Invasion of Iraq
week one

Last update: 27 March 2003, 07:49 GMT

Cowardly

The one thing which strikes me is just how cowardly the attacks on Iraq are. How could an attack on a people who have no real hope of fighting back be described as other than cowardly?

I keep wanting to scream go pick on someone your own size.

Feeling guilty opposing the war?

Anti-war demo, London. 22 March 2003

If you were opposed to the war before it started but feel guilty opposing it now that our own troops are involved ask yourself these questions:

• Would you still be opposing the war if our own troops weren’t involved?
• If the war hadn’t yet started would you still be opposing the war?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes then surely the only honest response is to continue opposing the war. Nothing has really changed has it?

Support the troops?

Some commentators are claiming that now the war has started we should stop demonstrating and support the troops.

Surely the best way to support the troops is to get them out of the situation the government has put them in. If they’re not there they’re far less likely to end up dead.

What happened to the Weapons of Mass Destruction?

Have you noticed that now that the war has started the reason for it, according to Bush and Blair, is said to be liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein?

Strange. I could have sworn that in the days prior to the war the reasons given were to eliminate so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction from Iraq.

The liberation of Iraq was the reason originally given by Bush last autumn. It was called regime change in those days of course. It didn’t go down too well as an excuse so he had to make up another one instead. So, we’re now into liberation. Much more palatable.

I think I must be getting old as my brain has difficulty in understanding the concept of liberating someone by bombing them.

Still, I have their assurance that if I were living under a brutal dictatorship I’d be crying out for someone to drop bombs on me. I guess I should believe them ‘cos they’re the Good Guys. That’s a great comfort.

Blair’s new friends

If you want some idea of the sort of people who Blair has got into bed with then try this site. This is Rumsfeld’s bunch of nutters. Or these people who are even more alarming and seem to think the sun shines out of Rumsfeld’s bottom.

Bizarre people

What bizarre people the American military can be.

I have just heard of an grenade attack at a camp in Kuwait where some soldiers got badly hurt.

They’re calling the attackers terrorists. They’re asking themselves how this sort of thing can happen. They almost seem to be saying it isn’t fair.

The answer to how it can happen is simple. It’s a war dummy; it’s a war. Here are some pointers to what’s going on here:

• You attack people in a war.
• They attack you back.
• Sometimes they attack you first.

  They tend to do this especially when you’re threatening to attack them.

Didn’t they tell you that in soldier training school?

There’s an answer to this problem: if you don’t want them to attack you then don’t attack them. Doh!

Killing each other

Now they’re killing each other. They’re now saying that the people hurt in the grenade attack (one of whom has since died) were killed by one of their own soldiers. Mind you, how can we believe anything they tell us?

They’re also shooting down their own planes, just like they did last time.

So, if you can believe anything they say, so far there have been more US and UK troops killed by their own side than have been killed by their perceived enemy.

What are we supposed to make of this?

Oh dear

Oh dear! It’s not going entirely their way is it? What with aircraft being shot down, troops being captured and killed in not nice ways they don’t seem anything like as sure of themselves as they did.

Some of the officers appearing on TV now appear to have resorted to simply pleading with the Iraqis to give up. You know the sort of thing: ‘Please surrender. You know we’ll win in the end.’ with a little unvoiced ‘We think’ tagged on the end.

What’s the goddamn point of all this? Why can’t they simply withdraw the troops before even more of them end up dead?

Generals with delusions

I was listening to the radio on the way home from work. There was a US general, or some such, being questioned about just why the Iraqi soldiers were not surrendering in droves, happy to be liberated.

His answer was that they were living in fear. He repeated this in a number of different ways just to ensure that we got the picture.

Never once did it seem to occur to him that there is another, and to my mind, more plausible reason. They’re not fighting to protect Saddam at all. They’re fighting to protect their country from unwanted invaders. Just as the general would if the boot were on the other foot. Their country is bigger than Saddam.

How can we allow people with such strong delusions to direct our troops into battle with the non-enemy? Get the troops out before the delusions of the top brass and the politicians get even more of them killed.

Lies, damned lies & Tony Blair

I see Blair is bending the truth again.

He has told Parliament that ‘water and electricity supplies are being spared’.

Go tell that to the people of Basra most of who have been without both for the past three days as I write. This is because we’ve been firing shells at the place. Shells are not very smart.

Of course, there’s no TV reporting from inside Basra so perhaps the people there aren’t really people at all in Blair’s head.

Chemical weapons

The US & UK governments are making much of the anti-chemical warfare suits, gas masks and antidotes found in a hospital in Iraq.

They are saying that this is evidence that Saddam Hussein may be planning to use chemical weapons.

That may be the case. Who knows? Try turning it on its head. The US and the British also possess anti-chemical warfare suits, gas masks and antidotes. In their case they claim to have them in case the Iraqis use chemical weapons. Can we really have it both ways?

There is also the undeniable fact that the suits, masks and antidotes were found in a hospital. If the Iraqis were afraid that the US and the British might use chemical weapons then where better to keep the antidotes than a hospital?

Does the US have chemical weapons? That’s impossible to say since they have never allowed weapons inspectors on their own soil.

Humanitarian aid

I see the humanitarian aid has been held up again.

It’s very odd this. They’ve been saying that the humanitarian aid would be going into the Iraqi south ‘within 24 to 36 hours’ since they first invaded the country a week ago.

The aid wouldn’t be needed at all if we hadn’t invaded the country in the first place would it?