January 28, 2005

What I Heard about Iraq Eliot Weinberger demonstrates the polemical power of not forgetting.
posted by Abiezer_Coppe 19 years ago
  • Hey, Abiezer_Coppe, we can have this conversation any way you want, but I'm going to have to ask that you don't impugn the integrity of Bush et. al.
  • Hi HW. I've not heard of Mr. Weinberger before so I wouldn't know if he and I share exactly the same position on the Iraq war or not. As I hinted in the post, I did appreciate the effect achieved by an insistent enumeration of facts. Of course I know that some 'facts' are matters of dispute, and that selection (or omission) is powerful too. My own position funnily enough does turn to a large part on my doubts about the integrity of the Bush administration and that of my own government (the UK). I'm not a pacifist and accept that some situations demand intervention. It was my view that the past records of the Coalition partners were at the least sufficient cause to call into question the purity of their motives. This, coupled with the way the case for WMDs was being constructed so tendentiously and the complete wrecking of international rule of law, set me against the inital assault. I was susceptible to hopes that the downfall of Hussein's dictorship would at least save significant numbers of lives. Even this now seems disproved by later revelations about the worst killing years of Hussein being a decade earlier, making the case not as pressing as I thought. Though here's a piece discussing that from a pro-intervention stance Anyhow, we have to move on from where we are. I hope that the elections will see progress towards a stable peace. My bottom line has always been desirng a solution that ensures maximum freedom and minimum death and I'd by no means suggest that there's always a simple answer to how you arrive at that. Again, in reference to your objection, it's in fact fears about the genuine humanitarian intent of many of the Western actors that leaves me deeply troubled. Read another way, you might have been toungue in cheek, in which case my above 'get-your-own-blog' screed can be set aside
  • I think Connie Rice asked the same question when congress people were doing something to apoint her or something...
  • Abiezer, that was a succinct and lucid comment on the mess in Iraq. You reflect my own views but express them with more eloquence than I could hope to muster. HW's comment, as FedoraUndershirt mentioned, I believe refers to matters discussed here
  • Thanks islander. I had read the stuff about the confirmation hearing so I should have known better. In my pathetic defence, I'm an non-USian living in Asia, so the details escaped me. Oh, alright then, I'm an arse.
  • Um, I was channeling Condi Rice. From her confirmation hearings a few days ago, in response to a pretty scathing attack by Barbara Boxer; it was a great exchange b/w Rice and Boxer: Boxer: You did this, and this, and this. Rice: Don't impugn my integrity. Boxer: I'm not impugning your integrity, I'm listing facts.
  • That is to say, What islander said. And you're not an arse.
  • Abiezer_Coppe... good link, thanks!...however, I'm now depressed....again....still.....
  • Great post. Thank you. I hope this is the story that history will tell. But I wouldn't count on it.
  • This summer should be interesting.
  • Though it may seem now as if things are being glossed over, the truth in US politics has a way of surfacing soomer or later.