Sent this morning
To: The Ditchley Foundation
Subject: FAO Jeremy Greenstock
Dear Mr Greenstock,
I note that your review of the new Satow’s Diplomatic Practice claims that separating “duty from stupidity” and “finding the right words when the sword might be the alternative, are all part of the practice of diplomacy at its finest.”
As you concede, with a winsome reference to your part in “anticipating the facts” which weren’t factual about Iraq’s weapons of mass non-existence, this is not always easy.
So, were you just being stupid or doing your duty? The former stretches credulity, since there were no “facts” to be “fixed around the policy” of pushing for war.
Either way, your words served the sword, and neither defence would have saved you at Nuremberg.
Diplomacy at its finest? We’ve been framed.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Simpson
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Thanks to Steven Poole for alerting me to Greenstock’s article.
November 29, 2009 at 10:31 am
Greenstock always struck me as quite adept. But he seemed really clumsy covering his back at the Chilcot inquiry.
November 29, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I didn’t see his testimony, but from what I’ve read Craig Murray’s verdict sounds persuasive. He writes: “I am not sure that even now he has really come to the terms with the fact that all he was involved in was a charade.”