Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

It's the Dunkirk spirit which gets us through... published here and here.

When the inhabitants of a country start blowing up bridges across physical dividing lines like rivers, you know that country is falling apart.

Don't miss Birds of War if you are in London anytime until the 17th of April. A fantastic exhibition of art by people from Iraq, Jordan and for some old-style Brit angst, Northern Ireland.

It's an excellent exhibition.

We are getting close to the opening of Birds of War - a collaborative exhibition about the experience of civilians in Iraq since the invasion of 2003.

There's some terrific stuff on the website and I know the exhibition, opening on April 11th, is going to be excellent.

Birds of War

And here is an old Birds of war drawing of my own.

A marvellous piece of news (or lack of it) photography from Nick Danziger. The article published by The Guardian.

Photograph

You may see some interpretations of the consequences of our actions at

Birds of War

Kudos to Matthew Parris of The Times who spots a gem of a little story tucked away inside his own paper. I quote selectively from it here.

> “A British Hercules aircraft had to be destroyed on the ground after being crippled soon after landing in the lawless Iraqi province of Maysan, the Ministry of Defence confirmed yesterday.” The report said this was to stop equipment falling into hostile hands on a runway near the provincial capital of al-Amarah.<

This is a province our government says was "under control" and ready to be handed back to the Iraqi government in January. Things have been delayed.

Parris again:

>I rang the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: had I missed an update on Mrs Beckett’s November statement? No, a spokesman told me: “We did hope to hand over the province.” However, more time was needed. Britain is now (apparently) “hopeful of handing over in the spring”.

Hopeful? How hopeful, when we blew up one of our own aircraft there this week, unable to guard it? Yet the Defence Secretary promises we will not leave until the job is done. If you seek the real source of public cynicism in politics, look no farther. We’ve lost. Why not just say so?

Parris

UPDATE:
Can't resist this link from the BBC. It describes an official US goverment pre-invasion plan as expecting only 5,000 US troops to remain in Iraq by December 2006 as 'delusional." Rarely a truer word spoken.

Beeb

I made myself rewatch the classic movie Oh, what a lovely War last night.

This is an ageing but brilliant representation of a stage musical about world war one. If you haven't seen it, I cannot recommend it too highly.

About it

Acquire it

Part of the reason for rewatching, apart from the sheer pleasure of it, was in comparing key parts of it to what George Bush said in his much-reported speech this week.

I quote the President here:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time.
On one side are those who believe in freedom and moderation. On the other side are extremists who kill the innocent, and have declared their intention to destroy our way of life.
In the long run, the most realistic way to protect the American people is to provide a hopeful alternative to the hateful ideology of the enemy - by advancing liberty across a troubled region.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

To me, this sort of level of self-delusion is similar to the 'it'll all be over by christmas' attitude with which our descendents entered world war one.

The full speech is here

Enjoy the film - and the lesssons it leaves.

Global reaction to the President's speech.
Feedback on the Bush speech