Posted 12:21 PM by Paul
Vive Le Weekend


Particularly good night out yesterday. I went south to Tunbridge Wells for a curry with Mark, Chris and Steve O'Connor, the Baltimore man who has come over to help fix our railways and a friend of his who was over on holiday. Steve may be with us until about 2050.

It was good to get around a table groaning with Indian food, talk bollocks and drink too much wine. The early part of the night was spent talking about the Hutton Report. Chris, is normally on the side of anyone who is having a go at the Government and can't say Tony Blair without a slight hiss. However, he took a dim view of the BBC. The way he sees it the Beeb has for too long dressed up speculation and opinion as news. He has a point and many of us have noticed that they have got a little sloppy in their natural desire to meet the demands of 24 hour news. But all in all it seems that a majority of people think that the BBC got it mainly right and the Government at the very least exaggerated Iraq's military capability. After all they had no navy and a tiny airforce and a bunch of Soviet missiles that didn't work so it always seemed that they were no big threat. Much of the rest of the night was spend talking about how much we loved New York which often confuses Americans not from the Big Apple as they often hate it.

I ended up getting a taxi with Chris all the way from the smart spa town of Tunbridge Wells (worth a visit in summer) to the village of East Peckham in rural Kent where he lives. His place is small but pleasant and apparently was never an Oast House (English place for drying hops) at all, but was built as a folly about 50 years ago. I spent a comfortable night crashed out on a mattress but kept reaching out to touch Heather who was of course 40 miles away in London. Chris prepared a traditional English breakfast of fried eggs, sausage and bacon in the morning which helped soak up the alcohol. Luckily he finished cooking just in time for a power cut following the gales which raged through the night. He then took a series of calls from mates in the horse racing fraternity, which seemed to involve racing tips. His village is a quintessential bit of England and could be used as a set for a film about the 30s starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Ancient church and village pub overlooking the green. It occurred to me that we should go there to watch the cricket in summer dressed as asylum seekers and gypsies to test the views of the more illiberal members of the local community. But perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical. Kent has always felt the immediate effects of any Government policy right or wrong concerning the free movement of Labour. East Peckham was pleasant but the cab ride drive the night before through Tonbridge (not to be confused with Tunbridge Wells) was quite grim. DIY sheds and mock Tudor houses with winking burglar alarms in serried ranks on either side of dual carriageways bathed in sodium light. Mark was planning to go to Whitstable, a quaint village by the coast, the next day with his wife Vivian. I have always meant to take the kids around the time of the Oyster Festival so they could play on the beach and watch me gorge myself on shellfish. Emily calls this kind of stuff "Daddy's scary food"

Spend the rest of the day reading Mark Steele's brilliant and very funny history of the French Revolution VIVE LA REVOLUTION! on the sofa and helped Emily with her homework of writing a short poem about why you need to avoid lions or they might eat you.

Homework! Not 7 yet and she has homework. Back in the 60s we only started working after school hours when we were 10 in preparation for the 11 plus examination which determined whether you went to a better equipped and posher grammar school or a rougher secondary modern. I went to the former, my brother Dave went to the latter. It sounded like San Quentin. His stories of random violence and psychotic freak teachers and pupils certainly had the effect of encouraging me to work to go to a far far better place. Alice also had homework but just needed a bit of help finding "muscles" in the Hutchinson's Encyclopedia for a piece she was writing.
She did an excellent piece of work and I cooked them mashed potatoes with melted cheese on top. Emily also had a fried egg. She loves eggs.

If I sound proud of the kids, it's because I am. I look at them both and feel that I am the luckiest man alive. It's good to be home with a gale blowing outside and a fire in the grate. Alice and Emily are now watching The Amanda Show, an excellent American comedy show for kids and they are off to bed. Then we are ordering an Indian meal delivered to our door and will settle down to watch the first series of Twin Peaks on DVD.

Vive Le Weekend!

