To find nut-jobs on any side of any issue doesn’t negate the arguments of all who opposed the war in Iraq,

Of course not.

Which is why neither myself nor Graham ever suggested otherwise.

(are you beginning to see a pattern here?)

which is something that this blog often energetically attemps to do.

For fuck’s sake – this is so predictable it’s gone beyond boring, and become satire…

You are a flat out liar “the devil”.

You might not even realise this. But you are.

Unless you can back up that last statement with evidence.

Go on. Try.

That’s right and for the record I think that Israel/Palestine is peripheral at most to the war in Iraq.

There certainly were intelligent and principled opponents of the war and some of the debates at that time and on that subject were extremely thought-provoking.

Which makes it a shame that those who stuck around here are for the most part interested in slinging insults and not interested in any serious debate, it seems.

I would not worry unduly about being tarred with the anti-semite brush (as you put it) that is something which has happened to many of us (often at the same time that we are being called “zionazis” or something equally charming by those on the other side of the argument.) Israel/Palestine is one issue which a single word can get you into trouble here (though that is not to say there have not been good debates on that subject.)

There certainly were intelligent and principled opponents of the war and some of the debates at that time and on that subject were extremely thought-provoking.

Everyone who opposed the war were anti-semites? Or they all, en masse, chose to ally with anti-semites? This is nonsense.

Graham, I had never even heard of this site when it was a live issue, so I don’t know what was going on then. But I won’t be tarred with the anti-Semite brush. If you are going to do that then you may as well say that you threw your lot in with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who wrote a letter to thank George W. Bush for getting rid of Saddam Hussein. Or with Moqtadar al-Sadr whose goons were cheering during the hanging of Saddam Hussein.

Anyway, I am glad you can appreciate that there was intelligent and principled opposition to the war which contradicts Neo-Oxfordian, who says they’re just a bunch of anti-semitic scum.

You see this is completely untrue. When the Iraq war actually was a live issue (rather than the nostalgic raison d’être of one or two people who know very little about anything else there were many intelligent opponents of the war here (and a couple of anti-war posters too.)

So nonsense basically.

Even if that were so it wouldn’t justify the war in Iraq. To find nut-jobs on any side of any issue doesn’t negate the arguments of all who opposed the war in Iraq, which is something that this blog often energetically attemps to do.

Exactly. Whilst every possible centimetre of distance is put between himself and the Leninist STWC (who’s “blame anyone but us” attitude he at least shares) the entire commentariat and all posters at HP are lumped together as a “violent” group who pick on poor Ratty.

There is a certain amount of self-absorption at work here which seems to be found amongst many of the people who invested a lot of time and energy in the “anti-war” movement and seem to feel they are entitled to something from the rest of us.