Regards, Ivan
Posted on 02/06/2003 4:07:29 PM PST by MadIvan
It wasn't Colin Powell who swung opinion on this war, or even Hans Blix. It was Tony Benn. I hate to say it, but his interview was a masterpiece. Until then, we had been getting ourselves into a worse stew than Benn's tea leaves. Suddenly we saw what we were up against, and it galvanised even the most faint-hearted.
It had more impact because it came after Martin Bashir's interview with Michael Jackson, the second weirdest man in the world, who also has an obsession with plastic surgery (although Saddam does it on his doubles). They both spend millions on antique urns, incarcerate themselves in some Neverland and force their families to go out covered in veils, surrounded by two dozen bodyguards. Both have been accused of being above the law.
On Monday night, Jackson was subjected to a ruthless interview by his "friend" Bashir. He was accused of lying, sleeping with young boys and being a fruitcake. Yet sales of Wacko Jacko's records soared. We suddenly felt sorry for this strange recluse. The British hated seeing this nervous singer being bashed up in public.
The next evening, Tony Benn took over from Bashir in the interviewer's seat. His approach to his "friend" Saddam couldn't have been more different. Unlike Bashir, he didn't question a single utterance, but looked on with dogged devotion at his hero. He was fawning and sycophantic to a man I'd be even less inclined to let my child join in a sleep-over. This is a dictator who is so divorced from the truth that he had his doctor executed for suggesting he was schizophrenic.
Saddam not only denied having any weapons of mass destruction, but compared Iraq to pre-war England and made it clear he thought he was Churchill. Benn nodded sagely, too timid to point out that Churchill fought for the right to be free, rather than to oppress, and certainly never took his three-year-old son to watch children being tortured.
It had the opposite effect from the interview with Jackson. It left everyone furious. The interview with Saddam mocked us - he's far more dangerous than any rock star, yet we're letting him get away with it. We're not idiots. Some may question America's evidence, but it is known that Saddam committed genocide against the Kurds. He has stockpiled large quantities of chemical and biological weapons, he's desperate for nuclear weapons and has flouted 16 UN resolutions over 12 years.
MPs who had been voting on the future of the Lords were momentarily united in their distaste for a man who would never even contemplate an elected first chamber, let alone a second. By the time that Colin Powell came on with his specimen jars, satellite photos and tapes, the British public had made up their minds. They weren't going to let Saddam walk all over them.
Ken Livingstone's traffic chaos ensured that I spent most of Wednesday driving round London listening to various talkshows. All of them had ditched their usual diet of Zoe Ball, Madonna's non-pregnancy and whether Catherine Zeta Jones should be photographed with her mouth full, to discuss the Benn interview. The DJ Jono, on Heart FM, usually a mild, jolly man, was incandescent.
Today's James Naughtie was also incensed. He couldn't keep the contempt out of his voice. How could you pander to a man who doesn't just dangle one baby out of a window, but allows thousands to starve to death?
Even Benn seemed to realise that he'd scored an own goal. The old Labour toff who has reincarnated himself as a cuddly, tea-drinking grandfather, suddenly turned nasty. He retorted: "If you'd have gone there, you would have learnt nothing. I got an opportunity to hear him."
But if Naughtie had gone there, we might have felt a twinge of sympathy for Saddam being berated on torturing his enemies, decapitating women and plotting to blow up the world. We might have thought: give the underdog a chance, you haven't proved everything.
A YouGov poll carried out on Wednesday evening for ITN showed a decisive shift of opinion in favour of war. They put it down to Powell with his centrifuge tubes, but most people hadn't had time to weigh through Powell's evidence while eating their supper. It was Benn who did it the night before.
And not a moment too soon. For some reason, the question of whether to go to war with Iraq has been routinely addressed with an infantile anti-American rant. We've lost our sense of what this war is really about. It has become a referendum on George W. Bush, rather than on Saddam. The interview forced us to choose: whom do we trust - this dictator or America? It was easy.
The anti-war rhetoric assumes, offering far less evidence than Powell, that Bush's motivation is malign. That he is out to avenge his father, he wants to control oil supplies, he's frustrated because he hasn't caught Osama bin Laden and his high-tech bombs will kill thousands of innocent children.
It's summed up by Harold Pinter's poem: Here they go again/ the Yanks in their armoured parade/ chanting their ballads of joy/ as they gallop across the big world/ praising America's God. The Americans have retaliated by attacking old Europe rather than Saddam. Since Christmas, we've all been bickering among ourselves while the real enemy watched on, laughing.
Saddam is a madman who is equipped with weapons of mass destruction. We cannot rely on rational judgment preventing him from using them. If we continue with this current combination of deterrence and containment, he will not disarm, and he may use them.
Unlike Afghanistan, where there was a substantial minority - the Taliban supporters - who didn't want to see the regime falter, in Iraq, regime change would be a blessing for the region, whoever took over. Getting rid of Saddam has become as relevant to Milton Keynes as it has in Kansas. Benn's interview will have struck a blow for peace if it brings us closer to war.
Regards, Ivan
So here am I thinking, without reading a word...'Hmmm..well, I guess a heavyweight boxer is what is needed to pulp the skulls of leftist peaceniks into seein' sense' *LOL*
This picture deserves a caption, I think. ;)
Love, Ivan
"And it was then that I realized - the man is Joe Stalin reincarnated... And I leaped with joy! Amen! Hallelujah! Old time religion is making a come back!"
Regards, Ivan
I didn't hear about this one. When was it reported?
It should be made clear that ths is NOT, I repeat, NOT the Tim Allen from the American TV show "Home Improvement". I confess that's what _I_ thought at first, until I looked it up. Here's an article about the Tim Allen in question.
For other articles about this Tim Allen regarding child porn, go to the news.google.com search results.
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