Posted 12:22 PM by Paul
I Had that Greg Dyke in the Back of the Cab Once - Nice Bloke

I met Greg Dyke once in May 1997, a couple of days after the Labour landslide. I was taking the minutes at a meeting about the redevelopment of Wembley stadium. Being way down the food chain, I wasn't actually meant to converse with the Great and Good who attended these monthly breakfast events. I handed out the paperwork and took the notes. A Tory Lord came for the coffee and biscuits before business kicked off and mournfully exclaimed,

"When we are looking for a CEO for Wembley there will be plenty of former Tory ministers to choice from"

Greg Dyke quipped back in his best London accent.

" Yeh, but what earthly use would they be to us?"

Noticing that I was grinning from ear to ear, he said to me;

" Great, isn't it? I have been waiting a very long time to see the back of this lot and see Labour back in."

I wonder how he feels about Labour tonight?

Posted 12:18 PM by Paul
Judge Finds Barrister Not Guilty

The last two days have been dominated by the Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr. Kelly and the accusation that the Government exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein WOMDs. It's difficult to add to what has already been said. Far more eloquent voices than mine have summed up the huge issues faced by the BBC and the Government.

The main shock was that Blair and co. were so completely exonerated with hardly a hint of criticism. The tone of the report seems to suggest that it was an outrageous slur to suggest that a politician had deliberately set out to deceive the electorate. We all had a good laugh at that one.

But the Learned Judge could hardly find him guilty of making up the case for war short of discovering a secretly taped conversation with Tony cackling

" I know I will claim that Saddam can bomb Chipping Sodbury with nerve gas inside 45 minutes and the suckers will believe me!!!"

The burden of proof was on the prosecution, which is how it should be. It was up to the BBC to prove the case and they couldn't. So the headline today was Judge Finds Barrister Not Guilty. Hardly suprising, bit like Versace Was Gay.

The report was so favorable to the Government that Blair's dad could have penned it…and this causes the Government a huge problem. People just don't think it is credible. It's like those North Korean elections where Kim Sun used to win with 99% of votes cast. The news cycle is also now so short that we have moved from BlairTriumph! to Whitewash!, all inside 12 hours. So the Government got its pound of flesh and BBC Director General Greg Dyke resigned a day after the Chairman Gavyn Davies. A grovelling apology followed from the new caretaker manager but it was clear that Davies and Dyke were in full "Je Regrette Rien" mode. Already hundreds of BBC staff are demonstrating their support for their deposed leader. Now that would a turn up for the books. Blair finally unseated by rioting weathermen and newsreaders.

This all reminded me how disaster so often follows hard on the heels of a major victory. The Weirmacht in front of Stalingrad and Leceister City thrashing Sheffield Wednesday 6-0. They lost every game after that and were relegated before Easter.

Posted 12:06 PM by Paul
Incredible Stories

Over the last few days the newspapers and airwaves have been full of stories about space travel and the quest to find evidence of life on Mars. It's like being back in the 60s during the Space Race. This time around the contest is more unequal. In one corner we have the European programme led by an English professor with unfeasibly large mutton chop sideburns. In the other corner we have NASA.

The European lander sadly did not arrive on Mars in one piece. However, to give them their credit the Mars Explorer orbiter has provided the first evidence of water on the Red Planet and the theoretical proposition that there might be lichens or at least bacteria on the surface.

The American programme has met with more sucees. Despite losing what they call "intelligent contact" with their first lander, NASA has succesfully put another down on the surface a few thousand miles away from the first. It is taking pictures and analysing rock specimens. The clarity of the images and the amount of data is truly remarkable. Mars looks not unlike the Painted Desert in Nevada and remarkably similar to the sci fi artists impressions we used to get in American comics such as Incredible Stories.

The American vehicles resemble a hi-tech golf cart. The (now AWOL) European vehicle resembled a large saucepan. This tells us something about the two cultures. Unlike satelites and space shuttles there is no military application and no national security rationale for the expediture on the Mars programme. It is pure science and the USA at its best. They should be proud and we should congratulate them on what has been an incredible story.

