7^th February 2003

My friend Kyle passed me some posters against the war on Iraq and suggested I display them in my window and hoped I would be present at the demonstration against the war on Iraq in London on the 15^th February.

Tonight Tony Blair was questioned by Jeremy Paxman and members of the public in Newcastle on the Iraq question. Tony looked tired. Jeremy looked…well, like Jeremy does. The members of the public were not happy.

There seemed to me to be a kind of knee-jerk reaction to recent terrorism that rekindled an ongoing anger with Saddam Hussein which may be unconnected. Grasping for straws when one enemy is so slippery and another is so up front. Easier, perhaps, to go for the obvious bastard than the insidious evil.

Many years after the gulf war, Saddam is back on top of the prime targets. Hell hath no fury like America scorned, and Afghanistan was not enough. Having frustrated Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas into parts Pakistan and elsewhere, there was nowhere to go to pacify the free world but war with the bad guy.

And, let’s face it, he’s bad. But many people are asking “who’s worst?” Or, at least, in whose name are any of these episodes of aggression being made?

I’m not going to say “I, for one…”, because it not only sounds like a musketeer after too many lagers, but also a sad man’s last bid for political credibility.

So, to be honest, I’d bomb the shit out of all Saddam’s palaces and wouldn’t mind if a stray one happened to give a wake up call to certain people in the west wing of Buckingham palace. Pass me a copy of the Sun, OK?

I support the United Nations: if they fall apart we’re all in trouble. If George W thinks he can go it alone he should get the cold shoulder from Europe. I’d love to chase Saddam onto a desert island and liberate Iraq, or rather put his head on a pole for all to see, as his image is demolished all over Iraq and the people dance in a frenzy of freedom. For Tony, treading the familiar Thatcher ground of war leader cannot be a comfort: but I think this is different. He’s fighting the good fight but he’s edged himself into a corner out of which there is no attractive exit. Any elected leader will get grief for a war stance because of moral unpopularity or because it means they are not paying enough attention to domestic policy.

It might be the case that I haven’t the guts to put my boots to work and join the demonstration, and it might be that I haven’t the guts to say I believe the rhetoric about the need to invade Iraq. In between those two extremes, however, there are so many variables that all I can do is to say that I want the UN to prevail.

And that I like Tony, but he does look a bit tired…

I wonder how Gordon would play it?