Thoughts After Chilcot 910

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I hope today that people will remember Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Carne Ross, and Katherine Gun, who were all prepared to give up excellent careers to stand against the war in Iraq.

Blair is still a creature of absolute self-serving slime. His attempt yesterday to justify the invasion of Iraq as an effort to prevent a 9/11 on British soil is dishonest in every way. Blair knew full well that Iraq had nothing at all to do with 9/11 – that was his still friends and financiers the Saudi elite. The intelligence advice in advance of the invasion he received was unequivocal that it would increase the threat to the UK, and it directly caused the attacks of 7/7.

The broadcast media seem to think the Chilcot report is an occasion to give unlimited airtime to Blair and Alastair Campbell. Scores of supporters and instigators of the was have been interviewed. By contrast, almost no airtime has been given to those who campaigned against the war.

Cameron’s speech to parliament was such an out and out, and dishonest, apologia for the invasion that it bore no relationship to the report. Corbyn is no orator, but his genuine moral outrage was justified. The Blairites who heckled him from behind during his speech are disgusting. If any meaningful democratic choice is to be offered to people in England and Wales, the Blairites have to be removed from the Labour Party to join with their fellow Tories.

The SNP are playing a blinder on Chilcot. I do hope Salmond moves forward with impeachment, not least because it will both force the Blairites to expose themselves, and reveal the deep feelings against Blair’s actions in the military linked wing of the Tory party.

As predicted, Chilcot had to repeat the Butler Inquiry’s verdict that the intelligence was not fixed, because Chilcot was himself on the Butler Inquiry. It is a lie, the intelligence was knowingly fixed. More on that later.

I apologise these are very brief thoughts. I have not had the opportunity to pay the attention you would expect, as my mother has been taken into hospital and I had yesterday to dash down to Norwich. It will be a few days before I am able to concentrate on politics.

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910 thoughts on “Thoughts After Chilcot”

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  • Republicofscotland

    Craig, I hope your mother recovers quickly, my thoughts are with you.

    Back to Tony Blair, former admiral Lord West has said in the press that he was told to prepare for war in 2002. Blair and Bush had probably completed their pact that war was in their eyes inevitable, even though all avenues of a peaceful nature hadn’t been explored.

    Impeaching Blair would in my eyes and many others be the right thing to do, however the Erskine May rules haven’t been used to impeach someone, since the 1800’s.

    In any event bringing Blair to trial on a jury of his peers, some friendly would leave the trial open to abuse. No another route must be found to force Blair to stand trial, he must be held accountable.

    • Republicofscotland

      Blair’s personal memo to George.W Bush, of “I’ll be with you, whatever” is a damning statement of intent, no matter what, Blair says in his defence.

      Add to that, ex-Attorney General Lord Goldsmith’s secure legal basis for war in Iraq, in which no formal response to Goldsmith’s letter from 10 Downing St, was kept, nor the precise grounds which it defined. Also the UK took action to undermine the UN, it then becomes apparent that war with Iraq, was not a possibility, but a certainty.

  • Russell

    I hope your Mum heals quickly.

    As regards your comments. As ever the way they try to get around things is focusing on often minor technical details and small systemic issues. There never is talk of morality or humanity. Because their actions won’t measure will on the scale.

    Also frustrating that Iraq is being hived off from other conflicts and corruptions. As if it’s a singular event unrelated to the way they behave in other areas.

  • Geejay

    Best wishes to your mother and hope you are back soon. We need your “inside” knowledge.

  • jeremy

    All Chilcott proves, yet again, is that the establishment, the politicos, the media and the security forces including the Dept of Military Conivance are TOTALLY UNACCOUNTABLE to the people of this country

    • Martinned

      Blair invaded Iraq, and then the people re-elected him. You may not like it, but that’s what accountability looks like.

      • DomesticExtremist

        It was a choice between Blair or Michael Howard (who also supported the Iraq War).
        I don’t think it was done with much enthusiasm.

  • Republicofscotland

    David Cameron has urged not to let the failures of Iraq, stop Britain from taking military action in the future. I find those words grossly inappropriate, and offensive.

    Since the Iraqi debacle, we’ve not even paused to think of the consequences of as David Cameron puts it “military action.”

    We’ve spent thirteen times more bombing Libya than we have rebuilding it post war. The country is effectively another war torn Iraq.

    http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13499912.UK_government_spent_13_times_more_bombing_Libya_than_on_rebuilding_post_war/

    As for Afghanistan god only knows how much ordance was fired or dropped, a FOI failed to get a straight answer.