Nearer to home there is a another incredible story from the USA. After insiting that Iraq was stuffed pull of Weapons of Mass Destruction ready and waiting to be ferried over by micro-light aircraft, Colin Powell ( remember his artists impressions at the UN?) has now adoped a slightly different tack. I quote.

" The open question is how many stocks they had, if any, and if they had any, where did they go? And if they didn't have any, then why wasn't this known beforehand?"

Phew! I think I will offer my own translation.

" The only really dangerous stuff they had was what Donald Rumsfelt sold them in the 80s, most of which they got rid of 13 years ago. The stuff that was left over has been taken by the Martians."

David Kay the outgoing chief weapons inspector in Iraq, a hawk who was appointed by Bush, has said as much. He has clearly just got bored of keeping up the pretence and probably tired of politcians blaiming it all on intelligence failures rather than their insistence on starting a bloody good war to help the poll ratings. Despite the facts staring us all in the face, Tony Blair sticks to the claim that evidence will be eventually be found of "WOMD related programmes". Note the change in language. He is starting to look a bit silly. The defence offfered by his dwindling group of supporters is that we should be patient because Iraq is A HUGE COUNTRY. Incredible stuff.

The USA and the UK can send robot controlled vehicles 141 million miles across space and send back crystal clear images of the surface including spectrographic analysis of tiny traces of water and minerals in the Martian soil. But still no sign of traces of chemical weapons in Iraq despite 1,400 people looking for them.

Note. Iraq has a surface area of 167,881 square miles about two thirds the size of Texas which measures up at 266,803 square miles. Washington to Baghdad is about 8,000 miles.

Posted 9:00 AM by Paul
American Political Language

The results of the Iowa caucuses have just come in and to everybody's surprise Howard Dean came in a very poor third. It reminded me of how the style of communication in politics is critical to the content. The same passion and indignation that drew attention to Dean's campaign may have now destroyed it. When Democrats in Iowa came to choose they stepped back from his style of politics. Quite simply he started to sound frightening at a time when they were looking for reassurance and strength. All Dean's shouting turned them off.

On both sides of the Atlantic voters have become used to a more intimate style of communication via TV. The day time talk show rather than the stump speech. In fact Dean is not particularly Left Wing in any sense that a European would understand the term. A fiscal Conservative who received a commendation from the NRA Dean is hardly George McGovern. His problem is not so much content as style. He started to sound a bit like a demagogue. A bit nuts. His end of campaign speech only confirmed people's worse fears. Few things are more telling in the life of a politician than the way they accept defeat. It looks like it will be over in a couple of weeks for the man from the land of Ben and Jerry's.

As far as language is concerned, the opposite can also be true. We have a Mayor in London who has promulgated a fairly Left Wing platform and opposed the Bush State visit. However, he did most of this in modulated tones that would not be out of place in a cricket commentator. Voters feel reassured that Ken Livingstone is a man of the people rather than some hair brained extremist. He even attracts votes from Conservatives. You might not be a big fan but you have to admire his style. You can imagine having a drink in the pub with him or a chat on a train, something I did with Ken in 1986. He was reviewing Carl Sagan's "Contact" and he asked me if I believed that their might be intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos. If he were an American he would make an excellent successor to Arnie as Governor of California.

As a political junkie I am looking forward to the primaries, which is just as well because I doubt if the real thing in November 2004 will be mcuh fun. On to New Hampshire. Such a shame that Oprah is not on the stump.

Posted 1:12 PM by Paul
Tom

Heather sent me a link a couple of days ago to the website of an old friend - Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich. Tom introduced me to the the Blogoshpere and for that I owe him a favour. On his website he had written some very kind words about my writing and in particular the eligy to my mum which I wrote in September 2003. I have not seen Tom for about 18 months. He is kept busy both keeping The Labour Party in power and representing his consitituents. Of all the polticans I have met I am sure that Tip O'Neils maxim " All politics is local" is engraved on his heart.

