[IP] Axis of failure
Begin forwarded message:
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 3, 2004 6:10:55 AM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Axis of failure
Dave:
From today's (UK) Guardian newspaper, for IP if you wish.
cheers
Brian
====
Axis of failure
The war in Iraq has realised Tony Blair's worst fear: the creation of
another country where terrorists can easily find weapons of mass
destruction
Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday November 3, 2004
The Guardian
Early last year, Tony Blair was warned by the joint intelligence
committee that invading Iraq would increase the risk of a far greater
threat than anything posed by Saddam Hussein: namely international
terrorism, and al-Qaida in particular. The JIC also warned, according
to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, that "any
collapse of the Iraqi regime would increase the risk of chemical and
biological warfare technology ... finding their way into the hands of
terrorists".
. . .
A new study spells out the huge dangers to international security of
the Bush view of the world. Amitai Etzioni, an American who influenced
New Labour's "third way" thinking on the domestic front, argues that
Washington's emphasis on "rogue states" is thoroughly misconceived.
"Failing states" are the problem, he says. Iraq seems in danger of
rapidly falling into this category.
"Much of the attention that is paid to nuclear threats has been
focused on the three members of the axis of evil: Iran, Iraq and North
Korea. However, nuclear attacks in this day and age are much more
likely to be the work of terrorists," says Etzioni in Pre-Empting
Nuclear Terrorism in a New Global Order, which is published by the
Foreign Policy Centre.
The reason, he argues, is that it is "more difficult to deter suicide
bombers than even rogue states".
. . .
Full story at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/analysis/story/0,3604,1341937,00.html
(The London-based Foreign Policy Centre report referred to is at:
http://fpc.org.uk/publications/132)
PS Heard on BBC Radio 4's well-regarded Today Programme this morning:
"Though the vast majority of European citizens will be highly dismayed
by the likely Bush re-election, European politicians will be rather
relieved - Bush's policies are a great encouragement to continued
European integration, and a Kerry election would have led to their
receiving embarrassing requests for military help in Iraq"
(paraphrased, from memory)
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon
Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxx PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
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