Hutton enquiry

[greyman]

Perhaps because the 'totality' of what Gilligan said was correct.

[Lakeland Potter]

Erm, the "totality" of what Gilligan said was not correct - or at least the totality wasn't backed up by his notes of the interview.

The "bulk" of what Gilligan said was correct and why neither he nor the Beeb could say so, apologise for the wrong bits within hours of the Government raising the question, defeats me. If they had, Kelly might still be alive, Dyke and the Chairman might still have a job and the country might have had the enquiry it REALLY needs - into the quality of the intelligence coming out of Iraq before the war.

Gilligan has a lot to answer for. He should be sacked for being a sloppy journalist - if nothing else.

[greyman]

fornside

I should have added a wink. I meant that it seems to be OK for the Prime Minister to make inaccurate statements so long as the basic thrust of what he says is true. But it's not OK for Andrew Gilligan.

It was Mr Tony that came up with the 'totality' excuse for being caught out in a lie.

[Lakeland Potter]

Ok, fair enough GM. What pisses me off is that Gilligan and the Beeb have (unintentionally I am sure) given Blair the chance to avoid an enquiry into the real scandal - namely the abject failure of Western Intelligence on Iraq and the gullibility of Blair and co in accepting the flawed intelligence because it told them what they wanted to hear.

Still, it confirms my belief that most things in public life depend on cockup theory holding true on almost every occasion............ where it works to the Government's advantage.

[Not_Nick_H]

Abharsair said:

Bush and Blair ...

Cunts whom should be held accountable!

- Isn't that what we have elections for? ???
...Discuss. (25 marks).

[abharsair]

Well Bush was elected by the Supreme Court not the public of the USA.........

And Blair.......well.....we all make mistakes

[TheWiseMaster]

Fornside

The reason the Beeb didn't apologise to Blair from the off was that they wanted to look independant

Both the top brass had been appointed/had links with Labour and therefore wanted to show the world that they could stand up to the government

Sadly Kelly eventually paid the price for their misplaced holier than though attitude

Do we really need another expensive ( these cost millions) enquiry to show that our intelligence was faulty.
Blair would get out of jail because he relied on experts to provide the justification
At some point they will all admit this anyway.
Whether the electorate will have forgotten is another matter

And lest anyone is listening to the Tory cries for an enquiry remember that they were possibly even keener than Blair to back up the yanks with or without evidence of WoMD

So we would have gone to war whoever was in office and at least they did the job this time

Democracy in Iraq will provide the lasting justification for this escapade

[greyman]

Wise Master

Only if you can separate the ends and the means to achieving a goal. I don't think that's true in this case. There will be no long term democracy in Iraq, because the war was an illegitimate one even if it achieved a good thing in getting rid of Saddam.

[TheWiseMaster]

Greyman - alll wars are illegitimate to someone involved - particularly the relatives of those killed

The success or otherwise of the war will be judged by many as to what was the greater good

The yanks always wanted to finish the job Bush's dad started and 9/11 gave them the excuse. Blair (and the Tories) wanted to back their number one ally and felt obliged to join in. Had we not done so the US would have felt very isolated and potentialy more dangerous

Sadam was evil and paid the price for continuing deceipt

His people paid a higher price both prior to and during the war. With generations of cohorts to follow, the suffering of his people would have gone on for decades with possibly millions more dying

Democracy in Iraq will be difficult - it has struggled for existence throughout the middle east but surely we should be able to come up with something better than Sadams regime

I am a member of the Labour Party and with many others voted against Blairs actions. However the deed is done and I believe that it can be made to work

One side benefit is that the yanks have been reminded again that there is a very heavy price to be paid for playing at Empire building

Also already Gadaffi has joined the good guys club and other will think more than twice before following Sadam

Paul Powner

[greyman]

Paul

This is the mess you get into when you start doing things for 'the greater good'. All this talk about pre-emptive wars and imposing 'freedom' and 'democracy' on countries who may not necessarily want them is a very dangerous road to go down.

I hope that people will have learned a thing or two from this, but if they didn't learn these lessons from events in the 20th Century I don't know what will make them do so now.