The good news is that I am back safely from Baghdad where I attended (and spoke at) the Arab League conference on Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The bad news is that as usual I am knocked flat with a bug or two picked up on my travels.
I will write on the subject matter of the conference and on the Baghdad experience when I feel a bit stronger. But one thing is for certain – the politicians who peddle the line that, while they may have been wrong about WMD, Iraq is now a haven of freedom and democracy, are telling a most blatant lie. Nothing in the mainstream media conveys the sense of what a total disaster zone Baghdad now is, and I have never been anywhere – not Uzbekistan, not Turkmenistan, not Belarus, not Sierra Leone during the war – that felt less like a free democracy. More detail later.
Uzbekistan and Belarus are hardly unsafe for Westerners (having lived in both Countries for extended periods, Uzbekistan during your entire period of Residence) – both are far far safer than the UK. I could speak about this subject for hours as no doubt could you.
Interesting what you say about Baghdad though. I suspect Afghanistan is just as bad – as seen when the odd mid/high US Army Officer occasionally tells us the official story is bollocks (and is quickly sacked).
We are fed lie after lie.
Agent Cameron made one of those ridiculous flying visits to Afghanistan yesterday. The most ludicrous photo ops were of him playing table football, then stuffing his face with his boys and finally singing carols with them.
The BBC went along for the ride with their James Landale embedded with the odious PM. Afghanistan is now a much safer place, etc etc.
Afghan campaign a success – PM
British troops in Afghanistan have paid a “high price” but their efforts have been a success, Prime Minister David Cameron has said on a pre-Christmas visit to UK bases in the country.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/20806021
Note that our presence in Afghanistan has cut the number of terrrrist plots in the UK!! Breathtaking BS.
@Jon
Speaking of Al Hilli thread its broken again.
Welcome back. Hope you were very careful with the tea.
Hopefully the Al Hilli thread will be mended soon. Quite lost without it. (See I couldn’t even get the arithmetic right!)
Tim V, I’m on it. Just got back from a couple of days worth of Christmas celebrations!
Edit: that’s fixed; I will have a prod around today to see if I can find the underlying issue.
New, detailed Report on the plight of Palestinians in Iraq:
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m93882&hd=&size=1&l=e
Best, f.