The cruel arrogance of Iraq warmongers

Mar 19 2008 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

‘The sheer arrogance of the men responsible - Tony Blair, George Bush and the rest - is unbelievable’

‘These leaders - most of whom have never heard a shot fired in anger - wanted a “cakewalk” war’

THE Iraq War will be five years old tomorrow.

For half a decade now, the Middle Eastern country has steadily descended into a hell which most of us can only imagine.

Iraq, the only Arab country blessed with oil and water, should be one of the richest countries in the region. Its people should be living long and happy lives, not unlike Europeans.

But instead they have been condemned by decades of dictatorship and years of western occupation to a life which is nasty, brutish and short.

Looking back over the last five years, it’s impossible to feel anything but rage at the men responsible for the latest episode in Iraq’s sad story.

The sheer arrogance of the men responsible - Tony Blair, George Bush and the rest - is unbelievable.

Knowing little or nothing of Iraq’s culture and history, they sent their forces into the country, ignoring the warnings of millions of Britons and Americans.

Sitting in their comfortable offices in London and Washington, these men planned this misadventure, this “product” - as one Bush aide called it - and let others pay the price.

Chiefly the Iraqis themselves, who have died in their hundreds and thousands, and seen their country divided into sectarian ghettos. And also the British and American soldiers who have died in this war.

These leaders - most of whom have never heard a shot fired in anger - wanted a “cakewalk” war.

Instead they have a quagmire.

Five years after the war began, the killing goes on.

The forces unleashed by the invasion are still deadly.

On Monday, a suicide bomber killed dozens of people in Kerbala. Only a fool would predict that there won’t be many more of these outrages to come. And this in a country which had never experienced a suicide bomb until 2003.

First among the men responsible for this catastrophe is George W Bush, who allegedly said that God told him to invade Iraq.

In one of the many ironies of this war, these divine orders have brought catastrophe on Iraq’s Christians.

They were nearly a million strong before the war, but now half of them have left the country. Just last week the Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was murdered by kidnappers.

When the tenth anniversary of this war comes around, will there be any Christians left in Iraq at all?

And yet despite this, and all the other suffering, still none of the men responsible have been held to account.

It’s sobering to think that with up to a million people dead - and four million forced from their homes - those who planned this war have not been put on trial.

After the Second World War, a system of international law was set up to punish warmongers. Like any legal system it’s not perfect - but it’s better than the anarchy of “regime change”.

War should not be a policy, or an option, or a product, but a measure of last resort. It is legal only in self-defence or with the blessing of the UN.

Neither apply in this case.

The decision to attack Iraq was an act of aggression - a crime against peace - from which all the later sins sprang.

But this aggression was masked by talk - which seems ludicrous now - of Saddam Hussein having nuclear weapons, of the Iraqi dictator being responsible for September 11, and of him being able to attack British troops with chemical weapons in 45 minutes.

You don’t hear those arguments so much any more.

Indeed the only justification you really get from the war’s dwindling band of supporters is that the conflict was worthwhile because it removed an evil dictator.

And so it did.

But that was not the argument which Mr Blair and Mr Bush made in the build-up to the war. Instead they said that Iraq had to be invaded because Saddam’s regime had weapons of mass destruction which it refused to destroy.

Again and again they promised the evil dictator that he could remain in power - and presumably continue murdering his own people - if only he got rid of these weapons.

Mr Blair, Mr Bush and their small band of advisers have moved the goal posts, using one justification before the war, and another after.

Their inconsistency will not look good if they ever have to explain it to a judge.

Perhaps I’m being naïve to think that the most powerful men on the planet could ever end up on trial for war crimes.

But some remarkable things have already happened during my 28 years on this earth - like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid and Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness sharing a joke.

All of these events appeared impossible just a few years before they happened. Yet they all came about.

And perhaps I will also live to see the men responsible for starting the Iraq war standing in the dock.

I certainly hope so.

Either way, the hell disaster that is Iraq will poison the political legacies of Mr Blair and Mr Bush.

Historians will judge them both to be failures because of the war they started.

But given the scale of human suffering which they have brought about, that’s no consolation to anyone.

Why don't more women play chess?

HAVING seen the kids play and learned the basic moves, it was time to see the grown-ups in action so I ventured to Lindley to watch Huddersfield’s 5-3 win over Sheffield B in the Woodhouse Cup.

When I arrived the majority of the 16 participants were nowhere to be seen. Finally home players began to arrive and I listened in as they discussed past chess games – and the afternoon’s upcoming football matches.

I waited patiently for Sheffield to turn up, hopeful they might include some female element. To my great disappointment I was to prove the sole representative of the female species – and only an observer at that. Where are the Susan Polgars of Huddersfield?

Despite the common assumption that men’s brains are better at understanding spatial relationships, giving them an advantage in games such as chess, Susan became a grandmaster - the world’s first female grandmaster – aged only 16.

Her father taught her to play at the age of five and for hours she memorised thousands of moves and scenarios. This endless analysis during childhood hardwired chess pattern recognition into the area of her brain normally used for face recognition.

Susan can retrieve a regular chess situation from her memory with the same speed that other people might recognise a familiar face. She began beating men at her chess club at the age of five and 10 years later was the best female player in the world.

Despite the fact there were no women players, I watched with fascination. Each of the clocks seemed to tick a different tune; faces were set in deep concentration, each move jotted down for future analysis. It never ceases to amaze me how those 64 squares command so much attention.

I would love to see more women involved to show that we can play – and add glamour into the bargain. Susan says: “I really believe that if you put your mind to it, you can achieve it, whatever it is” and I believe her.