The last time we met was at the House of Commons and he very graciously took me to lunch in the members dining room which was quite an experience. I dressed up for the occasion and he joked that the Lords was next door and if I just walked in sat down and had a nap nobody would notice. Meeting him again put a smile on my face and gave me some hope. Here we had a politican who was very much still a human being with a self deprecating sense of humour. I have met a few who if you wanted to keep a beer cold you would place it next to their heart.

I have heard Tom speak on the radio and unusually for a politician he sounds quite normal. I don't know how he does it. The pressures to adopt a set of strident vocal manerisms that are designed to please your political masters and keep the media at bay must be huge. He's not 40 yet and may have a big future ahead of him by the simple technique of telling the truth in plain English and acting like a normal human being. It could even catch on.

We met in the mid 80s when I was running the office at Red Wedge, the Labour Party campaign to engage more young people in the political process via the medium of popular culture. Tom was the very young but very savvy librarian at HQ. He warned me of a plot by a group of Trotsysists to hi-jack Red Wedge. As a result, I managed to prevent their coup by the simple tactic of packing the next meeting with my personal friends. They were flabbergasted because I had used their own tactics against them. Had it not been for Tom's intervention we would have had a least a major embarassment on our hands. It was all part of a much larger picture which ended with them being expelled and the Labour Party starting to look vaguely electable. We played a tiny part in that little bit of history.

Little did we know at the time that we were to prevent the party from being hi-jacked by a clique of souless cyncial Trostsykists only to allow it be hi-jacked by a clique of souless cyncial Neo-Conservatives. Such is life.

I have a pretty low opinion of politicans in general. However, when I look at the juvenile debating society that is the House of Commons and get bit depressed I think of Tom. He has supported loyally the Government which I depair of but I know he has his heart in the right place. He is not just doing it for his own self agrandisment.

Posted 12:40 PM by Paul
48

Yesterday was our 15th wedding anniversary. I arrived home around 7.30 and we stayed in, had a nice Indian take away and drank wine. Heather liked her flowers and I enjoyed my chocolates. We have arranged to go to the Savoy Grill tomorrow for lunch to celebrate. This is an extravagance but a worthwhile one. It is interesting to note how many people would not pay ?50 per head for a consistently brilliant meal but would pay ?40 to sit on a plastic seat for 2 hours and watch Chelsea get beat 1-0 in the rain.

Normally I like to be home on our wedding anniversary but I was away for a couple of days at a business conference in the Midlands. Unusually for these kind of jollies it was quite useful. I learnt a lot and we made some sensible decisions. My spending habits were commented on twice during the conference. Once by a PR woman who commenting on how smart I was looking in a new suit said "they must be paying you too much". Once by her colleague who said " it sounds like your a bit of a bon viveur Paul". They were both expecting me to contradict them and I left them puzzled by agreeing.

Yes, I am well paid.

Yes, I like to enjoy myself and have no interest in playing the stock market or golf.

It may seem a bit morbid but because my father died when I was young I have always wanted to give my kids happy memories of meals out and good holidays in case I die early too. It is always in the back of my mind that life is too short for unit trusts. I have very happy memories of my dad but I always planned to give my kids the kind of treats my father wished he could have given me. We have some money in the bank and a nice house but I have never been any good at saving for a rainy day. For me the sun is always shining. Carpe Diem and all that.

Perhaps all of this is brought on by the date. I am Forty Eight today and feeling a bit tired. I'll liven up tomorrow. Then I got to thinking about past birthdays.

7 - Dad organized a surprise party for a few of my friends after telling me he couldn't afford it. The table was laid and balloons in position when we returned from the toy shop.

13 - Mum and me went to see the musical Oliver with Ron Moody and Ollie Reed. Mum fell asleep for part of it.

18 - Rehearsing with Musical Vomit. A theatre mock rock shambolic outfit who had songs with catchy titles like " I was a teenage necrophiliac" and "Laxative Lament". We all had stage names. Mine was Rocky Coastlines.

