12 July 2003
There’s been a lot of flimflam and hoohah about the ‘dodgy dossier’ debate, with Alastair Campbell looking to move away from the issue — albeit with some justification — towards the BBC’s. This all reminds me why, despite my fascination with politics, I hate it. Before the Iraq war, those opposed to it said ‘no, the inspectors need time; Iraq’s a massive country.’ Now they’re saying the reverse, that weapons have to be found now.
That’s not to say they’re the only ones guilty of it, and it’s not to say that hypocrisy’s necessarily a bad thing. Everyone’s a hypocrite, at some level. But there’s no reason for people to change their opinions just because one point of view is ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ or ‘left’ or ‘right.’ I instinctively distrust anyone that bases their worldview on that, and so it’s no surprise that I’m a supporter, albeit a grudging one, of the Third Way. Pragmatism rulez OK.
Even if I wasn’t, I’d probably be voting Labour. Iain Duncan Smith isn’t as electable as Hague, which says a lot, and Charles Kennedy is completely ineffective. Whenever I’ve listened to PMQs in the last, oh, year or so, he’s asked about Iraq. Each time he’s done so, Blair has given him the brush-off. At least Duncan Smith is (finally!) striking some blows, aided and abetted by Labour rebels. (Clare Short only barely counts, so bitter is she at her error of judgement.)
Slightly related, George Walker Bush is in Africa. No jokes, I’m afraid: he’s actually there to talk about AIDS and try to untangle the Gordian knot that the situation in Liberia is becoming. The president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, will not leave until peacekeepers arrive, and the rebel forces will not allow the peacekeepers to arrive until he leaves.
Bush’s presence there is a good thing, generally, but he should be doing more. Much of Africa is a mess, especially the West. Look at the World Bank’s GNI per capita table, and the countries whose ranking number is higher than their GNI (Atlas method) per capita in dollars. There are ten of them, and four of those — Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Liberia — are West African.
And then there’s Uganda, praised by Bush, who also ‘thanked Uganda for using its strategic location to help mediate in regional conflicts.’ Which is good, it’s just that there’s also a rather nasty internal conflict in Uganda. Will Europe (and others) take action?
I hate this stuff. I just need to get it out of my system.