Four angry, eloquent Brits try to make some sense of this war that seems beyond sense itself in this year from hell, 2003. Robert Fisk offers the single most vivid and stomach-churning account of the destruction of the precious evidence of our very origins as civilized beings at a moment when there seems nothing whatsoever civilized about those running our world; the playwright David Hare offers an impressively open and searching discussion of the events, almost beyond explanation, that we’ve just passed through; Guardian columnist Seumas Milne lays out the sinews of a small, brutal colonial war; and former Python Terry Jones congratulates the victors in his own inimitable way. Tom
A civilisation torn to pieces
By Robert Fisk
The Independent
13 April 2003They lie across the floor in tens of thousands of pieces, the priceless antiquities of Iraq’s history. The looters had gone from shelf to shelf, systematically pulling down the statues and pots and amphorae of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Medes, the Persians and the Greeks and hurling them on to the concrete.
Our feet crunched on the wreckage of 5,000-year-old marble plinths and stone statuary and pots that had endured every siege of Baghdad, every invasion of Iraq throughout history only to be destroyed when America came to “liberate” the city. The Iraqis did it. They did it to their own history, physically destroying the evidence of their own nation’s thousands of years of civilisation.
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Don’t look for a reason
All the explanations for this war are bogus – Bush only invaded Iraq to prove that he could
By David Hare
The Guardian
April 12, 2003From the moment it was first mooted, this was, for me, the impenetrable war, the war wrapped in mystery. “It’s about oil.” “It’s about imperialism.” “It’s about a son avenging the failures of his father.” All the answers that are supposed to tell you everything, that are always given to you in a tone of utter contempt, as if you must be a fool not to understand, in fact seem to tell you nothing. The fake certainty, the anger, the exasperation, and now the startling vindictiveness, the personal vitriol in the rhetoric of the west – as if we hated each other far more than we hate Saddam – betray our own bad faith about a conflict whose meaning eludes us.
Iraqis have paid the blood price for a fraudulent war
The crudely colonial nature of this enterprise can no longer be disguised
By Seumas Milne
April 10, 2003
They lie across the floor in tens of thousands of pieces, the priceless antiquities of Iraq’s history. The looters had gone from shelf to shelf, systematically pulling down the statues and pots and amphorae of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Medes, the Persians and the Greeks and hurling them on to the concrete.
Our feet crunched on the wreckage of 5,000-year-old marble plinths and stone statuary and pots that had endured every siege of Baghdad, every invasion of Iraq throughout history only to be destroyed when America came to “liberate” the city. The Iraqis did it. They did it to their own history, physically destroying the evidence of their own nation’s thousands of years of civilisation.
Don’t look for a reason
All the explanations for this war are bogus – Bush only invaded Iraq to prove that he could
By David Hare
The Guardian
April 12, 2003From the moment it was first mooted, this was, for me, the impenetrable war, the war wrapped in mystery. “It’s about oil.” “It’s about imperialism.” “It’s about a son avenging the failures of his father.” All the answers that are supposed to tell you everything, that are always given to you in a tone of utter contempt, as if you must be a fool not to understand, in fact seem to tell you nothing. The fake certainty, the anger, the exasperation, and now the startling vindictiveness, the personal vitriol in the rhetoric of the west – as if we hated each other far more than we hate Saddam – betray our own bad faith about a conflict whose meaning eludes us.
Iraqis have paid the blood price for a fraudulent war
The crudely colonial nature of this enterprise can no longer be disguised
By Seumas Milne
April 10, 2003On the streets of Baghdad yesterday, it was Kabul, November 2001, all over again. Then, enthusiasts for the war on terror were in triumphalist mood, as the Taliban regime was overthrown. The critics had been confounded, they insisted, kites were flying, music was playing again and women were throwing off their burkas. In parliament, Jack Straw mocked Labour MPs who predicted US and British forces would still be fighting in the country in six months’ time.
Seventeen months later, such confidence looks grimly ironic. For most Afghans, “liberation” has meant the return of rival warlords, harsh repression, rampant lawlessness, widespread torture and Taliban-style policing of women. Meanwhile, guerrilla attacks are mounting on US troops – special forces soldiers have been killed in recent weeks, while 11 civilians died yesterday in an American air raid – and the likelihood of credible elections next year appears to be close to zero.
Welcome aboard the Iraqi gravy train
Congratulations to all the winners of tickets to take part in the greatest rebuilding show on earth
By Terry Jones
The Observer
April 13, 2003Well the war has been a huge success, and I guess it’s time for congratulations all round. And wow! It’s hard to know where to begin.
First, I’d like to congratulate Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and the Bechtel Corporation, which are the construction companies most likely to benefit from the reconstruction of Iraq. Contracts in the region of $1 billion should soon coming your way, chaps. Well done! And what with the US dropping 15,000 precision-guided munitions, 7,500 unguided bombs and 750 cruise missiles on Iraq so far and with more to come, there’s going to be a lot of reconstruction. It looks like it could be a bonanza year.
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