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/how_many_bombs_have_uk_forces_dr

    One could if they wanted draw a line between Tony Blair and David Cameron, our soon to be ex-PM, as far as I know has no UN mandate to in Syria, and although British boots “may” not be on the ground, it has been reported British pilots have flown umpteen bombing sorties over Syria.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11745689/British-pilots-in-air-strikes-against-Isil-in-Syria-live.html

    https://gordonlyew.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/uk-has-no-mandate-for-military-intervention-syria/

  • Jeremy Stocks

    Craig – these are the most fascinating heady days I can remember.

    However, your Mum is more important than that. When mine went in I spent a full month with her.

    I’d drop this blogging and focus on getting her stable. When the “time ” comes you will need a calm head to weather the storm. Good luck and Gute Besserung.

  • Nick Taylor

    My best wishes to your Mother.

    I am thoroughly enjoying your writings … and agreeing.

    When circumstances permit, I look forward to the next piece.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    Putin is getting very annoyed. If The US Crazies don’t stop Telling Lies and installing Nuclear Missiles in his back yard pointing directly at him and Russia – he is going to nuke them and probably us too.

    “Putin LOSES IT, Warns Journalists of War”

    ‘I Don’t Know How to Get Through to You People’

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45055.htm

  • Lesley Willis

    Thank you so much Craig for your writings Most refreshing and honest. We need a new style of politics and rigorous reviews.
    I look forward to diving into your book Murder in Samarkand.
    Best Wishes to you and your Family.

  • michael norton

    O/T
    Things could be kicking off again in FRANCE
    https://www.rt.com/news/349895-france-blasts-hospital-evacuation/

    A fire caused by two explosions has engulfed a hospital in southern France, officials said, adding that an evacuation is currently underway. Initial reports indicate that the blasts were caused by gas cylinders.

    The incident took place in the town of Annonay, in the Ardèche department of southern France.

  • Chris Rogers

    CM,

    Since the launch of the ChickenCoup by warmongering factions within the Labour Party, many have worked assiduously hard across social media to drum up real support for Corbyn, and that means people putting their money where there mouths or keyboards are.

    Since Brexit and the Coup the Labour Party membership has increased exponentially and according to many sources is on course to breach 600,000, triple the number of members Corbyn inherited last year from Ed Miliband.

    Those who have pushed Corbyn and made a positive case for him and the actual Collins Report have done so without organisation or pay, which is why the creatures in London have been overwhelmed and their evil coup stopped in its tracks it is to be hoped.

    The Chilcot Report has underscored how out of touch and how addicted to perpetual war many are within the PLP, epitomised by Bomber Benn’s support for airstrikes on Syria last December – finally with the coup and Chilcot the public finally have gotten a grandstand seat as to how Blair perverted governance in the UK and bypassed many checks and balances on the executive power.

    As with many others, the cancer of Blairism and neoliberalism needs to be removed from the PLP and much of the Labour Party hierarchy, which continues too denigrate and stymie efforts to fully democratise the Party. Corby’s support shot up yesterday, not because of his oratory – he is not no Nye Bevin, but because unlike other leaders he actually spent considerable time with those families who lost loved ones serving the UK in the Middle East, something Blair avoided and continues to avoid – this gesture, together with an apology to the people of Iraq for this unjust and illegal war makes Corbyn more of a peoples Statesman than most within Parliament today.

    Come what may, I’m proud that so many have shown solidarity with Corbyn and worked long hours to ensure he does not lose the helm of the Labour Party. Whatever he does next is his decision, however its clear the members want no more Blair, no more warmongering and no more austerity – all positive outcomes and something our nation should be proud about.

    • IanF

      Chris

      Well said. Isn’t it ironic that the ChickenCoup organisers criticise JC for his lack of leadership. Yet when it comes to mounting this failed coup they show they have no leadership qualities – nor a leader to make a challenge. You are right about the manner in which Corbyn has handled the post Chilcot moment – with dignity, attention to those who matter and dare I say it – leadership. No he is no Bevin – but (and I guess you would agree) give me principle and trustworthiness anytime – instead of the slick lies used to take us to war in 2003.

      The PLP are going to get no-where with this coup. The membership (that includes me) are firmly behind Corbyn no matter what the ChickenCoup gang would have us believe. It’s going to be fascinating to watch which of them jump ship (and where to) and which of them decide to think of some way to say “I didn’t really mean it Jeremy”. My only regret is that I do not live in a constituency with one of them as my MP. So, I miss out on the fun of having them de-selected.

