Axis of failure

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
Date: November 3, 2004 6:10:55 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
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 () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/

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