It seems that the BBC were about to get the bigger story without realising it. If it is the same vehicle that I said that they were reporting on, then the Iraqis dancing around it yesterday are now dead. I’m puzzled that they don’t seem to have followed it up and I’m irritated that I […]
Read MoreThe BBC is too busy whittering on about Iraqis dancing around a burned-out US vehicle to have noticed that a suicide bomber has blown himself up trying to smash into the Abu Ghraib prison. You’ve got to give some credit for ironic humour to someone who fails to break into a prison to kill people […]
Read MoreNorman Geras: he supports Manchester United in domestic football, supports Australia in test cricket, and supports military intervention in Iraq; yet lots of people like him. It’s probably a Jedi mind trick.
Read MoreMister: “I fear I must leave you now, my love, and do what I can to help my newly-liberated countrymen and women.” Missus: “You bastard.”
Read MoreVia Sgt. Missick, A Line In The Sand, I came to this short, fascinating, and hawkish piece by a military writer about the continuing fighting in Iraq. The author, Richard Hart Sinnreich, endorses the outlook ascribed to Ulysses S. Grant by one of his biographers: “He had no liking at all for the cruel weight […]
Read MoreNorm is too polite. Scotland’s “Poet Laureate” combines a tin ear, bathos, and fashionable stupidity to give us a poem about Saddam that William McGonagall would have been proud of. Please, someone, tell me it was a spoof, written to draw in people like us.
Read More“So you are saying we just ask the Americans to let us install our spies in Iraq?” “Why not? They've fallen for everything else.”
Read More[Thanks to Leasey] My street is full of Guardian-readers. I have leafletted it many times for the Labour Party and rolled my eyes at the windows full of anti-war posters and photocopied invitations to “subversive” gatherings of poets and “thinkers”. I've tried hard not to get into arguments about pre-emptive military action and top-up fees, […]
Read MoreI'd just like to begin today by saying thank you on behalf of the people of India, Egypt and Kenya to the government of the Philippines.
Read MoreIn an effort to keep PooterGeek ahead of the rest of the 'Blogging competition I bring you a new feature: “Pooter's Futures”—stories obtained anything up to twelve months in advance using tachyon-based Web time-travel technology. Arafat Kidnapped By Arafat Following his refusal to accept his own resignation as Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat today took himself […]
Read MoreThanks to Nicholas and Hind for listening to my woes and cheering me up Friday evening at Nick's impressively well-attended party. Hind told me that one of her friends had come along to my last gig in Brighton and liked it so much he bought the CD. Nicholas told me, to my surprise, that I […]
Read MoreAh, we've been expecting you, Commander Blair. Do please sit down. Thank you, schir. I and my fellow members of this inquiry are fully aware of the sensitivity of your role. Rest assured that no information about you nor any specifics of your professional activities will leave this room and that the transcript of our […]
Read MoreThis week, Anthony Cox mentioned another view of Saddam's big head-to-head and Mick Hartley put forward another theory about the England football team's. What do they have in common? Scissors, paper, and stone.
Read MoreThe Anonymous Economist sends me Paul Krugman's opinion piece in the New York Times today. Krugman meets expectations: he makes some valid points about American incompetence and corruption in Iraq's reconstruction; then he blows it with his conclusion: “Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for […]
Read MoreMy mate Tony Blair's emailing me again. After I complained about the Word documents he kept sending me, he kindly switched to HTML mail with minimal formatting and a graphic of his signature at the end. He attaches a slightly more elaborate PDF document telling me what's wrong with the Tories' plans for the National […]
Read MoreLeasey brings us a fascinating tiny game. I could warn you of the little wrinkles, but you'll have more fun working them out for yourself. She also recommends that we catch up on the latest drama in Britney's life. It's not just the world of international refereeing that's gone topsy-turvy: pork scratchings are becoming a […]
Read MoreThis isn't looking good for Rumsfeld. I certainly hope so anyway. [New York Times link—requires registration and small buccal sample; honestly, it won't hurt at all.]
Read MoreLast week, Backword Dave sneered at Eve Garrard's cool, analytical dismantling of Amnesty's recent pronouncements about the Iraq “war”: “I gather Ms Garrard is not a regular blogger, so she may be excused understanding of the ground rules, but if you want to say that something is 'no part of Amnesty's remit,' a link is […]
Read MoreHow I'm going to miss them. The “Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq” and their completely misleading Cambridge University crest are to morph into “Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq”. It's about fifteen years too late for most of the dead, guys. You're in good company: that was Rumsfeld's problem too. Never mind, nice to have you along […]
Read MoreRichard Cohen in The Washington Post, makes some important points about the US Justice Department's torture memos, bits of paper which are, in a way, more shocking than photos of piles of naked Iraqi prisoners. It's not a bad piece until Cohen resorts to the cliché “winning hearts and minds”, then your toes will clench […]
Read MoreAmericans and British give French the finger: pictures at eleven.
Read MoreYesterday evening I listened to Warwick University‘s Iraq “expert”, Toby Dodge, tell BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight that the Iraqi Governing Council’s choice for Prime Minister was “the worst one possible”. His argument seemed plausible and well-informed. Then I had a google into Dr Dodge’s past. Here he is arguing that only offering to […]
Read MoreIf you’re interested and don’t already know the story, today’s Guardian prints a swift run-through of the behind-the-scenes events leading to and from the Hutton Enquiry, as extracted from an expanded edition of Blair’s Wars. The substance of the account seems plausible, though I suspect some Gilliganesque decoration of the dialogue. Do you believe this […]
Read MoreIraq’s football (soccer) team has qualified for the Olympics. I fancy their chances, after reading this headline.
Read MoreLast week I had another rant at John Humphrys‘ continued myth-telling. Ann Clwyd, Left-wing Labour MP and long-timer campaigner for human rights in Iraq was his interviewee during the item that provoked that outburst, and appeared on Today in her capacity as UK Human Rights Envoy to the country. Thanks to Harry’s Place I found […]
Read MorePoor Piers. Who would have thought that he would finally be sacked for printing lies?
Read MoreImagine this: you have skipped your morning exercise routine so you are not hot and sweaty as usual when you stagger into the bathroom; acutely low local water pressure means that your powershower can only produce icicles; and the T-shirt you know you are going to put on when you clamber out of the full-body […]
Read MoreI spend far too much time thinking about Iraq; my friend Leasey is rather more sensible. On Monday (Friday?), she made a prediction that the extent of the publicity over the disgusting things going on in Abu Ghraib prison would lead to something exactly like this. I nodded absentmindedly. On Tuesday the latter story hit […]
Read MorePat Tillman‘s brother addresses a mourning nation: “Pat isn’t with God. He’s fucking dead. He wasn’t religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he’s fucking dead.” [courtesy of Fark and SFGate.com]
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