For some time reports have been coming out of Iraq which indicate re-alignments - the top link here is to a story (in February) which was essentially repeated more widely yesterday on some international media.
Basically the story is that the US forces are talking to some of the insurgents in an effort to separate the 'arab / iraqi nationalist' insurgency as they now call it from the jihadists.
Meanwhile last weekend Jack Straw went to Iraq with Condie in a most bizarre piece of choreography which saw a trip to watch Blackburn Rovers followed up with a quick flight down country to Baghdad to call for Iraqi politicians to take note of the 'allied blood' shed and 'vast cost' of the operation to liberate them.
Basically Jack was saying 'hurry up and form a government you ingrates'. ince he is keen to end situation where every time he talks about the glory of bringing democracy he finds people muttering about the place not even having a government never mind a representative one or any sense of security, law or order. You know all that stuff Tony and Charles Clarke rattle on about, concerning the ultimate human right being the right to live free of terrorist threats... well as long as you're a British citizen.
These were new words I cannot ever recollect Mr Starw making much reference to casulaties certainly not in the context of waving the tunics of our battle-bloodied sons before the iraqi ingrates, let alone moaning about how much this has cost us in financial terms.
Lets face it though, it seems to have cost them a bit too, in all senses, and they may well see Mr Staw's point as therefore of rather less earth-shattering import than he did. Certainly the response was hardly instant.
Watch this space as they say...
Friday, April 07, 2006
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2 comments:
Lets face it though, it seems to have cost them a bit too
That sums it all up. I don't know how post-Saddam deaths and injuries compare to those under his admittedly unpleasant regime, but I'd be willing to bet that things are now orders of magnitude worse (which rather shames Alastair Campbell's frothing when, in the immediate aftermath of the war, Andrew Gilligan claimed that the people of Iraq were "passing their first days of freedom in a greater fear than they've ever known").
So it's quite understandable that Iraq's politicians choose to ignore the whines of the representatives of the two countries responsible for bringing about this situation, countries whose own losses pale into insignificance against the Iraqis' own.
Indeed. What is also interesting is the effort to negotiate with the nationalist 'terrorists' -something I have to say many of us predicted being an end result before the invasion even happened; when the warmongers were still expecting flowers in their barrels not boobytraps by the roadside.
At that point it was a mainstay of pro-invasion belief that NEITHER pan-arab nationalism, NOR Iraqi nationalism, NOR regional and inter-linked religious (Shia / Sunni / Iran / 'Kurdistan' etc) factors OR instability and creating a failed state were issues.
Oh those halcyon days not? - I guess they were eating mouldy breakfast cereal...
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