Haiti
There are few countries in the world more vulnerable and less well able to cope with calamity than Haiti. Punched by an earthquake of biblical proportions, hundreds of thousands, even millions, depend on a very swift and focussed response from the rest of the world. This is a moment went the best in everyone has to be mobilised for a humanitarian emergency. God speed to all.
Iraq War Inquiry
So Alastair Campbell gave another bravura performance under questioning yesterday. He let through a few snippets. Secret letters from Blair to Bush making promises to back military action for example. This time, however, he did not convince the panel of inquisitors. He certainly did not convince the public, because so much of what he asserted is already widely known not to be so. His declaration that he regretted nothing and stood by everything was quite chilling. The suffering and mayhem in Iraq since this probably illegal war (the Dutch now think so) is an utterly insupportable price for toppling our former ally, Saddam Hussein.
What did emerge benath the surface yesterday was the curious facility with which this spin doctor moved around the high offices of government and the inner coverts of the security services. The problem with spin doctors is that the nature of their trade requires them to believe in their spin, even when it is clear that it is wrong. This is why this intelligent and talented man with few, if any, peers in his trade, was able to assert with such gusto yesterday that ‘he stood by every word’ of the infamous dossier, which by every analysis and test is universally accepted to be absolutely wrong.
It is also why such people should never, under any circumstances, be involved in the decision making process of government. Either here or in the U.S. There is evidence that the Obama administration knows this. We need to make sure our leaders have learned this lesson too.