Larissa
1st April 2003, 19:27
Interesting couple of paragraphs from today's Guardian leader:
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Putting Iraq to rights, in Mr Blair's view, should be the whole world's business. The more that all the nations make common cause to do this, the better. The less this happens, the more vital it is to balance any absence of common cause with a series of equitable and humanitarian initiatives - on the Middle East and on reconstruction in particular - which can help to establish what Disraeli, seeking to justify the British invasion of Abyssinia in 1867, called "the purity of our purpose".
But because this is Mr Rumsfeld's war not Mr Blair's, it is Mr. Rumsfeld's purpose that counts. Mr Rumsfeld cares little about the Middle East peace process, less still about giving the UN a central role in Iraq reconstruction, and least of all about a new multilateral world order enforced through global rules applying to all nations including the US. He has worked for this moment for years. He has manoeuvred the administration into the war. He has set its terms and imposed its timetable and he has refused to allow them to be changed or compromised. He is the principal author of the premature and misconceived unilateral invasion which, thanks to Mr. Blair's weakness, has set Britain against international law and diplomacy, wrecked our alliances, convulsed our politics and thrown every part of Labour's project into doubt. With friends like Mr. Rumsfeld, who needs enemies?
>>
And this from a leading mainstream newspaper in the only serious ally the US has in its war on Iraq.
The winds are blowing harder and colder. The clouds are growing thicker and blacker than the smoke over Basra. A hard rain's gonna fall...
>>
Putting Iraq to rights, in Mr Blair's view, should be the whole world's business. The more that all the nations make common cause to do this, the better. The less this happens, the more vital it is to balance any absence of common cause with a series of equitable and humanitarian initiatives - on the Middle East and on reconstruction in particular - which can help to establish what Disraeli, seeking to justify the British invasion of Abyssinia in 1867, called "the purity of our purpose".
But because this is Mr Rumsfeld's war not Mr Blair's, it is Mr. Rumsfeld's purpose that counts. Mr Rumsfeld cares little about the Middle East peace process, less still about giving the UN a central role in Iraq reconstruction, and least of all about a new multilateral world order enforced through global rules applying to all nations including the US. He has worked for this moment for years. He has manoeuvred the administration into the war. He has set its terms and imposed its timetable and he has refused to allow them to be changed or compromised. He is the principal author of the premature and misconceived unilateral invasion which, thanks to Mr. Blair's weakness, has set Britain against international law and diplomacy, wrecked our alliances, convulsed our politics and thrown every part of Labour's project into doubt. With friends like Mr. Rumsfeld, who needs enemies?
>>
And this from a leading mainstream newspaper in the only serious ally the US has in its war on Iraq.
The winds are blowing harder and colder. The clouds are growing thicker and blacker than the smoke over Basra. A hard rain's gonna fall...