Some thoughts for Thursday
Good morning. With Tony Blair meeting President Bush, it seems like a good time to ask - how do you want western leaders to respond to the Iraq Study Group's recommendations? And what do you make of the reaction to the report so far? The pundits and columnists can't seem to agree whether it was a full frontal attack on the US President's Iraq policy, or deliberately toned down its criticism - what do you think?
Beyond its damning indictment of the situation in Iraq, the report surely raises more questions than it answers: is it more about finding an exit strategy for the US than getting Iraq back on its feet? will it make any difference to the insurgency? will the Iraqi army be able to take over security responsibility from the US in a year's time, if US troops withdraw in large numbers in a year's time? And perhaps above all, Is it the big turning-point in US strategy that many have predicted, or just another report to be shelved and ignored?
The other topic that we've gone some way towards setting up is bribery. Relations between Saudi Arabia and Britain have been hit by the long-running investigation into allegations that BAE, Britain's largest arms manufacturer, paid bribes to land the massive £40+ billion Al-Yamamah arms deal. BAE denies it paid bribes. But we thought it was a good starting-point to look at bribery not just in business and politics, but also in everyday life. Is it just another necessary business expense? No different really from paying tips for service in everyday life? Or is it an evil to be rooted out?
We want your stories of paying or receiving bribes, in business or in your everyday life. And of course, we want your suggestions for any other stories you'd like us to cover, before we meet in half an hour's time. We'll be live blogging the meeting, so you should be able to see that unfold as well. More soon.....
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