I Do Not Make Stories Up, Full

It's Very Easy To Start A War But The Muftah, As The Arabs Say, The Key To Switch Off A War, Is Very Difficult To Find.

After The Allied Victory Of 1918, At The End Of My Father's War, The Victors Divided Up The Lands Of Their Former Enemies. In The Space Of Just Seventeen Months, They Created The Borders Of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia And Most Of The Middle East. And I Have Spent My Entire Career — In Belfast And Sarajevo, In Beirut And Baghdad — Watching The People Within Those Borders Burn.

So Here's A Question From One Who Believed, Only A Week Ago, That Baghdad Might Just Collapse And That We Might Wake Up One Morning To Find The Baathist Militia And The Iraqi Army Gone And The Americans Walking Down Saadun Street With Their Rifles Over Their Shoulders. If The Iraqis Can Still Hold Out Against Such Overwhelming Force In Umm Qasr For Four Days, If They Can Keep Fighting In Basra And Nasiriyah – The Latter A City That Briefly Rose In Revolt Against Saddam's Regime In 1991 – Why Should Saddam's Forces Not Keep Fighting In Baghdad?

Refuse To Accept The Narrative Of History Laid Down By Presidents, Prime Ministers, Generals And Journalists.

Osama Bin Laden Is Not Well Read And He's Not Sophisticated, But He Will Have Worked Out Very Coldly What America Would Do In Response To This Attack 9/11. I'm Sure He Wanted America To Attack Afghanistan. Once You Do What Your Enemy Wants, You Are Walking Into A Trap, Whether You Think It's The Right Thing To Do Or Not.