Fiskier than fisk himself

Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:30 am

Paul McGeough’s obsession with a coming Iraqi civil war places him outside even the views of Robert Fisk, who last year rejected any talk of war:

I think I was probably wrong in saying there would be a civil war.

The only people who are talking about civil war at the moment in Iraq are the Americans and the British and the Western journalists who suck up their lines and push it back out as their own analysis.

I haven’t actually met an Iraqi who wants a civil war or who’s talked about a civil war.

There’s never been a civil war in Iraq.

I rather suspect that this danger of civil war – and I’m guilty before the war quite rightly predicting there might be – is being pushed out by the Americans and the British in order to frighten the Iraqis into obedience.

So that’s McGeough’s plan! No wonder he’s been talking up Iyad Allawi’s murder spree.

(Via Brian in comments)

1. McGeough just reported from Bagdad (SBS World News) on the Iraqi elections. No prizes for guessing Paulie’s spin. Doom, doom they’re all going to die……

   Posted by Boss Hog on 01/30 at 03:53 AM • permalink

1. Gee, McGeough sounds more like Dr. smith each day. After the comments by the Fiskster, does this mean that Mc Geough is incapable of being employed by the Guardian? Ouch, that would have to hurt.

   Posted by Nic on 01/30 at 03:58 AM • permalink

1. It’s pretty tough to outflank even the leftist version of “mainstream”, but McGeough seems to have done it. Congrats Paul!

   Posted by PW on 01/30 at 04:18 AM • permalink

1. The old Dean Wormer ploy, eh?  Iraq has been on McGeough’s double secret probation all along.  No Civil War and their grade point average is OK but as soon as they mess up anything else, BOOOM!  McG will direct a comet to fall from the sky right on the Shat al-Arab.

   What a tubesteak.

   Posted by Carl H on 01/30 at 10:31 AM • permalink

1. So, when Fisk predicts civil war, it’s a reasonable mistake. But if anyone else brings up the subject after Fisk realizes his error, it must be because of an insidious Coalition plot?

   What a kielbasa.

   Posted by Dave S. on 01/30 at 11:04 AM • permalink

1. Hey, Dave S., your webtv mailbox is full and I’m getting your bounced notifications. By the way, you can set the notification checkbox to default to empty by going to your account profile and deselecting the “Enable email notifications by default when you post messages” option in your email settings.

   Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 01/30 at 12:15 PM • permalink

1. Tim,

   I had a few days off around Christmas and researched thoroughly the story of the alleged looting of the Iraq National Museum, an exaggerated tale first megaphoned by Mr. McGeough himself and never corrected.

   Iraq Antiquities Revisited.

   If this story isn’t an indictment of the press, nothing is.

   *

   Posted by Jeffrey — New York on 01/30 at 05:11 PM • permalink

1. Hang on!

   I rather suspect that this danger of civil war – and I’m guilty before the war quite rightly predicting there might be – is being pushed out by the Americans and the British

   How can you predict a maybe?

   Hes getting more desperate by the minute, credibility hanging in tatters, another great big Yes Butt
   

   Posted by rog2 on 01/31 at 02:38 AM • permalink

1. “In an environment like Iraq it’s very difficult to separate out what people are telling you from what they are hearing.”

   Yes, Paul. We are having that problem with you, too. The voices, the voices.

   Posted by blogstrop on 01/31 at 07:04 AM • permalink