UK Guardian: This war is not yet over

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1145413,00.html

It's the Alan Clark manoeuvre. When the old Tory reptile found himself assailed by a tricky argument, he would fire back with his most lethal weapon. "This is boring," he would say airily. "You are being the most frightful bore." Clark used the word often, keenly aware of its peculiarly English power to devastate. Now the government is deploying the Clark manoeuvre. Those who still insist on banging on about Iraq and its missing weapons of mass destruction are anoraks, they say, trainspotters on the fast track to Dullsville. Ministers declare that the rest of the country lost interest in this media fixation long ago. Only journalists, with their stained coats and plastic carrier bags, still care.

It is beginning to work. Plenty of those whose blood was up in the immediate aftermath of the Hutton report - the backlash against the whitewash - suspect they ought to drop it now. Better to change the subject than be a bore.

They should think again. For this is more than another political story de jour, one that looms enormous at the time but is soon forgotten. This is not the fuel protest or the Hinduja affair. On the contrary, the legitimacy of the Iraq war is about as serious a question as you could imagine; its answer could determine the way our world is ordered in the 21st century. And this is not abstract, chin-stroking stuff for the seminar room. It has direct political consequences; it could even break the governments of both Britain and the United States.

The Bush administration makes no secret that it sees the Iraq war as the prototype for future conflicts; indeed, it has enshrined the idea in its official national security strategy document. Pre-emption remains the Bush doctrine. Witness Donald Rumsfeld's revealing remarks in Munich last week. Asked whether America is bound by any international system, legal framework or code of conduct, the US defence secretary replied: "I honestly believe that every country ought to do what it wants to do ... It either is proud of itself afterwards, or it is less proud of itself." Translation: the US can do what it likes - including making war on countries that have made no attack on it.

[revcarol]

1. So true, so sadly painfully true.

But our media isn't telling us that it is boring. Just that it doesn't matter anymore and Bush's poll numbers are high.

What I wouldn't give to have the Guardian be one of our newspapers. But Bush would probably shut it down as a terrorist organization.

[T_i_B]

4. "boring" is a standard Blairite tactic.

I have seen "new" labour supporters label anyone who disagrees with their policies on issues such as PFI, WMD's and the EU as bores on numerous occasions. Where issues or "new" labour policies are complex and the Blairites seem to have trouble answering all of the charges they are known to come up with this.

Sad really as it not only panders to those with the attention span of a goldfish but it also encourages "new" labour supporters to look at issues less closely to boot IMHO. If Blairites think that the objections to PFI and war in Iraq are boring then they should not introduce such silly policies in the first place.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Good to get the chance,through this article, to hear what Rumsfeld said:

(snip) "I honestly believe that every country ought to do what it wants to do ... It either is proud of itself afterwards, or it is less proud of itself." (snip)

Hard to miss the swaggering spelled out. Hope he has to eat those words.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Freedland is one of my favorite Gaurdian columnists

His piece following the September 11 attacks was one of the best on the subject.

Here, Freedland is absolutely right. It is important to keep hammering at the legitimacy of the Iraq war, or the lack of it. This was in reality a colonial enterprise and those who planned it knew it. The fact that Bush has half of the army's combat divisions tied up in Iraq on occupation duty seems to be lost on him and some of his aides when planning new colonial wars, again using the September 11 attacks as a false pretext.

There will be demonstrations next month to mark the anniversary of the invasion. I will be marching.