      • bevin

        I think that you guys mean “Bevan.”
        As to Corbyn’s speaking style it is a perfect fit in a culture which has grown very tired and distrustful of thespians like, the former, Tony Blair or Obama learning their scripts off by heart and oozing false emotion through crocodile tears.
        Nye Bevan, before ambition tamed him into a “naked into the conference chamber” Natostani, was a genuine orator who spoke from the heart, quite unlike, for example Churchill who, Country House hostesses complained, used to spend hours rehearsing his speeches before delivering them in the House.

        • Chris Rogers

          Bevin,

          It is indeed Nye Bevan, whom despite hailing from my neck of the woods, i’m always confusing surnames with that other giant, Ernest Bevin, who claimed to the heights of being Foreign Secretary, despite a humble working class background, as indeed applies to Nye himself, self taught and sharp as a nail – just proves a PPE from Oxford actually amounts to nothing, despite what many think – the state of our nation proves this.

          • Habbabkuk

            How does the fact that Bevin was self-taught “prove” that a degree in PPE from Oxford amounts to nothing?

            What is your line of “reasoning” and how do you reach your conclusion?

          • Chris Rogers

            Habb,

            Sorry, but our national condition is appalling and with so many public school educated and Oxford PPE types running the show, either acknowledge we have serious issues, which may be caused by ‘group think’ or provide alternative narrative, but the facts are all around you and our elites are letting us down.

            Perhaps matters would be better if we had engineers and scientists deployed from Oxbridge and other education establishments, rather than the self-serving buggers presently on display. One could go on, but why bother given how much of an Establishment arse-wipe you convey to most on these boards.

            For all the cleverness of these folk, particularly those in the PLP and Labour hierarchy with all their connections, the fact remains an unorganised rabble has run rings around them, as witnessed by the surge of Labour Party membership, much of which has been driven by social media at a most organic level, Corby’s fertiliser preferable to austerity-life favoured by Labour’s increasingly reticent PLP.

        • Habbabkuk

          Bevin

          By that rather foolish measure, Michael Foot would be the greatest politician of modern times, wouldn’t he.

          More seriously, though : do you think all “genuine orators” speak from the heart and can someone’s “genuiness” be measured by reference to their qualities as an orator? Can one speak from the heart even one does not have the qualities of an orator?

          You see how thought-provoking you ban be, Bevin – so many questions from a simple sentence or two from you!

          • fwl

            Andrew O’Neil presented an insightful documentary on the lamentable emergence of the PPE MP in all parties. Which development has run parallel with a decline in social mobility.

            O’Neill returned to his Scottish school, once a grammar which had sent many to Oxbridge but now a comp with no one having gone there for years.

            Then he spoke with Alan Johnson, a former postman, about how the unions no longer fostered the rise of the intelligent and articulate man through the unions and into parliament.

            Regardless of what many here may make of Alan Johnson and other union developed non Oxbridge MPs and regardless of how many stood firm and how many were in effect seconded into the establishment the diversity of background, mutual respect, and the real existence of a route to power and social mobility was a good thing. Those doors are closing and we are worse off for it.

            I don’t want to interpret Brexit, for it is what it says it is a vote to leave, but it is probably true that in part it represents two fingers up to those closed doors.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    Craig,

    ” …my mother has been taken into hospital and I had yesterday to dash down to Norwich. It will be a few days before I am able to concentrate on politics.”

    Concentrate on Mum until she is well again. Will hear from you in due course.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    I look forward very much to your contribution on intelligence “fixing” – aka falsification, I imagine. As you suggest, Chilcot seems to have skated delicately around the issue. Radio 4 at least made some effort to get interviews with the Service families who represent the human-interest, and hence the journalistically appealing, end of the story, and their comments – that one of their number would be happy to put a bullet in Blair’s head, and another regarded Blair as the real terrorist – were broadcast. Jeremy Bowen’s reports from Iraq certainly showed the falsity of Blair’s ‘things can only get better’ fantasy.

    The observation that Charles Kennedy and Robin Cook had been completely vindicated also featured and they did a Moral Maze in which even the venomous Melanie Phillips came across as not buying the Blair story completely. But I didn’t see the same terrier-like persistence that the BBC showed, over a period of weeks, in working for Corbyn’s removal. Normal progarmming has been restored already. The picture is one of rowing very gently back from the criticisms in Chilcot to the safe harbour of Something Should be Done But Not Right Now.

