We'll Bleat Again: Alan Cowell Comes Out Against Afghan War in Vera Lynn Tribute
Alan Cowell's "Memo From London" Monday,In War and Hardship, Relishing a Taste of Nostalgia," was a profile of famed World War II British songstress Vera Lynn, who ascended to the top of the British music charts last week with an anthology of her old songs. ButCowell justcouldn't let the moment stand without injecting some of his own familiaranti-war sentiments:
Recently, there has been a sunburst of such reflected glory. Last month, the funeral of Harry Patch, the last British survivor of the trench fighting on the Western Front in World War I, drew national, live television coverage as his coffin wound through the cathedral city of Wells escorted by German soldiers, among others. The moment underlined the message he voiced in his later years of war's futility, providing a poignant counterpoint to the government's efforts to justify a war in Afghanistan that is leeching the lives of the soldiers it sends there.
Cowell's reporting from London expressed similar opposition to the Iraq War; Cowell clearly relished anti-war protestors describing then-BritishPrime MinisterTony Blair as "Bush's poodle" for his support for the war.
