Man Of Honour
‘THE confused state of popular opinion on Iraq means that the Guardian can even allow George Galloway a column to put forward his views.
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| ‘I come here to praise Saddam not to bury him’ |
Many of you will remember Galloway as the crawling cove standing before a tyrannical Saddam Hussein and telling him how great he was.
The then Labour MP (hes now Respect MP for Glasgow Kelvin) even sported a moustache for the occasion, albeit a weasely one.
Now Galloway tells Guardian readers that he wants to hear mea cupla from politicians. He wants heads to roll. He says that Blairs defenestration would surely be the last straw for Bushs fading election hopes.
Having already called upon Arabs to rise up and fight British troops, we should not be too shocked if Galloway now wants us to shove our elected leader from a window.
Nor should we be surprised (and this comes in the same week as the 60th anniversary of D Day, a truly momentous assault on a terrible regime) that Galloway can say with no hint of embarrassment that the Greens have a better war record than the Liberal Democrats and, one supposes, the Government but not him.
For Galloway, its not a question of what you did in the war, but what you did to stop it, and so keep the despotic Hussein in power.
Although what most of us have done is just to watch the war on TV.
And yesterday, as the Times reports, Galloway and the rest of us got to know via our TVs which man replaces Saddam as the first Iraqi President since his ousting.
His names Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawer. And the first thing to note about him is that hes not Adnan Pachachi, the man the Americans favoured for the job.
Having already turned down the offer to lead his country, the Guardian says that the Americans still had to formerly offer Pachachi – a man the Telegraph says is steadfastly loyal to the Bush administration – the job in order to save face.
So the Americans offered. Pachachi duly declined. And this allowed the sheikh a clear run at the top job, even if it is largely a ceremonial one.
But whatever his role, the Iraqi people at least have a face at the top table they can recognise and call their own.
And Tony Bair tells the Telegraph how that marks a truly historic day for Iraq.
And Bush says how the appointment has bought things one step closer to realising the dream of millions of Iraqis, a fully sovereign state with a representative government that protects their rights and serves their needs.
And if it doesnt, then Bush will get them another one that does. And who knows, there might even be a job for George Galloway…’
Posted: 2nd, June 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
