No conspiracy, no interest

The current Labour fiasco reminded me of what Robert Harris, who was working as a journalist for BBC’s Newsnight programme during the Falklands War, concluded on the media coverage:

‘The episodes which caused the most disquiet, and which have been described in this book, were not necessarily unique to the Falklands crisis. The instinctive secrecy of the military and the Civil Service; the prostitution and hysteria of sections of the press; the lies, the misinformation, the manipulation of public opinion by the authorities; the political intimidation of broadcasters; the ready connivance of the media at their own distortion…all these occur as much in peace time Britain as in war.’[1]

Yes, I used to believe all those conspiracies, which are founded on the belief that our leaders are all some kind of James Bond (or Bond villains), and everything is worked out so cleverly and efficiently that only a mastermind conspiracy breaker (that's you/them) can get to the truth.

But most nations' histories are full of foolhardy and shambolic decisions by their leaders, with countries' futures and the lives of their citizens and soldiers threatened on a leaders' whim. The Iraq war at the moment is one of them, with Blair and Bush having little knowledge about the region or populations before the war, and apparently no plan for the place after the military conflict.

But the war has made me less inclined to believe conspiracy theories, because if ever there was a conspiracy the UK/US needed to implement, it was to plant some weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That would have settled the reason for war argument, apart from the conspiracy theorists of course, who would of course have had a case.

But when it didn't happen, did the conspiracy theorists hold their hands up and say they expected a conspiracy. I didn't hear them. And do those who still think the US bombed themselves on 9/11, or let the Israelis do it, really believe that a country that doesn't even plant a few WMD's in Iraq will destroy its own landmark building and kill thousands of its citizens?

[1] R. Harris., Gotcha! : the media the government and the Falklands crisis (London : Faber, 1983), p. 151.