Clouds
It's New Year's Eve, 2006. Clouds gather, and it's very dark and wet. Storms are promised. Looking at the press across the world there's a strong feeling that progress in the Middle East is at an impasse. Images of the death of a man are so demeaning - while a man with a terrible record of brutality has been executed what does it do for us? What does it do to us? If we don't feel humanity then we are diminished and cannot cast stones. No Man is an Island.
We see people rejoicing, we see people angry with car bombs in Baghdad killing and maiming many more. The images are horrific, and later unofficial offering courtesy of mobile phones and internet the more so. A deplorable example to set. There were those who questioned the matter: Margaret Beckett spoke for the British Government, but this was like Pontius Pilate wasn't it? A spokeman for the Vatican foresaw it was likely to make things far worse and echoed Donne.
The point was made that this appears to many to be a Christian leader signing the death warrant of a Moslem so that it has sealed the fate of relationships between the two religions for the foreseeable future. I can't do more than implore that the voice of an Iraqi is listened to. Baghdad Burning has already received wide coverage, but it is to me as relevant and to the point as any other comment on Iraq and the wider Middle East I know.
Other pertinent comments include Robert Fisk in the Independent who makes the point that America and Britain will be glad that their guilty secrets have been taken to the grave.
The Washington Post cannot ignore the relationship between Presidents Bush and the Hussain clan.
Posted by John Tyrrell at December 31, 2006 4:49 PM
