I got miserable and self-righteous about stories of US abuse of prisoners in Iraq last week, but now I’m just puzzled at similar reports about UK troops. It’s too strange seeing anti-war paper The Guardian fisking anti-war paper The Mirror by letting its picture editor loose on the Mirror‘s photos of supposed nastiness. Meanwhile, in […]

Claims and counterclaims are being lobbed back and forth between the army and the tabloids about UK troops being involved (or not) in torture of Iraqis. Meanwhile Claire notes a good article by Andy McNab in the Telegraph.

The revelations about abuse of prisoners by Coalition forces in Iraq are just grim. I should be making noises about their scale relative to pre-war Ba’athist crimes, about their being debated worldwide rather than hidden from any sight, about the court-martials that will be faced by (some of) the perpetrators. It wouldn’t change the crimes. […]

I have been deeply skeptical of accusations of the US military “massacring innocents” in Fallujah so I was shocked to discover from The Normster that the Marines have publicly admitted to the use of a sound-based weapons system so horrible it falls outside the scope of the Geneva Conventions.

I recommend this piece by Mark Steyn from a couple of days ago, firstly, because he manages to agree with both a recent poster to PooterGeek and with me [see this post and this comment box], and, secondly, because it’s an example of how astonishingly good an opinion piece can be when composed by a […]

It’s time to put on the perspective-correction spectacles again. Christopher Hitchens argues that recent unpleasant events are a warning of what will happen if the liberation of Iraq fails. Oliver Kamm is re-examining his reasons for supporting military action, saying no outcome would cause him to question his original justification. Glenn Reynolds monitors people who […]

Even some of my most hawkish friends have been expressing deep worries about the recent attacks in Falluja, which they consider part of the wider problem of poor post-war planning and are concerned might undermine US commitment to Iraq. I really want to write a long post about this, but things are hectic at the […]

I keep hearing/reading the UK Overseas Development Minister, Hilary Benn, on the good progress in Iraq, for example half-an-hour ago on Radio 4’s Westminster Hour. So I googled, as you do, and he really, positively is the son of the man who took tea with that monster.

On the way to the Henley Regatta[, darling], Sonya showed me the front cover of Friday’s Evening Standard. It wasn’t until she stepped out the headline to me—“Gilligan: This Was A Just War“—that I parsed it correctly. My belief that Andrew Gilligan would oppose military action in Iraq was so strong that I couldn’t even […]

Claire‘ll have a thing or two to say about this one. Katharine Gun, formerly of UK snooping centre GCHQ (direct descendant of Bletchley Park), has been acquitted of charges under the Official Secrets Act, having told the World that the US had asked the British to tap the phones of representatives of anti-Iraq war countries. […]

Oh the irony.

Stephen Pollard also links to this excellent Telegraph article which draws attention to the breathtaking point-missing of the retrospective debate over the Iraq war.

I’ve been flitting about posh, but un-networked, corners of London again so I’ve not had a chance to post so far this weekend. At a party in Highgate yesterday, I spent some time railing against this kind of educational hypocrisy and was told by two of the nice, privileged, middle-class guests to “lighten up”. Leftie […]

I think Saddam showed something of a misunderstanding of organic chemistry and renewable energy. The idea that you can take oil out of the ground and replace it with human corpses seems, superficially, to make sense—especially if you can use the extracted oil itself to pay people to let you carry on doing something that […]

I’d just like to comment, on behalf of my own party, The Militant Rationalists: “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” and “Bring me the head of John Humphrys on a stick!” before linking you to this news item. By the way, can anyone see anything a little inappropriate about Michael Howard (Jewish) accusing Tony Blair (conspicuously […]

Now this is the sort of thing that makes me wish I had a TV. [Thanks to my boss for pointing this out to me just now.]

It’s delicious. As pointed out elsewhere, a perfect time to read Nick Cohen (long-time Left-wing opponent of Saddam’s regime) review Noam Chomsky’s latest rubbish. Those people cheering and sobbing with joy at Paul Bremer’s news conference and hurling abuse at Saddam on video weren’t Americans; they were Iraqis. I particularly enjoyed the moment when the […]

I was busy stuffing my face with breakfast at the local greasy spoon. Claire and Judith alerted me to this

And you thought they hated the Americans.

I am not going to link to the recent Guardian articles by Tariq Ali and George Monbiot about Iraq, just to the rather better and cleverer (Left-wing) ‘Bloggers who take them apart: Harry Hatchet and Norman Geras. Just as I cancelled my subscription to the right-wing Spectator because it continued to employ the racist, snobbish […]

Regular PooterGeekers have probably registered free for The New York Times already. It might be worth it for newcomers to do so too, so they can read its Onion-esque headline about the situation in Iraq today: “Despite Positives, More Negatives Are Predicted“ On Saturday night I went out to a “pirates and whores” party with […]

Okay, all the worthy world affairs stuff is getting boring now, I know. Here’s some unworthy stuff about Iraq. Bonkers Iraqi parents name son after George Bush. British Spin has those missing Hutton Inquiry emails in full.

This is an example of that rare thing, excellent tabloid journalism. (In case you think this is Right-wing, gung-ho, salute-the-flag nonsense you should, as Wiqqi would say, read it in the context of Salam Pax.) Update: Adam says the Salam Pax link is dead. That’s because “Where’s Raed?” is currently dead. Probably killed by the […]