Saturday, November 05, 2005
Re-stating the obvious
Britain's former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, makes a re-statement of the obvious in this morning's Guardian. The sad thing is that he has had to say it and that a national newspaper considered the view to be newsworthy enough to put on the front page. That is because the Blair Government's view that the Iraq war has had little or no impact on the terrorist threat we face has become the establishment line, even though the majority of people in Britain do not buy into this spin.
It is worth repeating the relevant passage from the newspaper article:
So what, two-and-a-half years after the invasion, do the president and prime minister have to do now? "I think the US and ourselves are on the horns of an absolutely impossible dilemma," he says. He opposes an early pullout of US and British troops. Abandoning the task of rebuilding the country would leave "the relatives of at least 2,000 American servicemen and 98 British servicemen with a legitimate question about what they died for".
But he accepts that the task of rebuilding may now be impossible. "There is no doubt that the presence of American and British troops to a degree motivates the insurgency. So this is agonising for Bush and I think it is agonising for Blair, all of us really." He also dismisses the prime minister's claim that the war has not exposed Britain to terrorist attacks. "There is plenty of evidence around at the moment that home-grown terrorism was partly radicalised and fuelled by what is going on in Iraq," he says. "There is no way we can credibly get up and say it has nothing to do with it. Don't tell me that being in Iraq has got nothing to do with it. Of course, it does. The issue is it is part of the price we have to pay and should be paying for the removal of Saddam Hussein and at the moment the jury is out."
These are not the thoughts of some marginalised leftie but of a man who was at the very heart of the process that led us into war and who supported that conflict. His view carries weight and it is time that Government Minister's acknowledged its legitimacy.
It is worth repeating the relevant passage from the newspaper article:
So what, two-and-a-half years after the invasion, do the president and prime minister have to do now? "I think the US and ourselves are on the horns of an absolutely impossible dilemma," he says. He opposes an early pullout of US and British troops. Abandoning the task of rebuilding the country would leave "the relatives of at least 2,000 American servicemen and 98 British servicemen with a legitimate question about what they died for".
But he accepts that the task of rebuilding may now be impossible. "There is no doubt that the presence of American and British troops to a degree motivates the insurgency. So this is agonising for Bush and I think it is agonising for Blair, all of us really." He also dismisses the prime minister's claim that the war has not exposed Britain to terrorist attacks. "There is plenty of evidence around at the moment that home-grown terrorism was partly radicalised and fuelled by what is going on in Iraq," he says. "There is no way we can credibly get up and say it has nothing to do with it. Don't tell me that being in Iraq has got nothing to do with it. Of course, it does. The issue is it is part of the price we have to pay and should be paying for the removal of Saddam Hussein and at the moment the jury is out."
These are not the thoughts of some marginalised leftie but of a man who was at the very heart of the process that led us into war and who supported that conflict. His view carries weight and it is time that Government Minister's acknowledged its legitimacy.
