Chilcott Enquiry

[minestrone]

I didn't support going to war on the simple reason I did not believe the 45 minute claim that he was a real danger, couldn't really be arsed about the WMDs as every fecker in the region has them, it was obvious the war was engineered.

Getting rid of Saddam was a good thing, he was a proper war criminal, Blair is not and people who think he is have lost perspective on the period. Likewise he is not to blame for the country going absolutely tonto after liberation, that was the Iraqi people.

I saw Claire Short on the TV but did not hear what she had to say, she voted for the war and on the eve of the vote wrote to every labour MP and asked them to vote with her. People still think she was against it.

I accept that the loss of a loved one in service is painful but I tire of hearing the families, they were not publically vocal about the horror of war when 17 year old Iraqi conscripts with 2 weeks training and a rusty AK47 were getting shot up by a professional army, I don't have any sympathy for them now in all honesty.

[eek]

I didn't support going to war on the simple reason I did not believe the 45 minute claim that he was a real danger, couldn't really be arsed about the WMDs as every fecker in the region has them, it was obvious the war was engineered.

Getting rid of Saddam was a good thing, he was a proper war criminal, Blair is not and people who think he is have lost perspective on the period. Likewise he is not to blame for the country going absolutely tonto after liberation, that was the Iraqi people.

I saw Claire Short on the TV but did not hear what she had to say, she voted for the war and on the eve of the vote wrote to every labour MP and asked them to vote with her. People still think she was against it.

I accept that the loss of a loved one in service is painful but I tire of hearing the families, they were not publically vocal about the horror of war when 17 year old Iraqi conscripts with 2 weeks training and a rusty AK47 were getting shot up by a professional army, I don't have any sympathy for them now in all honesty.

I don't agree with your second paragraph. It's obvious that once you've taken over a country you or someone needs to continue governing it - and that means you need a plan... Bush and Blair didn't have one and that is utterly unforgiveable...

[minestrone]

There has been a functioning government there for over a decade, too much has been made of the lack of planning. Clearly there was no planning but when there was a plan and it was stuck to it made little difference.

[DaveB]

I don't agree with your second paragraph. It's obvious that once you've taken over a country you or someone needs to continue governing it - and that means you need a plan... Bush and Blair didn't have one and that is utterly unforgiveable...

Agreed, one of the highlights of the report is that the lack of planning combined with the overnight dismantling of the police and army led directly to the breakdown of order in the country. It also makes the point that Blair was explicitly warned about this well before the decisions were made.

[eek]

There has been a functioning government there for over a decade, too much has been made of the lack of planning. Clearly there was no planning but when there was a plan and it was stuck to it made little difference.

True there is a government there now - but the damage was done in the time in the year or so when there wasn't a government.

[minestrone]

The period running up to the surge in 2007 was by far the worst period for terrorism and loss of life. The country had a government, army and police force for years by that point.

[minestrone]

I am more annoyed about the "he would have been remembered as a great Prime Minister if it was not for the war" narrative that is getting punted out all day.

1. He allowed Gordon Brown to royally screw the country.
2. He pulled the referendum on the European Constitution and allowed the EU to slip it in under a new treaty.

Man is complete fookwit.

[minestrone]

The period running up to the surge in 2007 was by far the worst period for terrorism and loss of life. The country had a government, army and police force for years by that point.

[scooterscot]

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe..."

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

[minestrone]

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe..."

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

Are you sure that is not from the Call Of Duty 4 narrative script?