David Kelly: when states do [and do not] kill
WHEN a man leaves his home carrying a boxful of powerful painkillers, a bottle of water and a pruning knife, the assumption has to be that he harbours an obvious intention to kill himself. When he is known to be in a depressed frame of mind and when there is a history of suicide in [...]
What the Blair memoirs are not going to say
RANDOM House has paid Tony Blair a $7.5m advance for his memoirs. Given that the company is the largest English language publisher in the world, one presumes it knows what it is doing. But the truth is that political diaries only rarely sell in sufficient quantity to recoup major outlays. Often such deals are not [...]
Why Iraq is not a rerun of Vietnam
SUCH was the depth of popular repugnance to the Vietnam War in the late 1960s that its magnitude was apparent to me even as a small town preteen schoolboy in an apolitical household. Still I can recall watching the demonstrations on the television news, the ‘get out of Vietnam’ slogan hand painted in white on [...]
Iraq bombings: more than a little disappointing
IT SEEMS nobody is quite sure how many people died in the five bombings that took place in Baghdad yesterday. The body count is 127 and set to climb, say some reports. Most newspapers seem to go with the figure of 112, while reports just breaking say the authorities have revised the estimate down to [...]
Sexed up: the vindication of Andrew Gilligan
NOW the Chilcot Inquiry is in full swing, cast your mind back to the Hutton Inquiry into the suicide of Dr David Kelly in 2003. Remember that day six years ago, when BBC Radio 4’s defence correspondent was subjected to a four hours and eleven minutes of hostile interrogation from James Dingemans QC? Andrew Gilligan’s [...]
Chilcot Inquiry: shoot first, ask questions later
THE most sensible time to ponder reasons for going to war is surely prior to the commencement of hostilities, and not six years after the fighting finishes. Whatever the outcome of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the whys are wherefores of the occupation of Iraq, the entire exercise can only ever be about as useful [...]
Iraq: failure of a project
Very few things about Iraq can legitimately be described as clear; but one proposition of which there can be little doubt is that the project that motivated the invasion of 2003 has failed, albeit in ways its framers did not anticipate at the time. The result is a crisis without obvious solution. Unlike Vietnam, or [...]
Tories demand Iraq inquiry
The Tories are pressing for an inquiry into the Iraq war. The Tories are right to press for an inquiry into the Iraq war. Hypocritical, given their historic complicity in arming the Saddam regime and their parliamentary support for the venture in the crucial vote. But nevertheless, correct on the narrow issue at hand. If [...]
Surge strategy: why it is time to leave Iraq
They call it the ‘surge strategy’. George Bush is widely expected to announce on Wednesday that at least 10,000 – and possibly more – more US troops will be sent to Iraq, on top of the 132,000 already in place. What on earth can he be thinking of? On the face of it, the move [...]
Iraq: what is to be done?
The terrible news just in that at least 132 people have been killed in a series of car bombs in Shia districts of Baghdad. Greater or lesser atrocities such as this are now happening on a daily basis. What is now happening in Iraq underlines the political inadequacy of the positions the main camps on [...]
