A short exchange with the Independent’s Johann Hari regarding his piece in the Irish Independent last week: ‘Flawed US policy keeps Osama’s message alive‘.
While Hari did recant on his robust support for the Iraq war (albeit not until 2006) it seems, on the basis of this piece, his thinking on it is still rather fuzzy.
MEDIABITE 
Hari’s a bit of an odd one. It seems standard fare that people support war in the first instance but when “we” start losing then it’s “oh this was a terrible decision”.
I don’t read him much. Has he said anything about Obama? Some of these guys are gung-ho for indicting Blair and Bush but there’s not much criticism of Barackus.
His apology on Iraq suggests he was duped into supporting the invasion and it took him a full 3 years to figure that out.
I like his stuff on UK politics and economics, but I can’t help the feeling he’s not totally convinced when it comes to the business of imperialism. It took him ages to write anything about Libya, though he did eventually come out with a very critical account of it.
He’s a great self promoter too, though perhaps you have to be to make it as a columnist. He’s attributed the burgeoning US Uncut movement entirely to his article on it in the Nation. I suggested to him that at least some of the credit must go to UK Uncut, to which he responded that he was repeating only what some people involved in US Uncut had said.