A collage of quotes
April 20, 2003 ~ 7:25 p.m.
BOSTON, MA � Before packing my bags and coming home to the Hub of the Universe, I took care of all the recycling, including a pile of newspapers containing about four weeks� worth of news. On the day before we left, I poured through them, looking for some of the quotes regarding the war that really struck me. This is by no means meant to be presented as an extensive analysis of the war to liberate the Iraqis which has been resoundingly won, but I just wanted to collect some of the quotes (all from British papers, of course) for posterity�s sake before these sheets of paper end up in the recycling bin as well:
�No-one has worked harder for a second UN resolution against Saddam Hussein than Tony Blair, so the decision taken by our Prime Minister, President George Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in the Azores last night to give diplomatic efforts to bring France, Russia and Germany on side just 24 hours more will not have been taken lightly. There is no point in continuing talks that are only going round in circles and achieve nothing while Saddam laughs at the West and uses every extra day to prepare for war.� � Daily Express editorial, March 17
�Diplomacy has failed, so something has to be done about Iraq. Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who has been committing genocide for years while the rest of the world stands by � For once, Tony Blair has the balls to act, rather than waffle, and it is a shame that at a time when he needs the unity of his party, they are running for cover and turning their backs on him � All those who say no to war, just remember � your country doesn�t need you. But maybe Saddam would welcome you with open arms.� � Letter to the Metro by Laurence Washbrook, March 20
�The war is unstoppable: not due to Bush or Blair but to Saddam�s reluctance to leave his country and spare his people. We go into this war without a mandate because of corruption and cowardice, not imperialism. I hope that when France expects America to save their cowardly nation again, they get what they deserve.� � Letter to the Metro by Adam Burgess, March 20
�It isn�t the Francophiles who annoy me so much as the peaceniks who naively see President Jacques Chirac as one of their own. After all, they point out, he�s the man who said: �As far as I�m concerned, war always means failure�; but then if you look at France�s record in the past fifty years, in Algeria and Indochina, it�s hard to disagree with him � Before that, there was the little matter of the Second World War when France fought for � gosh � at least a week before surrendering to the big handsome liberating Germans � Now, to cap everything, Chirac�s foreign secretary has told our Foreign Secretary that the French are �shocked and saddened� by our criticism of them. Do these people have no shame, not to mention irony? If we�ve learned one thing from this episode, it�s that there is no future for us in a federal Europe that�s already been carved up between France and Germany. As Mark Twain said: �France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. France has usually been governed by prostitutes.� And to think, he never met Jacques Chirac.� � Columnist Mitchell Symons, Daily Express, March 21
�Watching the unruly anti-war protests by schoolchildren and students I could not help but reflect what a pity it is that the teaching of history has such little importance in most school curriculums these days. Perhaps if more importance were paid to the subject, these youngsters would be less willing to take to the streets in support of a tyrant like Saddam Hussein.� � Letter to The Daily Express by Robert Readman, March 21
�I commented that the French were skilled at pursuing their self-interest (let�s not forget their ban on British beef still hasn�t been lifted), famous for their Brie, not so famous for their bravery. Evidently that makes me a racist � And why is it that someone who speaks passionately against the war thinks they are compassionate and anyone who dares to argue for the war, equally passionate, is merely a racist warmonger? � I was a reluctant recruit to this war. But like millions of others, I have been persuaded that it is just and necessary. Those who will truly benefit from an Iraq free of Saddam Hussein are the Iraqi people themselves. How on earth can wanting to bring about that end be racist?� � Columnist Amanda Platell, The Evening Standard, March 25
�Last Saturday, London was brought to a virtual standstill by the peace marchers. Unlike the honorable protestors last month, they opposed war when it�s irreversible. They opposed it with total disregard for the distress they caused Service families. Last Wednesday schoolchildren invaded Westminster and lay down in the road, bringing traffic to a halt. Their behavior didn�t affect the war or influence politicians. It merely caused stress and trauma and diverted the police at a time when they need to be on constant alert for terrorist attacks � The faces of the children were ecstatic. They clearly felt they were being influential on the world stage when all they were doing was creating massive disruption to innocent people in a city under threat from unseen enemies. They�re from a generation who know little of Britain�s history and care even less. Their smug self-satisfaction as they screamed and kicked young police officers was chilling, and I�ve rarely felt so angry.� � Columnist Lynda Lee-Potter, The Daily Mail, March 26
