Saturday, January 24, 2004
OF GNOMES AND MEN
He never really goes away. He's always available for interviews. The BBC reports:
That no WMD have yet been found is irrevelant. In the current context, this is worth repeating:
It was never Tony Blair's and George Bush's job to have to convince us that Saddam had WMDs. The reason is this: Saddam used them in the past, and after the 1991 defeat he was supposed to come clean with us under the United Nations' inspection regime.
So it was Saddam who was supposed to convince us that he did not have WMDs.
Yet, Saddam continued to behave as if HE DID have them.
Now, if he did have loads of them, they will be found eventually. But if he didn't have loads of them, but chose to behave as if HE DID, when a huge army was poised to strike and bring his regime down because WE took HIM at HIS word . . . then he was a rank IDIOT. He played chicken with superpowers and lost.
And after September 11, 2001, no one is going to play chicken with the U.S. again. Civilized people around the world have seen what can happen if such gameplaying is permitted, and if we fail to take our enemies -- the "Kill all Americans!" "Slaughter the Infidels!" "Bring many tears to their Evil American Mothers!" crowd -- at THEIR word.
Call it the "New Realism" policy: If you repeatedly chant about how you want to slaughter us all, we will then realistically assume that you mean to try to do just that.
UPDATE: But if "personal attacks" are not appropriate, why do I call Cook a gnome? Simple:
And as I wrote back in May, 2003:
. . . The now "distinguished" back bencher -- who, come to think of it, really does resemble a gnome -- (he thinks Bush is a moron and Blair is a poodle, and I think Cook is a gnome -- it's fair). . . ¶ by Robert, Saturday, January 24, 2004
He never really goes away. He's always available for interviews. The BBC reports:
The prime minister must admit defeat on the issue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Robin Cook has demanded.This feckless Cook, who thought it was okay to bomb Yugoslavia in 1999, just could never bring himself to understand why Bush and Blair might want to protect Britain and the U.S. from the threat posed -- especially post-September 11 -- by the Hussein regime.
The ex-foreign secretary spoke out after US official David Kay quit as head of the search for WMD in Iraq, saying the weapons do not exist.
Mr Cook told the BBC he believed Mr Blair had been driven to war by "missionary zeal" and the desire to show loyalty to US President George Bush. . .
That no WMD have yet been found is irrevelant. In the current context, this is worth repeating:
It was never Tony Blair's and George Bush's job to have to convince us that Saddam had WMDs. The reason is this: Saddam used them in the past, and after the 1991 defeat he was supposed to come clean with us under the United Nations' inspection regime.
So it was Saddam who was supposed to convince us that he did not have WMDs.
Yet, Saddam continued to behave as if HE DID have them.
Now, if he did have loads of them, they will be found eventually. But if he didn't have loads of them, but chose to behave as if HE DID, when a huge army was poised to strike and bring his regime down because WE took HIM at HIS word . . . then he was a rank IDIOT. He played chicken with superpowers and lost.
And after September 11, 2001, no one is going to play chicken with the U.S. again. Civilized people around the world have seen what can happen if such gameplaying is permitted, and if we fail to take our enemies -- the "Kill all Americans!" "Slaughter the Infidels!" "Bring many tears to their Evil American Mothers!" crowd -- at THEIR word.
Call it the "New Realism" policy: If you repeatedly chant about how you want to slaughter us all, we will then realistically assume that you mean to try to do just that.
UPDATE: But if "personal attacks" are not appropriate, why do I call Cook a gnome? Simple:
And as I wrote back in May, 2003:
. . . The now "distinguished" back bencher -- who, come to think of it, really does resemble a gnome -- (he thinks Bush is a moron and Blair is a poodle, and I think Cook is a gnome -- it's fair). . . ¶ by Robert, Saturday, January 24, 2004
