Two More Holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
The grey thing that serves Tony as stand-in groveller when Tony is out of the country and members of the Bush gang are in it was in Blackburn, Lancashire today, squiring the US Secretary of State around a school, a football club and an arms factory. Learning, leisure and lucre in the provinces - it must have been an enlightening experience for all concerned, especially the shade of John Lennon.
Dr Rice and her colleagues "recognise that we are fighting a cunning enemy and our citizens will judge us harshly if we release a captured terrorist before we are absolutely certain that he does not possess information that could prevent a further attack or, even worse, commit terrorism again." Given the competence of the Bush administration in other areas, of course, any citizen would be reassured nowadays if the White House was "absolutely certain". Well, practically any citizen, more or less.
Despite present levels of public confidence in her master, Dr Rice admitted to "tactical errors, thousands of them I am sure," in Iraq, while informing us that the actions of the US and its little helpers will ultimately be judged on their "strategic" value. This is, of course, the old Small Mistakes in Pursuit of Noble Goals line, Vietnam-vintage, and how good to see it again. In Vietnam, the goal was to democratise South-east Asia, the strategy was the extermination of the South Vietnamese peasantry, and the tactical error was letting cameras into My Lai. In Iraq, the goal is to bring civilisation to the Middle East, the strategy is the extermination of the Iraqi resistance, and Dr Rice is no doubt correct in implying that the tactical errors have attained considerable numerosity. Iraq Body Count records over thirty thousand, and those are just the ones that have been reported in the media.
Nevertheless, the US will stay the course: Dr Rice thinks "it would be wrong to somehow leave Iraq to the mercies of the Zarqawis of the world or the former Ba'athists who really do want to unravel the political process", just as it would have been wrong to leave Saddam Hussein in power when the next expected evidence of his secret WMD programme might have been a mushroom cloud over New York. No matter what we do, things would always have been worse had we not done so. That's what being the Good Guys means.
Speaking of our moral character, the US does not "tolerate either at home or abroad engagement in acts of torture", at least according to Dr Rice's definition of torture. If you can get what you want without actually bursting someone's organs, though, I understand Condi will find you pretty tolerable. The US also has "no desire to be the world's jailer"; but then, duty often requires that one become what one does not desire to be. The US wants "the terrorists that have been captured to stand trial for their crimes", but despite the wishes of the US, the administration has had to spend its time keeping meddling civil liberties lawyers off the beneficiaries of the Guantánamo funhouse. Virtue is no easy matter.
The grey thing described Blackburn as the "centre of the universe". Blackburn is the grey thing's constituency. Oh how they laughed, I am sure. Dr Rice "joked that made the pitch at Ewood Park 'the centre of the centre of the universe'." It must have been an enlightening experience for all concerned.
Dr Rice and her colleagues "recognise that we are fighting a cunning enemy and our citizens will judge us harshly if we release a captured terrorist before we are absolutely certain that he does not possess information that could prevent a further attack or, even worse, commit terrorism again." Given the competence of the Bush administration in other areas, of course, any citizen would be reassured nowadays if the White House was "absolutely certain". Well, practically any citizen, more or less.
Despite present levels of public confidence in her master, Dr Rice admitted to "tactical errors, thousands of them I am sure," in Iraq, while informing us that the actions of the US and its little helpers will ultimately be judged on their "strategic" value. This is, of course, the old Small Mistakes in Pursuit of Noble Goals line, Vietnam-vintage, and how good to see it again. In Vietnam, the goal was to democratise South-east Asia, the strategy was the extermination of the South Vietnamese peasantry, and the tactical error was letting cameras into My Lai. In Iraq, the goal is to bring civilisation to the Middle East, the strategy is the extermination of the Iraqi resistance, and Dr Rice is no doubt correct in implying that the tactical errors have attained considerable numerosity. Iraq Body Count records over thirty thousand, and those are just the ones that have been reported in the media.
Nevertheless, the US will stay the course: Dr Rice thinks "it would be wrong to somehow leave Iraq to the mercies of the Zarqawis of the world or the former Ba'athists who really do want to unravel the political process", just as it would have been wrong to leave Saddam Hussein in power when the next expected evidence of his secret WMD programme might have been a mushroom cloud over New York. No matter what we do, things would always have been worse had we not done so. That's what being the Good Guys means.
Speaking of our moral character, the US does not "tolerate either at home or abroad engagement in acts of torture", at least according to Dr Rice's definition of torture. If you can get what you want without actually bursting someone's organs, though, I understand Condi will find you pretty tolerable. The US also has "no desire to be the world's jailer"; but then, duty often requires that one become what one does not desire to be. The US wants "the terrorists that have been captured to stand trial for their crimes", but despite the wishes of the US, the administration has had to spend its time keeping meddling civil liberties lawyers off the beneficiaries of the Guantánamo funhouse. Virtue is no easy matter.
The grey thing described Blackburn as the "centre of the universe". Blackburn is the grey thing's constituency. Oh how they laughed, I am sure. Dr Rice "joked that made the pitch at Ewood Park 'the centre of the centre of the universe'." It must have been an enlightening experience for all concerned.
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