Well, I think the experiment in crowd-sourcing (otherwise known as picking the brains of readers of this blog) has been a great success. It would be invidious to pick out particular contributions. But I was struck by how interesting and rational most of the posts were – so unlike the forums in other newspapers. I mention no names. I think I’ll definitely repeat the experiment, after the summer break.
In the end I’ve decided to do the conspiracy theories column. In the course of the research I came across two particularly striking conspiracy websites. (There are zillions of them) The editor of Conspiracy Planet sent a rather aggressive letter to the editor, accusing me of being a "shill" for the establishment. Fortunately, he is based in Montana – so I doubt I’ll ever have to argue this one out in person. Then there is the Lobster site, which has long had a devoted following in Britain.
Meanwhile, out in the real world – things still look bad in Pakistan, with a resurgence of violence at the Red Mosque.
Interestingly – and perhaps predictably – a clash between the government and violent Islamist forces seems to have swung opinion in America back behind President Musharraf.
A few months ago, there were signs of a real debate in Washington about the need to put pressure on Musharraf to restore democracy. This was fuelled partly by frustration at his unwillingness to take on al-Qaeda. There are still people arguing for a more forceful American attitude to the Pakistani government. But the usually well-informed Swoop website argues – convincingly I think – that the Bush administration is now rallying behind the Pakistani president.
I am flying to Jerusalem tomorrow and will blog from Israel and the Palestinian territories next week.
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