[Castlebar]

I didn't know Le Carre was a leftist

Then read A Perfect Spy or some of his other novels. All moral equivalence between the West and the USSR.

If you want to read great spy stuff, read Len Deighton.

[vbmoneyspender]

Never read his spy stuff. His historical works are great though. For example, Blitzkreig is awesome. In a straightforward way, from the rise of the Freikorps through to Dunkirk, Deighton lays out how Germany was able to accomplish the Blitzkreig.

[section9]

Actually, the Quest for Karla trilogy was his masterwork. He's quite a good writer. Former FO official, if I recall correctly.

Nevertheless, he has bought into the Arabist, acidly anti-American attitudes of the British upper classes.

He repeats every tired old bit of cant about George Bush, his Administration, and the United States. This is like reading a John Pilger column, only Pilger has an excuse: he's nowhere near the writer le Carre is. It's all "Bush junta" this and "oilmen" that.

You can just visualize the old boy at a some West End cocktail party, saying the same old things to the same old people. We're just getting the written equivalent of cocktail wiener conversation.

As to the virtues of this war, well John, we only lost three thousand people in a single stroke. In return, we plan on killing as many of your raghead co#ks*^king friends as we humanly can. You don't like that? Go run off with Robert Fisk and commisserate.

Be Seeing You,

Chris