Well, this didn’t take long…

By Jacques Chirac. I’m chiraced, just…errr…shocked.

…Chirac was defending something quite different when he sent his erstwhile foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, around the world to buy votes against America at the United Nations. Chirac was determined to maintain Saddam Hussein in power so that two extraordinarily lucrative oil contracts, negotiated by the French, could go into effect…

…during the first seven years alone, it would earn the French around $50 billion. Elf-Aquitaine negotiated a virtually identical deal with Saddam to expand the gigantic Majnoon oil field as well. Put together, those two deals were worth $100 billion to the French. That

As Glenn points out, Fallujah isn’t Tet, and it’s not Mogadishu either. It does appear that the next attempt at dressing it up in old clothes (though not so old this time) will be to resurrect the myth of the Jenin “massacre,” and to try to make it appear of similar kind.

Many (including me) were wondering how, given Al Jazeerah’s record of running the most brutal films on air, they could have found the snuff film of the murdered Italian too gruesome. Tim Blair has the answer.

…when our supposed enemy was based in Afghanistan? To me, of course, that’s like asking why our first major invasion in World War II was in northern Africa when we were attacked by the Japanese in the Pacific. It’s a recognition that we’re in a regional, if not global war, and it’s called strategy. Joe Katzman explains.

Amidst our self absorption with our own casualties (which while devastating to those to whom they are familiar, are trivial in the context of other wars, many less momentous than this), it’s easy to forget the suffering and fright of the innocent Iraqis who must live with and through the current chaos. Sadly, sometimes necessary things have calamitous effects on those who had no part in the making of them, and it’s hard to take a long-term view when bombs are falling.

To the proprietress of the Riverbend blog, and others like her, I can only offer trite, but often true cliches–it’s often darkest before the dawn, and sometimes the only way out is through. For those of my readers of the praying type, say one or two for her and hers, and I hope that she knows that she is in our hearts at this time of crucial point in her country’s history.

[Update a few minutes later]

And for contrast, I hope she hears and appreciates what compatriot blogger Mohammed has to say.

The former secretary of Northern Ireland thinks that we should negotiate with bin Laden.

In a television interview which will be broadcast on Easter Sunday, she described the current hardline approach to the war on terror as “completely counter-productive”.

Ms Mowlam told Tyne Tees TV’s Sunday Interview that Britain and America must open a dialogue with their enemies.

Interviewer Tony Cartledge asked if she could imagine “al Qaida and Osama bin Laden arriving at the negotiating table”.

She replied: “You have to do that. If you do not you condemn large parts of the world to war forever.

“Some people couldn’t conceive of Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness getting to the table but they did.”

She added: “If you go in with guns and bombs, you act as a recruitment officer for the terrorists.”

I was amused by this aside at the end of the column:

She also confirmed on the programme that she has completely recovered from a brain tumour.

I’d say that we have some evidence to the contrary here.

The former secretary of Northern Ireland thinks that we should negotiate with bin Laden.

In a television interview which will be broadcast on Easter Sunday, she described the current hardline approach to the war on terror as “completely counter-productive”.

Ms Mowlam told Tyne Tees TV’s Sunday Interview that Britain and America must open a dialogue with their enemies.

Interviewer Tony Cartledge asked if she could imagine “al Qaida and Osama bin Laden arriving at the negotiating table”.

She replied: “You have to do that. If you do not you condemn large parts of the world to war forever.

“Some people couldn’t conceive of Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness getting to the table but they did.”

She added: “If you go in with guns and bombs, you act as a recruitment officer for the terrorists.”

I was amused by this aside at the end of the column:

She also confirmed on the programme that she has completely recovered from a brain tumour.

I’d say that we have some evidence to the contrary here.

The former secretary of Northern Ireland thinks that we should negotiate with bin Laden.

In a television interview which will be broadcast on Easter Sunday, she described the current hardline approach to the war on terror as “completely counter-productive”.

Ms Mowlam told Tyne Tees TV’s Sunday Interview that Britain and America must open a dialogue with their enemies.

Interviewer Tony Cartledge asked if she could imagine “al Qaida and Osama bin Laden arriving at the negotiating table”.

She replied: “You have to do that. If you do not you condemn large parts of the world to war forever.

“Some people couldn’t conceive of Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness getting to the table but they did.”

She added: “If you go in with guns and bombs, you act as a recruitment officer for the terrorists.”

I was amused by this aside at the end of the column:

She also confirmed on the programme that she has completely recovered from a brain tumour.

I’d say that we have some evidence to the contrary here.

If Iraq is our Vietnam (an analogy that’s flawed on many levels), then Iran is China, without the (yet) nukes and massive army.

I know the press is paying no attention to this, but I hope that the administration is doing something about it. Next country in the Axis, on deck…