This entry was posted on
Monday, November 7th, 2005 at
9:55 am and is filed
under The War on Stupid.

Guardian – Blair’s litany of failures on Iraq – ambassador’s damning verdict: Tony Blair repeatedly passed up opportunities to put a brake on the rush to war in Iraq, a failure that may have contributed to the country’s present anarchy, according to Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain’s ambassador to Washington at the time, in his book DC Confidential, serialised in the Guardian from today.

Sir Christopher Meyer – Seduced by the glamour of American power

BBC – Iraq war linked to terror – Meyer: Sir Christopher Meyer told The Guardian “there is plenty of evidence” that “home-grown terrorism was partly radicalised and fuelled” by Iraq. Sir Christopher, based in Washington until 2003, said: “Don’t tell me being in Iraq has nothing to do with it.” A Downing Street spokesman told the BBC that events in Iraq could never justify a resort to terrorism. Speaking to Five Live, the spokesman added that Number 10 was not in the business of issuing statements to help people sell books.

I left that ‘selling books’ comment in for anyone who has watched Outfoxed and remembers how the Richard Clarke matter was handled, but the real ‘tell’ is yet another appearance of the specific false dichotomy Blair has relied on heavily since the attacks of 7 July; that nothing justifies terrorism, therefore any attempt to find a reason/cause behind the attacks on London can be dismissed out of hand.

Ooh, look where we are…. July 7. Blair. Murdoch. False dichotomies.

A good a time as any to show you the Sun wheeling out a relative of one of the victims in order to shore up Blair’s push for 90-days…

Sun – Victory for TERROR: MPs opposed to new anti-terror laws were last night accused of handing victory to the bombers… Grieving June Taylor, whose 24-year-old daughter Carrie died in the blast at Aldgate, said: “I will be bitterly disappointed if this Terror Bill is not passed… If this bill does not pass, it will seem as if the lives lost on July 7th have been forgotten.”

There’s also a wonderful quote from Anne Widdecombe, but I leave the response on this front to Anorak: The Sun asks you to write to these forgetful MPs, and to listen to Ann Widdecombe. “If we now end up with 28 days and someone on the 29th day goes out and kills someone, where will that leave us?” It’s hard to say. But perhaps in a similar spot than if we end up with the full 90 says and someone on the 91st day goes out and kills someone, or everyone.

The Scum have also published a ‘list of shame’, so their readers may write to; the MPs of all parties who put Tony Blair’s premiership in peril last week by voting against the glorification of terror

OMG! They’ve sided with terrorists, they don’t care if you get blowed up and they’ve put Tony Blair’s premiership in peril! Something has to be done about these people before they destroy society as we know it.

UPDATE – Two very good posts; one on your shocking complacency and one on yet more dodgy polling, this time from Rupert Murdoch.

UPDATE – Andrew Hayman (Downing St head of PR London Met head of counter-terrorism) on BBC News just now said; “This is not a game, it requires serious debate.”

1. What? Excuse me, but what?! A serious debate is exactly what we’re being denied, with Blair and his cronies running dodgy polls and (yet again) climbing over the bodies of the dead in order to claim the moral high ground. And you’re in on it too, Andy, you muppet.

2. For a bonus 10 points, please complete this sentence: “The rules of the _________ have changed.”