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Don't Mention the War!

Entry 305, on 2006-03-30 at 10:19:13 (Rating 4, Politics)

Anyone familiar with the classic British comedy series "Fawlty Towers" will remember a memorable phrase from one of the programs. It involved a group of German visitors to the hotel, and Basil was very careful not to offend them by mentioning the war. Naturally, he accidentally mentioned it many times, and had to try to cover his mistakes in typical ineffective Basil style. In the end he was doing a Hitler imitation! Don't mention the war, indeed.

British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, seems to have a slightly different attitude to mentioning the war. He is currently on a short visit to New Zealand and has thanked New Zealand for its help during World War II, which ended 60 years ago, of course. So far he hasn't said much about the Iraq war though, even though its effectively still happening (George Bush' reassurance that it was over a few years ago seems somewhat empty now).

The latest revelations that Bush and Blair were going to war with Iraq, no matter what the circumstances probably aren't making it any easier to participate in a positive discussion of the subject. New Zealand has never participated in Iraq in a combat role. We could see what a farce the war was from the very beginning. Maybe Tony doesn't want to hear "told you so".

So I wonder why British forces still there. Do they still hope to find those weapons of mass destruction perhaps? Oh no, I forgot. According to the latest leaked memos Bush and Blair knew the WMDs didn't exist, but they were going to war anyway. So there doesn't appear to have been any good reason for this war, which has lead to so much death and destruction. Or maybe safeguarding American control of oil reserves is a good reason. I guess its all a matter of perspective.

So like Basil Fawlty, I will mention the war. Maybe I'll do a George Bush imitation - I know it couldn't possibly match Basil's Hitler imitation, but in the circumstances it is appropriate.

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