Thanks all for your comments. Well said sandy2. Madine, "If the old Iraqi government was so great, why aren't there massive outcries in Iraq for it to be restored" I never said the old regime was great, I never said anything of the sort. Paul, I disagree with you about the whole regime change ethos. Yes, Bremmer was quite spectacularly bad at his job, but even if he'd done a magnificent job
Sometimes I wonder just how dunk you have to be before the decision to invade Iraq starts to seem like a good idea. No matter how many times the hawks change their story, regardless of how many ingenuous new justifications they can come up with, they are unable to escape the harsh and obvious reality that their war has been a disaster. But, oh! How they try!
Thanks to both of you for your comments. Paul, sorry no part 3. You're right that economics is a crucial factor, but not one I feel qualified to write about, so it's over to you!
In Part 1, I spoke of the covenant of 1912, of how most of the northern Protestant community of the time signed up to resist any move which would dilute their membership of the British state. What then did Britishness mean to those who signed on to defend it? At the time, Irish Protestant attachment to the idea of Britishness rested on three great pillars: fa
Thanks Paul and Soupy for your comments. There will be one more part, probably today.
In 1912, with Home Rule for Ireland a real possibility, the vast majority of the country's largest minority group, the Protestants, signed a covenant declaring their implacable opposition to such a policy. Some of those who signed on to resist Irish self-government forsook the luxury of ink, choosing instead to write in their own blood. According to my grandmother, se
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Deference, "I don't have too much of a problem with the whole "secular society" bit, it's when it wages war on the non-secular it should supposedly co-exist with that I then have a problem" They're not "waging war" on the non-secular world at all. People are free to wear whatever religious symbols they like out on the street, or in their own homes. Just not in school. Seems fair enough to me.
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Personally, I say "bravo" to the French parliament for defending their noble secualrist ideals. I only wish religion had been kept out of schools when I was a child.
I recently spent a week in Tokyo. Of all the countries I've visited, Japan is the one of which I've had the worst impression before arriving. I've spent the last few years living in two of Japan's former colonies, Taiwan and South Korea, where praise for the Japanese is not exactly abundant. To some extent I understand why Japan's former imperial subjects ar
I've never been a big Castro fan. Yes, it's true that his regime's achievements in the fields of health, education and sport have been exemplary. Certainly, the US government's policy towards Cuba over the past few decades has vacilated between the criminal and the petty. But still, I can't get too inspired about the Cuban leader. Whatever he's achieved and
I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the way that both the left and the right have responded to the post 9-11 world in which we live. In my opinion, many on both sides disregard important issues when considering how to respond to the threat posed by al-Qaida and their jihadist fellow travellers. Let's start with the right. First off, bravo to most conserv
bzjaffe, Roads to and from settlements are closed to Palestinians. They always have been. Israel is ready to give up the land it took in 1967? Wow, then building all those houses on the land was a really stupid idea, wasn't it?
bzjaffe, The "few" refers to the few settlements in Gaza as is clear from the rest of the sentence: "and four small ones in the West Bank". As for your point about so called barren land, I would point out that settlements need roads (which are closed to Palestinians) which eat up ever more land. Also, since EVERY settlement is illegal under international law, it doesn't matter if the land they are built on is barren or fer
Thanks everyone for your comments. First of all, let me say that I'm not naive, I don't expect Hamas to put down the explosive belts and start singing "We Shall Overcome" any time soon. But there are groups in Palestine who are resisiting the occupation non-violently. These people need help from the West in order to demonstrate to the Palestinian people that there is another way to struggle. Lee, I'm glad you liked what I said but I
The current intifada in the West Bank and Gaza is now four years old. Forty-eight months in to this uprising, it is clear that, by any measure, it has been a disaster for the Palestinians. Militarily, Israel has inflicted three times as many casualties on the Palestinians as the Palestinians have on Israel. In the past few years, suicide bombers have found it much har
As a child growing up in Belfast in the 1980s and 90s, I was conscious that many of those in positions of authority were English. At the time Northern Ireland was run by a Secretary of State, a member of the British cabinet. These men tended to be plummy and somewhat useless Conservative MPs, marking time in one of Britsh politics least sought after positions. The sol
Paul, Forgive me, I'm confused. Where do you stand on the war these days?
CrispE, America is in danger no matter who is in the White House, that is the sad reality. However, I would argue that the invasion of Iraq has made the US less safe rather than more.
Draginol, I don't know what you're laughing about. Did you read this part: "I have no problem accepting that, for this or that hawk, "it was never about WMDs". I have no problem accepting that some people supported the war mainly because they wanted Saddam gone, or because they thought it was trhe best way to bring democracy to the Middle East. But the individual preferences of hawks does not change how those in power justified the march to wa
CrispE, I'm no great Kerry fan. He voted for the war. As for America being safer, this is presumably a joke. Madine, The short answer to your question is "no". Please excuse my terseness, it's late.
If the Hutton report taught me anything, it was that you shouldn't put any faith in government inquiries to get to the truth and to expose wrong-doing. As a leftie, I really should've known this already, but I must confess that late last year, I had hoped that the inquiry into the suicide of British weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly would find fault with Tony Blair's
Sometimes I think I must have amnesia. Recently I've noticed some in the pro-war camp attempting to put about the notion that the conflict in Iraq wasn't really about WMD after all. With the absence of those stockpiles of nasty weapons, they have tried to pretend that the case for their aggression in the Middle East did not rest on Saddam's non-conventional capabiliti
Nice post Meghan. Thanks for mentioning the one occasion when I was a help and not the many when I was a hindrance I feel similar to you, my enthusiasm isn't what it once was but don't be too hard on yourself. Remember, back then the intifada still had a bit of zest to it. Now it's moribund. Yeah, talking is no substitute for real action, but if one person reads your b
Maestro, However much money you can think of, it's not enough for me to "do" Jeffrey Donaldson
Thanks everyone for your comments. I'm not going to get involved in the debate about Israel's policies because I've been over that so many times in the past. Suffice to say, I'm happy that everyone who has commented seems to agree with my basic assertion that some of the criticism of Israel is anti-semitic. To say that none of the criticism is anti-semitic, or that all of it is anti-semitic, seem equally ludicrous to me.