Why couldn't we pick up on this before I wonder?
There was a lot of informed critical comment in the UK media.
Were we caught out with the momentum that the US was going to war anyway so serious examination of the case against the Saddam Hussein regime did not matter outside the Security Council.
Was it that we did not understand the coded politics of Hans Blix reports enough?
Is that why it has waited for a lecturer in politics to do the detailed textual analyses? Yes it needs concentrated attention over a period of time but there was enough collective networking to have been able to synthesise this earlier.
Couldn't the Stop the war movements have commissioned someone to go through this?
Is it because as left-wingers we think our role is just to criticise and we are cynical about what happens anyway?
Or did it require the security services on both sides of the Atlantic to start breaking ranks and to start complaining about how their reports were spun?
Chris Burford London