With Humor and Irony, A Founding Member of Monty Python Blasts Bush and Blair's War on Terror

Interview with Terry Jones, founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, conducted by Scott Harris

As the daily attacks on U.S. forces and their allies in Iraq step up after a post-election lull, increasing numbers of citizens are becoming skeptical of a White House forecast for stability and a reduction in the number of American troops in the occupied nation. With suicide bombings and kidnappings an almost daily occurrence, few western journalists dare to venture very far from their hotels in the Green security zone in Baghdad to report on the war.

And as the U.S. military switches from offensive operations to training members of the Iraqi police and military, insurgents have also changed their tactics - targeting and killing large numbers of these forces. The situation for civilians has also continued to deteriorate. The United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva recently reported that the number of Iraqi children suffering from malnutrition has doubled since the U.S. invasion toppled the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Terry Jones, one of the founding members of the Monty Python comedy troupe has since September 11th, been writing columns in the British press highly critical of George Bush and Tony Blair's militaristic policies in the Middle East. His essays, laced with irony and humor, have now been published in the U.S. under the title, "Terry Jones' War on the War on Terror: Observations and Denunciations by a Founding Member of Monty Python." Reached by phone in London, Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Jones about why he feels that the Bush-Blair policies have made the world a more dangerous place.

"Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror," is published by Nation Books.

Related links:

* "Inside Terry Jones' War on Terror," Mother Jones, Feb. 2, 2005

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