Airstrip One

We really should do better than this

Anti war commentators, that is (now I'm not actually anti war, just British involvement in it, but this is shorthand). Mary Riddell's piece in the observer manages to combine European sneering with the sort of conspiracy theories that an average member of the West Virginia chapter of the anti-Bildesberg League would blush at.

The real argument against us going into Iraq is that it is not in Britain's interests. If Iraq has a Shia or Sunni government won't affect us. Neither will the status of Kurdistan, the security of Israel, the democratic legitimacy of the Baghdad regime, the possesion of chemical weapons without the means of delivery, the security of Kuwaiti or Saudi crowned heads or the Bush family honour. None of these conceivable or inconceivable motives affects us.

Indeed the only big reason we would have to be interested in the political state of the Gulf region would be oil. And that's because as a net exporter of expensively produced off-shore oil we have a vested interest in a high oil price. So if they want to turn off the spigots, Britain's in for a wind fall. Which isn't exactly America's interest.