISIS to rise up (funded by Saudi Arabia), which is a Bad Thing. So ISIS should be trashed, so that Muslims in Russia remember who's the Daddy and don't get any funny ideas about taking over the country, or bits of it. Oh and Russia has always been mates with Syria and the Assad family, largely because they're not mates with some of the others in the region. Do try and keep up. And ISIS, as I said, has got to be trashed. Well, of course, ISIS would not even be there if there had been proper clinical strikes and Assad had been got rid of four years ago, with a post-Assad regime (done right this time) under international control. But Obama was too pussy, and it didn't happen. So we are where we are. But ISIS have still got to be trashed. And quite frankly I don't see any way other than by (for now) keeping Assad in place until ISIS have been pulverised. And then, well, then, we'll see. Sometimes, you have to  hold your nose and take the side of the odious and the dictatorial, against some who are worse.

 

Refugees pour out of Syria. Well, you would too, if you could. But of course not everyone seeking asylum in Europe who says they are a refugee from Syria actually is. It's quite a handy way to insert Islamic terrorism into the heart of Europe, where a welcome may be found in the tougher banlieues of Paris and Marseille, and in the Guardian-reading dinner parties of Islington. I write this as JC Superstar is making his keynote speech to Labour Party conference. JC, if another 7/7, or worse, happens on your watch, who will your friends be then?

 

Make no mistake, there is a war going on. And it is a war against "us". The West. Europe. America. Those of us who think democratic values may not be perfect but are kind of a better thing to have than everything else that is out there. So, what are you doing in the war? 

Patrick McGilligan, "Alfred Hitchcock, a LIfe in Darkness and Light"

Although I've read quite a lot about Hitchcock over the years I'd never read an actual biography of him until now. The Donald Spoto has been on my to-read list for some time, but I won't read it now. I know from this book what it says. I was inspired to get this book by seeing the recent film with Anthony Hopkins, about his relationship with his wife Alma and the making of Psycho. 

I'm really glad I did. It's long, but never boring for a moment despite the wealth of detail, down to describing exactly how certain shots were achieved in some films. Hitchcock is seen here as something of a romantic, and with a Victorian sexual upbringing which probably did him no good. I can see that. It is also emphasised that he started his working life as a designer. If you think of his films as designed they make sense in a way they perhaps did not before, and did not always to critics at the time, some of whom dismissed them as pulp horror. I hadn't realised how much of the writing Hitch did in his films - he didn't take writing credits. This book is really good, don't be put off by its length. The title "A Life In Darkness and Light", while absolutely right for what most of his films looked like, gave me earworm of the Bob Dylan song "Isis", you know, "I came to a high place of darkness and light, dividing line ran through the centre of town" and suddenly I saw the scene portrayed in that song (the two men frantically chopping through an ice-bound cavern until one of them dies), as pure Hitch. Hitchcock should have made a film of the song. Can anyone tell me about other films which were based on songs?