FORTHRIGHT & FEARLESS.Byline: IVOR WYNNE JONES THE killing of another Welsh military policeman in Iraq reminds us it is time for a vociferous renewal of Lloyd George's demand of February 1915 for the withdrawal of all British troops from an area then known as Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was the name used to describe the mutually antagonistic provinces (tribally and religiously)of Mosul,Baghdad and Basra,around which the British Empire British Empire, overseas territories linked to Great Britain in a variety of constitutional relationships, established over a period of three centuries. The establishment of the empire resulted primarily from commercial and political motives and emigration movements was later to draw straight lines on a map to create the artificial kingdom of Iraq. There was never any logic in Tony Blair's pathetically fawning support for an illegal war designed to bolster the ego of a naive American president,blinded by the dust of the September 11 New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of atrocity, which had nothing to do with Iraq. Anything is possible in commercialised American politics but we had deluded ourselves into believing the Mother of Parliaments offered superior wisdom from the banks of the Thames. Alas, theWestminster Parliament was as weak as the discredited United Nations in the face of government manipulation of alleged intelligence, seemingly derived from the kitchens of Downing Street Downing Street, Westminster, London, England. On the street are the British Foreign Office and, at No. 10, the residence of the first lord of the Treasury, who is usually (although not necessarily) the prime minister of Great Britain. . As we have tried to point out in this column ever since Mr Blair emerged as Prime Minister,he has consistently demonstrated a poor grasp of Middle East affairs. Everything that has happened in Iraq since the Anglo-American invasion was predictable to anyone immersed in the history and politics of the region -including the festering wound of the American-led UN 1948 fragmentation of Palestine. A wiser British Prime Minister would have sought out veterans of organisations like ME18, which used to work from Beit Jala Beit Jala (Arabic: , possibly from Aramaic 'grass carpet') is a small city in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank. and Jerusalem during 1945-48,or MECAS, theMiddle East Centre for Arab Studies, set up in Jerusalem in 1944 and closed in Beirut 1981. Their advice would have been better than that offered by people like Alastair Campbell Alastair John Campbell (born May 25, 1957) was the Director of Communications and Strategy for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2003, though his work with Tony Blair began in 1994. . Mr Blair could have learned a lot from Lloyd George Lloyd George, David. First Earl of Dwyfor. 1863-1945. British politician who served as prime minister from 1916 to 1922. He introduced (1911) Great Britain's National Health Insurance program. , who testified: ``When I became Secretary for War, on 6 July 1916, the first urgent task I found waiting my attention was the problem of dealing with the mess and muddle of the British expedition in Mesopotamia.'' Perhaps it is time for a new incumbent at 10 Downing Street, to confront the same urgent task. George Bush once boasted that America was quite capable of waging war in Iraq without the help of puppet states or the United Nations, so for goodness sake let him (andhis taxpayers)get on with it. Our Mr Blair seems to have lost that inane grin he adopted from the moment he entered Downing Street. Perhaps he recognises his shortcomings as an international politician. That suggests he should seek to reinstate himself at home. He could make a good start by reallocating our hard-earned taxes he is wasting on trying to police Iraq. Just imagine the difference he could make if he used some of that money to police Britain, with a popular and meaningful war against the criminals who are taking over society. |
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