    Blair lied. For all my unwillingness to brand Chilcot as a whitewash, it declined to say so. The intelligence issue is crucial to proving it beyond doubt, and beyond Blair’s reflex denials of wrongdoing. I hope you will be able to make some impact there.

    Meanwhile, my very best wishes to you and your mother, with every hope for a happy outcome.

  • charles drake

    Blair is still a creature of absolute self-serving slime.
    excuse me sir but that is one of are top agents
    that is one of the great queens men of the privy council and star chamber secret courts.
    that is the greatest friend of israel and one of are finest mancurian candidates.
    those words sir are a provocation an insult to this great acting nation.
    world leader in stage craft story arc and next new
    fake news item.
    retract your insult upon the star chamber mememeberoror

    • michael norton

      cozener ‎

      An imposter, a swindler.

      Like Mr. Blair, the Star Chamber was set up for his ilke.

  • squirrel

    A question to ask Blair would have been this. “If Saddam had not been a brutal dictator, and it was just a question of dealing with a potential existential threat, would you still have gone to war?”

    if the answer is “yes”, it makes a nonsense of Blair’s posturing about Saddam being bad being the important factor.

    If the answer is “no”, then it proves that analysis of intelligence was handled to fix the matter.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Saddam’s badness was only advanced after the invasion, when everything started to go pearshaped. Regime change was definitely not, heaven forfend, how could you imagine such a thing, the objective before the invasion, as the veneer of legitimacy was still being sought from the Security Council in the form of a second resolution, and regime change as the objective would have been against the UN Charter. Meanwhile, when Tony was on the other side of the Atlantic, regime change was definitely the driving force. The WMD issue was camouflage for this.

      A possible scenario for what happened next comes from a website with military input – I won’t identify the site or the poster, but if he comes across it, he should put me right if necessary.

      Obviously there are systemic incompetence issues in the MoD and MI6 which are all long standing and have been brutally exposed by a forensic enquiry like this but will be just as quickly brushed back under their familiar carpet by the people who have made careers of shinning up greasy poles using the heads of better and more able people below them as solid footholds to advance themselves, but just leaving those aside for a moment…

      I _think_ quite a lot of the things that went wrong can be laid at the door of failure of governance. It’s true that various people delivered what they were told to deliver rather than some subjective version of the objective truth as they incompetently saw it, but in a scenario where the cabinet, the executive of HMG, with a democratic mandate from the British people and the authority of the crown behind them, had soberly and properly debated all the options, examined all the facts real, and collectively in their boundless wisdom decided that the spooks needed to sex it up a little, you’d probably not fault the intelligence services for doing what they were asked, the alternative is the spooks doing whatever the hell they like under nobody’s control at all, and not serving the national interest as it is defined by the collective wisdom of HMG at any given moment. I assume that quite a lot of mad sounding things need to be done in the world of realpolitick, and our spies sexing up a dossier is hardly likely to be the maddest, given that these are people who would be cheerfully rendering dissidents to Qaddafi to have him pull their fingernails out in due course.

      The SIS weren’t to know that Tony Blair was basically running the whole shitshow on his own, had neutralised, sidelined or bypassed most of the cabinet, had subborned the national interest to that of a foreign president, who was in turn a glove puppet operated by Dick Cheney, a man who makes Count Doku look like a humanitarian hero and all round nice guy. Nor were they to know that an actual armed conflict with Iraq would be the result. The safeguard in the system is supposed to be cabinet government. If there had been 30 Robin Cooks in cabinet, or even a dozen, Tony Blair would have been put firmly back in his box at the very least… not for the first time the problem is the quality of our politicians…

      Going back to the organisational incompetence issues, the clue to how many of them will actually be fixed as a result of this report should be how many of them haven’t already been fixed. For those valid criticisms in Chilcott of the military operations, the logistic chain & the MoD between 2002 & 2009 that would still apply today, I suggest that they will still apply in 2023 and indeed 2030, unless somebody from outside comes in and applies the clue bat. But arguably, people from outside coming in and applying well understood tried and tested commercial principles to the army logistics chain is how we went from what evidence to Chilcott describes as a robust, efficient and fit for purpose logistics chain supporting the ‘Ok Chaps, surprise, huge all-arms desert war in the Middle East against a well equipped well trained enemy, Go!’ Gulf War 1, to the useless shitshow that so badly failed to support Gulf War 2 properly despite having over a year of notice that it was coming… I don’t know how you square that particular circle…

      ( My emphasis – BZ)

    • michael norton

      Zimbabwe ‘shut down’ over economic collapse

      a good question would be
      why didn’t Mr. Blair bomb and invade ZIMBABWE?

      could it be that Mugabe is of the same religion as Blair
      Roman Catholic,
      is that what has saved Mugabe?

