Airstrip One

Rubbing it in

John Laughland is having fun. He is pointing to the logical flaws of the case for war as if they were ever important to any proponent of the war. Let's get this right. There were only two reasons Brits had for going against Iraq, either that Saddam was far more evil than other regimes in the region and all plausible replacements or that we have no choice but to be joined at the hip with America. All ideas that Saddam had chemical weapons or that he was in bed with Islamic fundamentalists may have been important to the Yanks, but I can't think of one person who changed his mind on the war on that sort of argument. There was not one proponent of the war who didn't either believe that we should always be with America no matter what or that it was our job to liberate Johnny Foreigner (Phil Chaston argued that once we were there we should finish it off - but this doesn't really count).

There was no national interest argument for the war in Britain so why are we trying to discredit it.