Myself, I have a hard time believing Allawi has suddenly emerged as Iraq’s most popular guy. However, opinions shift quickly. The Sunnis may have forgiven him for Fallujah, and the Shiites might look back on Fallujah admiringly, as a sample of the kind of massive punishment that should be doled out to the Sunnis. Stranger contradictions have elected stranger politicians.

But I’d bet against it, and the poll, at this point.

I’ve just realised that in principle the same person could be impersonating NC and KM, so I redouble my apology and withdrawal.

is ‘Karl Marx’ really Nick Cohen?

Don’t get me wrong. I was fully in favour of a Syrian withdrawal. I am also fully in favour of a full Russian withdrawal in Chechnya. I am also fully in favour of an American/UK withdrawal from Iraq.

My reasons for all three are the same, because the three situations are essentially the same.

Incidentally in my post above ‘automatically disbelieved’ should of course be ‘automatically believed.’, and ignore the rest of that sentence. Mea culpa.

It was only after 5 or 10 years that (in my eyes anyway) that the presence of Syrian troops became negative.

Time changes things. It is entirely consistent to approve of one set of circumstances if they endure only 2 years, vs. pretty much the same set if they endure ten times longer.

Oh please share with us. What lies have been told by those who are on the side of the majority of the British people and the majority of the American people in wanting a timetable for withdrawal?

(Incidentally, let’s not forget how Harry’s Place reported large demonstrations against the presence of Syrian bases on Lebanese soil:

‘Beirut was the location for a huge demonstration Monday against the de facto Syrian occupation of Lebanon. It follows last week’s massive and angry funeral procession for Rafik Hariri, whose murder is widely blamed on the Syrians.

Perhaps not coincidentally Syria hinted it might start withdrawing some of its 14,000 troops from its neighboring country. Believe it when it happens.‘.

It should be stressed that my position vis a vis the Americans/British in Iraq is exactly the same as Harry’s Place vis a vis the Syrians and the Lebanese: i.e. I will believe that troops have withdrawn when they actually go.

My posiition vis a vis Iraq is also the same as Chirac’s and Bush’s when they called for:

‘US President George Bush and French President Jacques Chirac have this week repeatedly demanded a full Syrian army withdrawal from Lebanon.’ (emphasis added). How happy do you think Chirac and Bush would have been if Syria had left behind military bases, perhaps large military bases, whose relationship to the Lebanese military (in terms of command) was, to put it mildly, problematic?

And were the pro-war left swayed by the fact that sizeable amounts of Lebanese (perhaps a majority, who knows?) wanted the Syrians to stay? Of course not. There was no poring over opinion poll data there. There was no particular interest in what the Lebanese people ‘wanted’. The US wanted Syria out and that was the end of it.)

The fact is that the actions of France and Russia and Syria are viewed with the normal common sense scepticism that any sane person would. In other words, it is not always assumed that their actions are philanthropic, nuances are accepted, linguistic and ethnic splits in countries are accepted and so forth.

It is only for the US and the UK that we all have to suddenly assume that if Bush says something…well that makes it true. And if he says he is bringing democracy to Iraq…then that’s just the way it is.

This is made clear by Gene’s own latest missive:

‘Of course you can choose to believe everything Bush says about democracy and freedom is a lie intended to conceal his neo-imperialist designs. Or you can choose (as I do) to take him at his word….’

Again it can hardly be stated enough that it is literally inconceivable that if Chirac or Putin or Berlusconi or Assad were to state that they were genuine about spreading democracy they would be automatically disbelieved until they could provide some evidence to back this up. It’s only Bush and Blair who have a get out of jail free card.

Hypothetically, were that the case, I am sure there are some members of that group who would do that.

Hypothetically, if global warming were somehow proved scientifically incorrect, quite likely some environmentalists would attempt dishonestly to cast doubt on the findings, the better to ‘win’ the argument.

But in the world as it is, it is the other sides of those arguments who feel the need to resort to lies and distortions, the facts not being in their favour.

soru