21 - Traditional 21st party upstairs at pub. All paid for by mum. Ian came up in a blizzard with a car crammed with his mates from RADA. One of them was a French Canadian who had just arrived in the country. When the lads said they were visiting a freind up North he sincerely thought they meant Highgate. The budding actors entertained my aunts and uncles with songs from Oh What a Lovely War

33 - Day after my our wedding at the vicarage in Fulham with my family and the in-laws. I couldn't take it all in really. Joy overload.

40 - Bargain basement lads booze up in Soho. We were totally skint and I allocated myself ?20 for the full day. It started at the Oasis Centre an outdoor pool near Covent Garden and ended up at a raucous meal at Jimmy's Greek restaurant in Frith Street.

48 - Heather woke me up and a opened a collection of beautifully wrapped presents including a Hugo Boss tie, DVDs and books. Alice gave me 2 ?1 vounchers to spend at Argos which were wrapped in a paper of her own design featuring two of her invented characters from the Sweety Bops stories - the naughty Enid and Carpenter.

It's not a bad life. If you hear me complaining then punch me.

Posted 1:14 PM by Paul
Two Films

This week end we saw two films

Freaky Friday starring Jamie Lee-Curtis and featuring a great noveuau punk sound track. You know the plot. Teenage girl and middle aged mom swap bodies and lives for a day.

Spirited Away - a two hour Japanese animated film about a girl who gets lost in a fantastical world of spirits and dragons. It has won numerous awards. Dubbed into English. The kids particularly Emily loved it. I thought it was a fine film but had a nap for 20 minutes during one of the wierder bits.

Call me a philstine but I preferred Freaky Friday

On our Friday we went swimming and then had dinner at Nandos. Who says the USA is losing its cultural influence.

Posted 5:07 AM by Paul
Memories of Fat City

Last night saw the start of a series of documentaries about the Lone Star State entitled The State of Texas. One hour was devoted to a look at the eating habits of the denizens of Houston. Fascinating stuff. I found out that.

- the average Houstonian consumes 8,000 calories per day. Around 2 and a half times more than they need
- Only around 9% of all journeys are taken by foot or cycle, against a European average of 34%
- It was not unusual for families to drive their kids to the school bus stop 30 yards from their home
- Walking is difficult even for wierdos who do not own a car, because most roads do not have sidewalks.

It seems that more and more Americans are in the words of Scott Fitzgerald "not like us." The Atlantic is widening by the day.

The cast of characters in the documentary was generally appealing. They included a 30 year old black working single mom. She was 5 foot 6 and weighed in at 22 stone. She had decided to have a stomach stapling operation despite a 1% chance of fatality.

My favourite was Gus, a 19 stone happy go lucky guy who ate competitively. He polished off a mega burger - which included 1 and a half pounds of beef mince, a pound of bacon and a quarter pound of cheese - in just over 20 minutes. Impressive stuff. I wanted to join him, but I would have taken my time and used a full hour to consume the 5,000 calories in the sandwich. My claim to fame is to have eaten 7 full Italian meals in 10 hours as part of a sponsored eating competition in aid of a cancer charity. Gus would think I was anorexic.

I was in Houston on a stopover 8 years ago on my way back from Nicaragua. I only had 5 hours so a stayed in the airport and did not venture downtown. Which is a shame as I might have met Gus. In a tokenistic act of defiance I still wore my Sandinista t-shirt in the departure lounge which bore the slogan "Ni un Paso Atras" [not one step back).

Pathetic I know, but it felt like the right thing to do. About 2 hours into the flight back to London a burly bearded guy in a check shirt and truckers hat came up the aisle pointing at me aggressively. I braced myself for at the least verbal abuse.

" Great f*****g" t-shirt man.", he bellowed and then handed me a couple of miniatures of Jack Daniels.

Posted 1:18 PM by Paul
Quote Unquote

Allen Josephs, an American university professor of English who corresponds with me and holds very different views from me sent me a list of quotes from leading Democrats. The list points out how radically they have changed their position in their attempt to portray Bush as a man motivated by the desire to secure oil reserves and pay back some of his corporate financiers.

