The cynicism of the defeatists: William Shawcross rebukes Andrew Gilligan and Rod Liddle for their reflections last week on the war in Iraq.

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 24-APR-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

I suppose it seemed a jolly jape to sandwich Michael Gove's criticism of the Daily Mail's anti-Americanism between Rod Liddle's and Andrew Gilligan's diatribes against the American-led policy in Iraq. Droll, but not very tasteful--like a slice of perfectly cooked rare beef between two pieces of stale bread and rancid mayonnaise.

I agree that there are immense problems in Iraq. Those who supported the overthrow of Saddam (as I did and still do) hoped the country would be further down the road towards a functioning, modern civil society by now. Instead, the anti-Coalition violence has worsened seriously in the past three weeks.

The Coalition has made serious mistakes since it overthrew Saddam Hussein last April. One of the most serious was probably that the small army that was able to move so brilliantly fast on Baghdad was too small to police the country thereafter. But lamenting mistakes is one thing. Quite another is the cynicism and contempt displayed by both Gilligan and Liddle. Their desperate determination to establish that the overthrow of Saddam was a disaster...

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