Nick Cohen

In a piece from his new book published in the Observer this Sunday, 21 Jan 2007 he does the classic propogandist trick of creating a false picture of those he wishes to attack and ignores reality. He discusses the left who oppose the war as being pro Saddam Hussein and anti American. This seems to me to be a parody, certainly of my own position.

So why did I oppose the war? Not because I supported Saddam Hussein nor because I am anti American. The reasons are much simpler and just ignored by Cohen. Do we want to live a world where there is no law except the law of military power. Bush & Blair behaved like war lords. I am strong, I don't like you so I will eliminate you, end of story. If Cohen believes that is the correct way to behave OK, but do not pretend it is a moral position.

There is no doubt that Saddam was a dictator who murdered people on a grand scale but whilst Britain & USA thought he was on their side they cheerfully helped him. Once he was seen to be against them, and that only seemed to happen when he invaded Kuwait, invading Iran was OK, did we feel the need to protect the world and Iraqi citizens from this man. He didn't change from being a goody to a baddy overnight, from being a man Rumsfeld could do business with one day to an evil dictator the next.

Overthrowing Saddam was not necessarily a bad thing but most often the means will corrupt the ends, that has been clearly illustrated in Iraq. The invasion had very legal support, individual acts of revenge rarely do. In oredre to occupy the country with minimum losses to American & British troops we have to destroy the infrastructure but we had no serious plans to rebuild it.

We are now left with a country, much of whose infrastrure was destroyed, which is occupied by foreign troops. The power lies with those troops and not with the elected government. If the governments of the UK and the USA were genuinely concerned with establishing the power of the Iraqi elected government they would place their troops under the command of the Iraqi government rather than their own governments. Then they would be seen to be supporting the Iraqi people rather than pursuing their own interests.

To criticise those who opposed the war by pretending we suported Saddam is like criticising those who supporeted the war for being in favour of torture and the construction of Guatanamo Bay!