Trying Something Different

For some unknown reason, my favourite paper the Guardian wasn't available the other day in Swansea, so I thought I'd try the Independent instead.

As a student I'd always read the Indy, but over the years I was lured away to the guardian by a better standard of writing and especially the breadth of columnists.

Have to say that it I was really impressed by that days Indy. Perhaps not enough to switch full time, but it kept me busy for my journey up to London.

Two particular items caught my eye.

Weapons left by us troops used as bait to kill Iraqis which details how us sniper teams have been deliberately leaving weapons out in the open and then shooting anyone who picks them up on the assumption they must be terrorists. Those shot can therefore be counted as enemy combatants and therefore used to justify the success of the surge.

The battle of Little Rocks is apart an interview that Louis Armstrong gave in 1957 about civil rights. Before this interview, Louis Armstrong had been regarded as an uncle tom character by many civil rights activists. The interview shocked America and his concerts were boycotted in the same way that the Dixie chicks were to be 40 years later when they criticised president bush.