Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Wisdom on Wednesday : Some politicians didn't require the benefit of hindsight to make the right judgement on Iraq

"Will the approach that is being taken work?  The argument is that it will be a salutary lesson, that a dictator will be taught a lesson and that that will help us in dealing with other dictators.  I suspect that the cost of the action - I do not doubt the military outcome for a second - will be so high in a number of ways that it will not provide a platform for an assault on North Korea or Iran, which form the rest of the "axis of evil".  I do not think that the policy of teaching one dictator a lesson and then moving on to other dictators can work.  Most of us know that it will be a breeding ground for a future generation of terrorists."

Alex Salmond, MP for Banff and Buchan, and future First Minister of Scotland, speaking in March 2003 during the parliamentary debate on committing British forces to an illegal invasion of Iraq.

5 comments:

  1. J Murphy described A Salmond as an appeaser and H Liddle used the phrase ,"toast of Baghdad."

    Labour are slime and the prospect of being tried for war-crimes post Independence is just another reason the quislings have for fighting against democracy to the last breath.

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  2. Wisdom indeed.

    But when the Blair and his Britnat mates looked at the options, they failed to see anything much except the probability that if the UK did not comply with what DubYa wanted, the special relationship and all that it entails, would be seriously compromised.

    The then leader of the opposition was aware that should be ever become prime minister (which, fortunately, he never did) he would most likely never have the opportunity to stand in the Rose Garden of the White House, and appear to the watching world to be relatively important, unless he backed the PM all the way.

    The leader of the Liberals, aware that none of this would ever apply to him was able to vote against, as was the leader of the SNP.

    Mr Blair, however, got himself a Congressional Medal, and a nice little part time job on retirement thanks to his slavish adherence to whatever DubYa demanded.

    Some of the arguments proposed for this war were even more naïve than others; “a lesson to other dictators” being one of the more obviously moronic.


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  3. Has it not occurred to you that the SNP leader might not want to become Prime Minister?

    I do not think Mr Salmond places a high value on the so-called special relationship. Having lived in the US for many years I would suggest that it is a delusion to think that there is any such thing.

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  4. James,

    the Sunday are reporting that a new poll confirms the gap is narrowing. We will have to wait to get the details.

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  5. Sunday Herald that it.

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