The Poodle’s Balls

‘AS he languishes in a vault below the enchanted castle at Disney World, Saddam Hussein could do a lot worse than pick up a pen and begin to write.

‘The right one’s just about this big’

While we grow ever more sceptical about the skewed images afforded by the television set, anything put in pen and ink is treated with reverence.

The book of the day has been penned by Bob Woodward, who rose to prominence as one half of the journalistic team that busted open the Nixon administration with the Watergate Scandal.

Now he’s back with a new work. Entitled Plan Of Attack, the book promises to lift the lid on the White House’s covert drive for war in Iraq.

The Telegraph thinks this is important enough to stick on its front page, even reproducing a shot of the book’s cover with its illustration of President Bush and his happy clappy band in profile.

Give them each a card number (and what price Bush the Joker?) and this looks like a call to get every one of the Bush team one by one.

This confusing of positions, in which the tables are turned on the Americans, is continued inside the book when Woodward alleges that an Arab power planned to interfere with the election of the American regime.

Woodward alleges that the Saudis offered to reduce oil prices in an effort to boost Bush’s chances of winning a second term in office.

This the Saudis deny. But since it’s in black and white, we are forced to pore over its meaning and validity.

But perhaps the biggest shock of all will be felt by those who have bought into the image of Blair as Bush’s poodle.

Woodward claims that Blair was ‘key’ to the Iraq invasion. ‘He was the partner,’ he writes, ‘a driving force in all of it.’

Indeed, such is Bush’s admiration for Blair that he is said to have once turned to the pugnacious Alastair Campbell and said: ‘Your man has got cojones.’

That’s the Spanish for balls. And whether the comment was sparked by the way Tony was sitting or not, it seems a good word to end on.’

Posted: 20th, April 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink