Friday, August 22, 2003
Ooh - That's Spooky.....
Another example of brainless sensationalising. Both TV news last night and the newspapers this morning led with what they seem to think is the juiciest morsel yet to come out of the Hutton inquiry: that David Kelly foretold his own end - in February. What complete and utter bollocks. The man had just been explaining to a colleague that:- he'd assured the Iraqis that if they co-operated with the weapons inspectors, there would be no invasion
- an invasion now looked inevitable
The "found dead in the woods" remark referred to possible reprisals by a brutal regime with a grudge, not to his own suicide, and it's disingenuous (but entirely predictable) of the media to suggest otherwise.
Either:- they think that he was, in fact, referring to a planned suicide
- they're trying to suggest that the Iraqis furtively bumped him off, making it look like he took his own life
- they're making some general statement about coincidence, clairvoyance or fate
I don't know which is worst - that they could be so stupid, that they could be so stupid, or that they could be so stupid.
Nobody plans their own suicide months in advance, and then behaves prudently (including taking self-preserving measures when talking to reporters) before doing it.
There's certainly no reason to think that Saddam's supporters would feel it necessary to hide the fact that they'd assassinated him. It's a little late for PR concerns - and anyway they seem so proud of all their blatant atrocities.
Finally, to make something of the fact that his throwaway remark bore some resemblance to his eventual end just shows that some people never emerge from a school-playground mentality when it comes to coincidence.
posted by Plig |
15:26 |
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Forget the sentimental notion that foreign policy is a struggle between virtue and vice, with virtue bound to win.
Forget the utopian notion that a brave new world without power politics will follow the unconditional surrender of wicked nations.
Forget the crusading notion that any nation, however virtuous and powerful, can have the mission to make the world in its own image.
Remember that diplomacy without power is feeble, and power without diplomacy is destructive and blind.
Remember that no nation's power is without limits, and hence that its policies must respect the power and interests of others.
Hans Morgenthau
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts
Bertrand Russell
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one
Albert Einstein
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative
Martin Luther King Jr.
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man
Bertrand Russell
I think it would be a good idea
Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun
Pablo Picasso
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others
Groucho Marx
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it
Mahatma Gandhi
Always make new mistakes
Esther Dyson
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