Tuesday 12 January 2010

The Lord Of The Spin Returneth

Alistair Campbell behaved very much like the slithery worm with the silken tongue we'd always come to expect of him today as he sat before Chilcot et al in definat mood. So long has he been off our screens that its easy to forgot how verbally skillful this master propagandist can be.

This was dramatic stuff... well in its appearance at least. Blair's former communications chief was bullish, perhaps more than one would have thought given the absolutely huge wave of public condemnation that quickly built up during the run up to war until now has remained pretty much consistent since March 2003.

Yet Campbell seems almost unaware of this, as if he knew something we didn't. At one point around three pm he actually looked quite pissed off when Chilcot announced that the Inquiry would stop for a ten minute tea break and resume for final questions, as if he had somewhere to be or he was gonna miss the last episode of his favorite tv show. I could not believe the temerity of the man. His obstinacy and defiance was almost superhuman in its accomplishment, so much so that at one point I even thought he sounded genuine... I don't know, perhaps over seven years of self denial and self aggrandisement even he believes the relevance of the diversionary buck passing bullshit that was flowing readily from his mouth as the comittee pressed him for anwers.

So what did we learn from the enquiry and its first "star witness" before Hoon, Straw and the main attraction himself, Tony Blair (tickets are still available apparently) answer questions before the Inquiry? Well the questions from Chilcot and his panel of inquisitors was certainly more combative but that's about it.

We learnt that Tony Blair sent letters to his good friend Georgey 'W' in 2002 discussing his commitment (which a critical and well tempered Ming Campbell in front of BBC cameras called to be immediately published) and that the "tenure" of these letters was that we're with you on the need to disarm Saddam, militarily if need be. Crawford came up and on this Campbell seemed to disagree with the former British ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Mayer, that any declaration of support was signed in blood during this meeting between the two men.

Despite Blair's commitment to regime change in 2002 Campbell believed that Blair held out for a peacefull solution, right up until the eve of war. When questioned rigorously later he seemed incredulous that the 45 minute warning was taken out of context by an alarmist media and that his press department should have done more to dispel the myths.

But at the end of the day do we really believe anything that comes from his mouth. This is rhetoric, Blairite style. Campbell is a cunning verbal magician, a veritbal professor of spin who has bought into his own rhetoric. His conviction is such that he will always be able to navigate his way around the facts in his head in such a way that he presents his position, and indeed the former Prime Minister's position who he was effectively speaking on behalf of for most of the Inquiry's questioning, as completely justified despite the absolutely fundamental mother of all facts that is staring him, and all of us, in the face: there were no WMD's. None! Not one. Not even a little mini baby WMD. He even admitted how shocked he was when he found this fact out himself. As one commentator put it today, I think even the Committee members were having problems buying what he was saying at one point. They weren't the only ones let me assure you. He was good, in that characteristically Alistair Campbell way, but we are older and wiser as a nation seven years on and his spin just doesn't wash anymore.

Its also worth mentioning that this most loyal of Blairite rottweiler's had no qualms in dropping Mr Brown in the brown stuff, answering a question put to him on Gordon Brown's involvement, that the then Chancellor was certainly involved in the various discussions leading up to war in an intimate and fundamental way. He certainly won't lose any sleep about making his former master's successor's life just that little bit more difficult than it already is in the lead up to an election that seems certain to see a Tory party brought back to Government.

There were a whole host of other issues covered but I really can't be bothered to talk about them here as they mainly hinge around the finer details of when things happened, who said what and to whom. That infamous dossier was mentioned many times as one would expect and as expected Campbell contested it was not fallacious in its intent and its drafting in anyway, a position he will, it seems, hold until his dying day... despite the fact that... well it obviously was one big political con. Another thing that was covered was the aftermath of the war and the unmitigated disaster that was post war reconstruction (or as Donald Rumsfeld seemed to have seen it at the time; post war deconstruction). But this is an issue that concerns the neo-con Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld trio and will have me ripping off the wallpaper in sporadic fits of rage. Campbell's enough for now. One war monger at a time.

But Britain should be "proud" of what it did in Iraq concluded Mr Campbell (the quintessential alpha male hardman, wearing just his shirt sans jacket and scarf in the freezing cold outside the Queen Elizabeth Centre as the wintery jacketed paparazzi's cameras snapped away) and despite the British deaths which still weighed heavily on his mind he believes the world is a safer place because of this war... whose stated aims, to stop the risks posed to the region and the wider world by Saddam's WMD, was never achieved because... well... there never were any as it turns out and that, instead of stabilising the country, the region, and the wider world, the war in Iraq has actually done the complete opposite. Not my idea of a rip roaring success Alistair.

Words simply fail me at this point.

I can only hope that this Inquiry will continue to hold its nerve and ask pertinent questions(despite its obvious shortcomings) in the cabinet line up due to appear in January. I might not be in the lottery for a seat at the Inquiry but I for one will have a front row seat in front of the live coverage when Blair sits in that chair. Call me a sad twat but this is real reality TV in my book, and although the Chilcot Inquiry might not be able to dispense the kind of justice that we really need over that catastrophic and illegal war waged on our behalf, at least we can watch em squirm.

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