I 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 […]

Pat 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]

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 […]