David Seaton's News Links Weekly
Commentary on Current Affairs - From "David Seaton's News Links
Premium Edition"
|
News Links Weekly Commentary Tony Blair's war is beginning to look like the "Rescue of Pvt. Lynch" All Tony Blair needed to send his career spinning out of control was the death in "mysterious circumstances" of Dr. David Kelly. This has all the makings of a typically British scandal filled with the flavor of early (pre-Hollywood) Hitchcock, Conan Doyle and especially John Le Carré. I'm assuming that my readers have been devouring Le Carré's novels over the years as I have been doing ever since reading "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold". If so, they will have no trouble imagining Le Carré's hero George Smiley getting to the bottom of this all this nasty business and the endless mendacity, hypocrisy and sad lives he will wade through on his way to the truth. Blair has long based his popularity on his air of sincerity; his constant appeal to voters has been "trust me". Now he is caught up in an endless web of lies, cover-up and deception. British opinion was against going to war, Blair swung that opinion with his "Weapons of Mass Destruction - trust me", argument. Now he says, "If we are wrong (...) that is something I am confident history will forgive." The fact is however that British soldiers have died in a war seemingly to please George W. Bush, "Our job is to be there with you" was how Tony Blair expressed his goals to the US Congress. With each passing day fewer British people seem to agree with that assessment of their national "mission". Things move so quickly nowadays, information turns over so fast that the Spanish saying "Antes se coge a un mentiroso que a un cojo" should be tattooed inside the eyelids of all those in public life with anything to hide. Footnote: Bush will probably be forced to return to the United Nations in order to find soldiers to relieve the US Army. This will make many hard-liners in Washington unhappy because it will mean loss of exclusive control. There are those that think if the UN takes charge everything will be wonderful: peace, oil, happy ever after. I don't. I think the Iraqis that are fighting will continue to do so and more Iraqis will join them as less able soldiers take the American's place. As Teddy Kennedy says, American soldiers are the "best trained in the world", as well they should be given their budget. If the US Army can't win this one why expect other armies, less well trained, less well led, less well equipped to be able to control the situation. If the UN takes over, Iraq will soon be even more chaotic. A foreign occupation army is a foreign occupation army, whatever color their helmets may be. David Seaton
|
Copyright David Seaton's News Links®, all rights reserved