Well, I suppose I don't need to link to it. You probably know about it already.
I oppose the death penalty and would have preferred it if Saddam had spent the rest of his life in an Iraqi prison. But I won't be mourning his death.
I hope this makes things better. But sadly, we've had too many false dawns...
30 December 2006
24 December 2006
15 December 2006
Ross's evidence
After hearing about the fact that Carne Ross's evidence to the Butler Inquiry being published and seeing the Independent at a a newsagents I bought it and had a look.
The case against the government is still not proven. All that Ross has said is that until mid-2002, officials (i.e. not the relevant ministers) did not believe that Iraq was a threat to the UK or its interest (and that's not saying he wasn't a threat to other people's interest). He also is only saying officials opposed regime change, which we know. As for the statement about selling 1441, it could be true or it could not be.
We still do not know what the wisdom at March 2003 was, but all the committees have agreed that the intel was not misrepresented. Butler considered this and ruled the way he did. This is not a smoking gun.
Comments are welcome.
The full document can be found on the Indie website.
Edited for punctuation.
The case against the government is still not proven. All that Ross has said is that until mid-2002, officials (i.e. not the relevant ministers) did not believe that Iraq was a threat to the UK or its interest (and that's not saying he wasn't a threat to other people's interest). He also is only saying officials opposed regime change, which we know. As for the statement about selling 1441, it could be true or it could not be.
We still do not know what the wisdom at March 2003 was, but all the committees have agreed that the intel was not misrepresented. Butler considered this and ruled the way he did. This is not a smoking gun.
Comments are welcome.
The full document can be found on the Indie website.
Edited for punctuation.
02 December 2006
Trident
For those of you who haven't been following UK political news, Ming Campbell has proposed halving the number of nuclear warheads that Britain possesses to 100.
This might be the second best solution. Personally, I don't think we should renew Trident. I'm not saying to get rid of it overnight, just that we shouldn't spend £25 billion on renewing. We'll still have it for 15 more years- plenty of time for further arms control negotiations to succeed.
The main reason is that it serves no useful purpose. The Russians aren't going to attack. The Chinese don't have the range and probably aren't that interested in us. The people who want to attack us aren't going to be deterred anyway by it. We couldn't really use it against terrorists anyway. And using it against a terrorist training camp would reek of disproportionality.
Comments are welcome.
This might be the second best solution. Personally, I don't think we should renew Trident. I'm not saying to get rid of it overnight, just that we shouldn't spend £25 billion on renewing. We'll still have it for 15 more years- plenty of time for further arms control negotiations to succeed.
The main reason is that it serves no useful purpose. The Russians aren't going to attack. The Chinese don't have the range and probably aren't that interested in us. The people who want to attack us aren't going to be deterred anyway by it. We couldn't really use it against terrorists anyway. And using it against a terrorist training camp would reek of disproportionality.
Comments are welcome.
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