I heard About Iraq on Radio 4

I have just listened to "What I Heard About Iraq" http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/friday_play.shtml on Radio 4.

An amazing, powerful poetic presentation of soundbites from the players. It was a restrained and artistic putting-together of a series of sound bites and quotations that created a history of the Iraq catastrophe, a prose-poem radio history of this terrible, huge, historic political mistake.

Some of the sound bites:

Iraqi Hospital Doctor: "Human beings are so frail [in face of] these weapons of war".
Distressed Iraqi: Saddam Hussein's greatest crime is that he brought the Americans to Iraq".

That says it all.

I'm sorry Tony, you meant well, but you got suckered by the Bush Administration. They took you in to their groupthink. You make a huge mistake. You will go onto the lecture circuit earning tens of thousands of pounds every time and rationalise your decision to groups of comfortable and well-fed like-minded people, but tens of thousand of humans will have to live with physical and emotional pain because of your mistake.

Your best bet is to claim that you have taught the world how not to get rid of WMDs and dictators.

Here's the right way to get rid of dictators: Index of Governance .
Here's how to get rid of WMDs: danplesch.net: author broadcaster .

Does the Foreign Secretary agree with Motherhood?

Letter via MP to Margaret Beckett. Feel free to copy and post to her, and let me have the reply.


Does the Foreign Secretary agree that in future, rather than using military force against dictators who abuse their citizens, it would be better if the international community, acting legally through the UN, should systematically identify regimes that are on a course to become dictatorial and abusive, and to apply effective instruments to steer them towards democracy and human rights?

MP letter on Nuclear Insurance

To John Penrose MP

Dear John,

I wonder if you would ask the Minister responsible for nuclear power generation if he is aware that nuclear power stations are not fully comprehensively insured, and if he would agree with estimates that the cost of generating electricity by nuclear fission would increase by 300% if comprehensive insurance was demanded?



Yours sincerely,



Yours sincerely,

Richard

Resting in Peace

All over the world, mothers weeping

and wasting their lives on their sons

the ones who are evermore sleeping

and dreaming of motors and guns

or maybe it's sunlight and meadow

they look back on with love in their eyes

and the colours of green, blue and yellow

that they will to their ma as she cries.

© Richard Lawson

06.05.07