�The Americans do things differently from us, but we should recognize their historic success almost everywhere save Vietnam. We must pray that once again, fortune deals generously with the Atlantic relationship which we always fear, but which remains vital to this country�s interests.� � Columnist Max Hastings, The Evening Standard, March 31
�The Americans are determined to take charge in post-war Iraq until Iraqis can be found to run the country themselves. This is how things usually run after wars, and the Americans, quite rightly, see no reason why it should be any different now. They have $80 billion worth of contracts to dish out, and have made it clear none of these will be on offer to French, German, Russian or Syrian companies. To some, this will seem childish and vindictive. But why on earth should the economies of nations that have sought to obstruct the liberation of Iraq benefit from the risks taken, and the efforts and sacrifices made, by America, Britain and other Coalition partners?� � Columnist Simon Heffer, The Daily Mail, April 5
�Yesterday afternoon [in Karbala], troops from the 2nd Battalion 70th armored regiment oversaw the toppling of Saddam, cast in military uniform, his right hand outstretched. First, an American welder spent an hour weakening the statue. Then locals hauled until the rope snapped. Another was fixed in place, and many among the watching thousands applauded as Saddam fell onto a stepped podium above a pool of water. Scores clambered over the statue and beat it with shoes or anything else they could grab � An elderly man added in broken English: �Good, good, good � Mr W. Bush, no Saddam!� As US troops proudly wore flowers given to them by townsfolk, a 25-year-old said the could not understand opposition to the war. He asked: �Everyone who refuses this war � why?� Pointing to the statue he went on: �Come here and live two days with this man, and then refuse this war.�� � News report in The Sun by Mike Darvill, April 7
�No longer will America wait around and allow its enemies to support and plot terror attacks against the American people.� � from Alex Brummer�s Washington Dispatch, The Daily Mail, April 7
�Saddam Hussein had promised a people he has bullied and brutalized for the better part of three decades that if they sacrificed their lives to his cause, ultimate victory would be theirs. The Allies had given lie to that fallacy.� � Correspondent Ross Benson, The Daily Mail, April 8
�The doom-mongers don�t just have egg on their faces, they are covered in it from head to toe. Only days ago, self-styled experts were telling us that this war would be a disaster with tens of thousands killed and British and American troops sucked into a conflict that would last for months, even years. They have been proved utterly, finally, shatteringly wrong but how many will have the courage to admit it? Let the doom-mongers muster some shred of honesty or courage and acknowledge the scale of this military triumph. Let us all recognize that this victory has been bought with the blood of our soldiers and reflect on the agony of their families. Let us also remember the innocent Iraqis who have died � We can all be proud of the fact that the American, British and Australian nations were the only ones in the final analysis willing to put their money where their mouths were.� � Colonel Mike Dewar, guest columnist for The Daily Express, April 9
�President Bush and Tony Blair have got their rejoicing crowds in Baghdad. The relief for both men, after three weeks of tension, must be overwhelming. The celebration of the Iraqi people at their deliverance from tyranny represents a first step towards the legitimization of the Anglo-American war. Even in the Arab world, bitterly hostile to the Western intervention, must pause for thought amid the happy images displayed on its TV screens from Iraq yesterday. Closer to home, it would be churlish to dwell upon the deep flush of humiliation on the faces of Tony Benn, President Chirac or Chancellor Schroeder, but we may allow ourselves a moment of satisfaction � Great difficulties and perils lie ahead. But the world has become a fractionally better place with the destruction of the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.� � Columnist Max Hastings, The Daily Mail, April 10
�Elsewhere in the city [Baghdad] an elderly man beat a poster of Saddam with his shoe � an insult that would have been unthinkable hours earlier. Another meted out similar treatment to a fallen statue. �Come see, this is freedom! This is the criminal, this is the infidel,� he screamed to the television cameras. �This is the destiny of every traitor, he killed millions of us. Oh people, this is freedom!� Another shouted: �We are on the side of the Americans. We are all Americans now.�� � Report by Michael Seamark and Bob Graham for The Daily Mail, April 10
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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