You may remember Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: she of the 'moral trauma' of having to wonder 'what kind of a human being' she is. Well, she's at it again in today's London Evening Standard. The piece (which is not online) is entitled 'My shame at savouring American failure in Iraq':
A dogged campaigner against the blighted war in Iraq, I am now wrestling with the demons of callous triumphalism. The anti-war protestors have been proved horribly right. The allies who marched with the US into this ugly adventure should feel mortified. It is a fearful and turbulent country the new Western Imperialists hand over to the Iraqis. The past months have been challenging for us in the anti-war camp. I am ashamed to admit that there have been times when I wanted more chaos, more shocks, more disorder to teach our side a lesson. On Monday I found myself again hoping that this handover proves a failure because it has been orchestrated by the Americans. The decent people of Iraq need optimism now, not my distasteful ill-wishes for the only hope they have for a future.In Alibhai-Brown's case it's a thought that's stupid enough to speak its name: more chaos, more shocks, more disorder. Just think about some of the human detail lying behind those three nouns. But the impulse she's ashamed of admitting to here hasn't been unique to her within the anti-war camp. It has infected wide sections of the Western media and left-liberal opinion. Not a moral trauma, just a moral disgrace. (Hat tip: Julie Cleeveley.)