priorities

I'm just listening to the Guardian politics podcast and they went from talking to the economy to talking civil liberties. in all honesty, the economy is far more important. at the end of the day, i care about having a job and a decent standard of living far more than the civil rights of suspected terrorists. i would imagine most people are the same.
with growth stallling and inflation rising i'm worried about my job, i'm worried about my medium to long term prospects too and the idea of getting blown up doesn't help on that.
as someone who thinks terrorism is a terrible thing i'm not entirely sympathetic even though i'm a big believer in personal freedom and liberty

Simon Jenkins on Afghanistan

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian has committed what, for me, is a real crime along liberal lefties.
I base that on my assumption that he supports things like human rights. The thing is that there comes a line when human rights and self determination clash, and he doesn't want to accept this.
His article is that of a right miserable git, claiming that trying to foster democracy in Afghanistan is all balls to try to inflate Obama and Brown's egos. And he doesn't accept that there is any link between Afghanistan and terrorism in the west. There was a military/intelligence bloke the other day who came out the other day saying the two were linked. The truth could be anything, but I know who I'd believe on balance of probability.

There are some in Afghanistan who support our being there, some who oppose. As a liberal (Socialist) I want to see liberal (Socialist) values rule the world, and if some in the military are willing to give their lives for what we call freedom, then we should not shirk tough decisions.
Having said all that, I fear I'm becoming a Socialist Neo-Conservative as in wanting to intervene militarily to remove nasty dictators and impose liberally values