      • defo

        Mugabe isn’t a threat to gods chosen people Michael, and you can’t start a perpetual war against a banana republic.
        No oil either.

  • giyane

    ” They are going to give us a Caliphate ” my Kurdish friend told me in 2005.
    Obviously the political mind will utilise whatever political whitewash is required to make people forget the brutal methods by which political goals are attained. Political Islam is hilarious that Blair and Cameron have been whitewashed over Iraq , Afghanistan and Libya. if things carry on going their way, they will be excused from blame for making 15 million Muslims homeless and scourging their fellow Muslims in Syria.

    So long as the West whitewashes its crimes, political Islam has nothing to fear from its own dirty linen.

    The odious troll, Habbabkuk calculates that trolling here is trolling there in the Middle East where the West enacts its appalling crimes against humanity.

    These ghouls will pay for their crimes in the total exasperation of hell for eternity.
    I’m ( not ) sorry for them

    • Anon1

      Glad to see that the Sunni Muslim fanatic who brutally murdered an Ahmadiyya follower in Glasgow for greeting his Christian customers with “Happy Easter” has pleaded guilty. Let’s hope he’s banged up for life.

  • michael norton

    TRY THIS

    http://www.france24.com/en/20160707-zimbabwe-mugabe-shuts-down-stay-away-protest-against-economic-hardship
    “The ball is in your court,” Mawarire said on his Facebook page. We are ready to close down again and this time we will add another day, Wednesday and Thursday. We are not playing and we ask you to take us seriously.”

    Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, was not available to comment.
    State telecoms regulator POTRAZ said in a statement it would arrest people sending “subversive” messages that cause unrest.

    Mugabe, who has held power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980

    So why did not Tony Blair invade ZIMBABWE

    there must be a reason, gone on hazzard a guess?

    • michael norton

      It cannot be because ZIMBABWE does not have resources, they are riddled with resources,
      it cannot be because they are a democracy because they are not
      it cannot be that people are not taken away and tortured to death, because they are

      so why did not Tony Blair bomb and invade them,
      have a go, have a guess.

      • michael norton

        It is a rather good question:
        if your country is not being invaded or even threatened,
        how do you choose which country to invade?

  • Duncan McFarlane

    Found an allegation in the Chilcot report that Saddam had been skimming money off from the UN Oil For Food programme. Googling it also found US State Department allegations that baby food provided to Iraq under the programme had been found for sale in other countries, and that a ship exporting it had been caught in Kuwaiti waters. Wondering if this is true or not?

    • Anon1

      Wouldn’t surprise me. They’d sell their own grandmothers and blame it on the West.

      • Ba'al Zevul

        Overall, sit accepted the story that the security services were to blame, and that poor, honest Tony (I don’t think he was mentioned) has been tragically misjudged. Plame was very neatly dealt with by the programme running out of time before she could answer the question of whether she thought pressure had been put on the CIA to give the information required by politicians, which she evaded, long enough to make sure that the programme ended without an answer. Also, little mention except in general terms, of other items of bad intelligence, such as the Niger yellowcake yarn. Old story reworked for the proles.

  • Usman

    Britain has a long history of ‘Chilcot enquiries’. Bengal famine, Dresden, Concentration camps in the Boer War, Black and Tans, Irish famine, Involvement in torture, support of various tyrants and fascists, brutal put down of the Mau Mau rebellion, the massacre of Chinese at the boxer rebellion, the Chuka massacre, the Hola massacre, the Batang Kali massacre, Rape of thousands upon thousands of women in Germany during WW2, torture centres in Yemen, The Armistrar massacare, the partition. These are just some of the top of my head, there are many many more crimes.

    To which the response of the establishment is ‘well I say, that was rather excessive’. But no reparations, no convictions, no actual meaningful atonement. Seriously, has anyone actually ever paid for a crime Britain has ever committed? In fact, the perpetrators have gone down as some of the greatest people in British history (Rhodes, Churchill etc) with the requisite foundations/scholarships. Tony Blair already has his own foundation, which will probably be his lasting legacy.

