We are commemorating the 20th anniversary of the invasion in Iraq, even though you may not have noticed. It’s a solemn occasion. The prospect of quarter million people dead or worse, and a region that is permanently dysfunctional is sobering even for the most sane commentators.
The Iraq War was at its core an absurdity. It was a exercise in hysteria, supported with bluster and a study of using dodgy intelligence for dodgier policies. It also offered a chance for young, old bloods to indulge themselves in grandiose speech and to spend large amounts of money. The most shocking aspect of the whole thing is how absurd it was.
The best portrayal of the period is 2009’s in the Loop by Armando Ianucci, a farce about British involvement in the events leading up to the invasion. Simon Foster, a New Labour MP who is hapless, says to a radio interviewer about the possibility of war in a unnamed Middle Eastern country. He then goes on to say that Malcolm Tucker, the Prime Minster’s psychotically angry media fixer, was involved in the laundering of questionable intelligence from America to encourage the formation of a coalition.
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Ianucci is the author of Death in Stalin, Veep and The Thick of It (featuring Malcolm Tucker’s adventures in domestic politics). He has a gift for identifying the quirks of institutional cultures and the American foreign-policy establishment is no exception. Our penchant for unusually younger staff (“your master race of gifted toddlers”), our thick atmosphere of naivete, pseudo-philosophy, the pseudo-philosophy, and pomposity and pomposity.
The pomposity is a particular favorite. Linton Barwick, a thinly fictitious Donald Rumsfeld, declares that “All roads lead towards Munich!” What the f*** does this mean? Tucker questions Tucker when he’s gone. Foster admits that it simply means “I guess it doesn’t mean anything to me,” Foster says.
I’m not sure what it means. This could be the epigraph of the era. In The Loop will remind you how stupid this week has been, even though it is filled with Spenglerian doom.
