Oliver Kamm, now one of my regular reads, writes a healthily long criticism of New Statesman hack John Pilger. It reminds me of this article in the Spectator a few weeks ago.
Despite my own writing for the New Statesman, I am inclined to agree with Sweeney on this one. He argued that John Pilger blames the Americans alone for birth defects in Iraq, and overlooks evidence that implicates Saddam Hussein.
Kamm meanwhile takes Pilger up on the figures of civilian casualties in Iraq. He also I believe, correctly argues that in a war such as the recent Iraqi one, it is in the best interests of the invaders/liberators to limit civilian casualties as much as possible. If they seek to have a peaceful Iraq then it serves them well to kill as few of the people they are ‘liberating’ as possible.