    #Chilcot #Blair

    • Whatever (aka Alcyone)

      Usman thank you very much for that astute and educational observation.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    Craig Murray’s blog still appears to be under some weird kind of attack. For the last couple of hours or so, I could only access it via a mobile – and even then only occasionally, but via two completely different PC’s, via two completely different IP addresses, the website appeared as a downloadable zip file. This shouldn’t happen – even if the website is down for maintenance.

    Initially, I thought I might have some virus but it appears not (two totally independent PC’s))

    and I could still access http://www.ageuk.org.uk/

    And then – access to Craig’s blog is working normally again.

    wtf is going on?

    Has Craig upset someone powerful?

    Haven’t they anything better to do?

    Tony

    • Ba'al Zevul

      It goes down every time I post, indicating that millions of viewers are hanging on my every word. Sorry about that.

    • Darth

      We had to switch servers in a hurry due to an issue at our service provider. What caused them the issue they haven’t said yet.

      The transition seemed to go smoothly but a vital config file from our WP Super Cache plugin didn’t get restored correctly on the new server. If your browser had a previous comment cookie set then you got the live page, If it didn’t then you got the cached copy served as a zip file instead of a compressed web page.

      Should be fixed now.

      Fingers crossed…

    • Habbabkuk

      Is it being commissioned by George Galloway? 🙂

      +++++++++++++++++++++

      By the way, 100 NIS (new Israeli shekels) says that now the Chilcot Report has finally appeared, Mr Galloway’s oft-announced an crowd-funded film about Tony Blair never will.

      Any takers? 🙂

      • Ba'al Zevul

        While I will only ask that you donate your pay to MAP, having no interest in personal gain, the Guardian has just reviewed it – technically, it’s appeared. The Graun wasn’t impressed, but that’s unsurprising on several levels:

        https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/07/the-killing-of-tony-blair-review-george-galloway-chilcot-iraq

        Last I saw he’s going to release it in September, but I don’t think it will survive in the wild as it’s long been superseded, and it suffers from Galloway’s ego.

        • Habbabkuk

          Sorry, what do you mean? It’s appeared but it’s going to be released in September?

          Do you happen to know whether for these crowd-funded events the organiser has to present accounts about how the money obtained from the public was spent?

          • Ba'al Zevul

            1. That would depend entirely on what you mean by ‘appeared’. If a hack’s been given a copy to review, it’s in the public domain.
            2. I have no idea. Perhaps you’d like to find out for yourself and let us know.
            3. That’s your ration for two days.

        • Habbabkuk

          1/. Well, Baal, you used the word “appeared” so I thought you’d know what you meant by it….

          2/. Surprised by that reply, it’s the kind of thing I imagined you’d know about. Perhaps someone else does? I believe, though, that people who crowd fund undertakings of this sort should be obliged to account for all monies received – just for the sake of good order, you understand.

          3/. Yes indeed, I must get out more. But less than some others….. 🙂

        • Habbabkuk

          So much for the BBC never giving unconventional or far left wing views any airtime, eh, Macky?

          • Macky

            LOL ! Galloway is allowed on once every two or three years, especially at times like this when they could hardly avoid it; contrast with the regular staple diet of Right Wingers, who every week outnumber 4 to 1 any “Lefty” or outsiders.

            The best laugh is that rabid Right Wingers like Melanie Phillips is on several times every year !

            Not very gracious about being put right about the film are you; don’t forget to make that donation ! 😀

  • Alan

    I was sure I saw you complaining yourself, Habbakook, about what you complained were deleted posts, so maybe you require similar treatment?

  • Habbabkuk

    Israel and Irak.

    One has read comments over the years that the second Irak war was launched on behalf of, or even at the behest of, Israel.

    Such views are often accompanied by references to the influence of US neocons on President Bush; such references are usually garnished with a couple of names which hint at the Jewish faith of many of the neocons.

    Indeed, this very blog has seen such comments and reference, including in the last couple of days following the release of the Chilcot report.

    They seem to meet with the approval of the Moderator(s) – unlike my attempts at rebuttal. Perhaps my “tone” is to blame?

    BUT – I bear no grudges and hope that the Moderator(s) will find it in themselves to allow the following questions to stand:

    “What reason would Israel have had to wish for the removal of the dictator Saddam Hussein? Was he posing a threat to Israel and if so, what was the nature of that threat?

    Rational, serious answers only, no insults, ravings, tiny orgasms of rage or conspiracy theories please)

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