The Iraq War

The man I feel sorry for is Hans Blix – sweating like a pig in his shiny grey suit, he bent over backwards to try to convince the arrogant Bush/Blair axis that Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction. The total disregard of his professional expertise led to one of the most shocking and awful states of unrest in today’s world. Simon Adams’ admirable objectivity, however, makes his book a very interesting study of this lamentable – and still continuing – episode.

We see that the US was gunning for Iraq long before 9/11 (and possibly provoking that event) – spy planes and satellites, secret air bases were all at it. After the unhorsing of the Saddam regime (hatred of which had united the country) it became open season on any one faction for any of the others – multifaceted civil war. And G W Bush announced ‘Mission Accomplished’. Now, after years of accident and insurgency, Iraq appears to be returning to self-control, albeit with American forces still on the ground. But is Iraq at peace? Is the war over? Remains (and there are lots of them) to be seen. Adams wisely skirts round the issue of oil but you have to ask yourself whether, if Iraq were the world’s beetroot capital, would anyone give a toss?