Few of the quotes actually say " OK lets invade now to stop Saddam becoming a threat" but it is a telling list for two reasons.

1. It illustrates how most politicians change their tune over a period of time in order to undermine domestic opponents.
2. It reminds us that we react to the messenger as much as the message. If Clinton had invaded Iraq, would as many Europeans (including me) have opposed the policy? Probably not. This is because we Europeans trusted Clinton's motives more than Bush's. The question of why we trusted ( and still trust) Clinton more than Bush should be the subject of a PhD thesis. My take on it is pretty simple. We believe him when he says that " America can lead the world but cannot rule the world." We're happy with that. Bush & Co ( and Dubya is merely the poster boy for wider interests represented by the Project for a New American Century) on the other hand clearly have a more imperial view of the globe.

But this kind of political tribalism is a worrying phenonemon as it brings political discourse down to the level of team sport. Our guys against your guys. Our guys are tough committed players. Your guys play dirty.

So here is the list of quotes..................

One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to
develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That
is our bottom line."
- President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We
want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction program."
- President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal
here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear,
chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest
security threat we face."
- Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times
since 1983."
- Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S.
Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate,
air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to
the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction
programs."
- Letter to President Clinton, signed by Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John
Kerry, and others Oct. 9, 1998

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass
destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he
has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998

"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass
destruction and palaces for his cronies."
- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999

"There is no doubt that .. Saddam Hussein has invigorated his weapons
programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs
continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam
continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a
licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten
the United States and our allies."
- Letter to President Bush, Signed by Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL,) and others,
December 5, 2001

"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a
threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the
mandated of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction
and the means of delivering them."
- Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002

"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical
weapons throughout his country."
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to
deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in
power."
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing
weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002

"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are
confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and
biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to
build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence
reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..."
- Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority
to use force-- if necessary-- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe
that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real
and grave threat to our security."
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively
to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the
next five years ... We also should remember we have always underestimated
the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002

"He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every
significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his
chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has
refused to do" Rep.
- Henry Waxman (D, CA), Oct. 10, 2002

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that
Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weap ons
stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has
also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members
.. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will
continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare,
and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam
Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for
the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002

"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal,
murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a
particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to
miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his
continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction
... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..."
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003.............

So it seems that some people, particularly Sen. Kerry will have some explaining to do.
Rather than try to defend the indefensible or go off on another anti-Bush rant I reflected on an interview I had seen on TV a few days earlier. I replied to Allen with these words.......


What will tell against Blair and Bush is not so much whether or not there were or were not WOMDs - that we may or may not have sold Saddam in the first place. For most people Left Right - Centre or just plain bored, the WOMD debate is now right up there with "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

What will start to be discussed is - Why we got into a war with no clear idea of how to get out of and who was going to pay for it? If the dollar continues its fall and hits an unacceptable level the debate will revolve around incompetence rather than morality and conspiracy theories surrounding Haliburton and oil. Or to refer to a former general and staunch Republican Norman Swarzkopf (apologies if I have the spelling wrong)

" No I don't think we should have gone on to Baghdad. If we had we would still be there stuck like a dinosaur in a tar pit and paying the full costs of an occupation."

This was a quote direct to camera in an even handed BBC documentary entitled The Gulf War and filmed a couple of years after the hostilities had ended. It is worth keeping in mind that around 90% of the British population were in favour of military action to kick Saddam out of Kuwait. Stormin' Norman went on in the interview to point out that the co-alition (1991 style) had 8 UN resolutions to support kicking Saddam out of Kuwait but nothing to support occupying Iraq. His thesis was that only the UK would have stuck with the US and they would end up with all of the responsibility with little benefit.

Norman is a military historian and an expert on the Punic Wars and how Hannibal outwitted and nearly beat Rome with far smaller forces. His words bear some reflection 10 years on.