Iraq war: March 2003 Archives

A short list of things I've either found or been sent.

dear raed a guy blogging under an assumed name from Baghdad. Interesting reading, giving a real feeling for what it is like living in Baghdad right now, without Iraqi censorship.

Tim Collins, who is a Colonel in the British Army gives a powerful speech to his men prior to conflict starting. He actually went to my old school, back in Belfast so will have grown up with experience of people being killed and blown up, virtually every week. So his experience on what conflict is like probably partly influenced him. He shows the reasons to fight, but makes it clear that this is not a revenge, they must be magnanimous to their defeated enemy. I may not agree with the war, but it is good to hear it being fought by people like this. Whilst writing this, Bush was giving a speech in Tampa, FL, to the US army the difference was quite stark.

Article in the Guardian about the BBC being the warblog for the country. Interestingly written before the war started, but published in Monday's Media Guardian. The BBC has actually started a BBC journalists war blog. Here is a warspeak jargon listing from the Guardian too.

al jezarra, oops al jazeera for a different view on the war, they pool the same new resources with the BBC, so often show items the BBC self censor.

650 Iraqi soldiers and 14 civilians die, cruise missiles hit wrong target and Iraqis attack American armoured columns and die trying. I hope that this is not the start of carnage.

I went on the Stop the War march today (BBC news coverage), it was a different and smaller experience from the one slightly over a month ago. Longish post on the state of the war and my reaction to the march today.

The BBC have posted a transcript of Robin Cook's resignation speech and also a real audio file. It is definitely one of the finer speeches made in the House.

Tonight the bombing will most likely start, as Dan pointed out, a couple of weeks ago, it is not as if they haven't been bombing already. Tonight again the US and UK dropped bombs on surface to surface missile systems in defence of the "no-fly" zone. 20 million pounds in one year alone 98-99 have been dropped on Iraq already. However they claim that this is not the start of the war and it will not begin until 1 am, this is just random bombing.

I'll be at the march on Saturday, but I'm not sure if it'll be anywhere near as many people as last month. Hopefully it'll all be over quickly and not too many people will die in the fighting.

At the Stop the War sitdown protest last night outside the House of Commons, we were sitting in the road and they closed Parliament Square.

So, Bush has decided to go to war, Iraqis will die regardless of this decision, whether at Saddam Hussein's hands or by US and UK bombs. I just cannot see how this is meant to improve the world situation, how will this create peace in the world. I can see that this is not about Iraqi oil, as there is a small amount of it, that is available now, and it will cost a lot to double capacity. It is not about the honour of the UN, as they are being ignored, so is it about the desire of the last superpower to declare the world order in to two sides for simplicity and American commercial interests ?

Those of us happy to be in old europe can see that the world is more complex than that. George Bush must understand this too. Otherwise who is next, to militarily overthrow every regime the US disagrees with will result in countless wars on most continents in the world, not a prospect many will relish.

Some links if you want to further your protest: Our World Our Say where you can donate money for press advertising. Protests on Wednesday, or more likely Thursday, at 6pm GMT in Parliment Sq on the Stop the War website.

Finally wide coverage from the BBC on a range of issues

• Robin Cook resigns and analysis of the decision
• Reporting on walk outs, sit downs and protests
• Tony goes to war without his party and his Attorney General states it is "legal"
• some interesting analysis of the future Russian position

Oh, Happy St Patrick's Day

Salon have compiled a list of anti war protest songs from a wide range of artists, including the Beastie Boys, Billy Bragg, Chumbawamba and Ani DeFranco. There are free mp3s to download from their website and links to each artist's own website. Much more music is available from the Peace Not War website, where they have a compilation CD with about 20 artists music available.

Andrew Marr's analysis of Tony Blair and the Labour party is interesting reading, looking at some of the possible outcomes for the Labour party. I was struck by a thought that if the war goes badly or their is a restless peace in the middle east, the Liberal Democrats could come out at the next election with more of the disaffected Labour supporters. Andrew Marr posits that there is a split in support for war within the Labour party, between male v female and middle v working class. The university and affluent constituencies being more likely to be antiwar. Food for thought I suppose, certainly there is relatively little distance in political thought between the two parties, with Labour having stolen the pick of LibDem policy. If anything the Liberals are further left than Tony is.

In the main BBC news story covering the UN debate on Iraq, there is a poll, which with nearly 20,000 votes as of posting time is two thirds in favour of the French and Russian veto on war with Iraq.

One of the best political comedies of the past few years has sadly ended, an example from the final scene of the last programme.
Queen to Blair, "you have put a strongly put argument, which you clearly believe in", asking him would he go to war
Blair: sure
Queen: would you go to war without a second resolution ?
Blair: sure
Queen: without France ?
Blair:sure
Queen: Germany ?
Blair:sure
Queen: America ?
Blair: <no reply>

such a shame it will not be on thoughout the coming weeks. Highlights are available from the channel4.com website, with lots of video clips from the series