Everyone's a winner

Mind your language! That's the message from the White House about how to conduct a war. The Iraq war would have gone much better if George Bush hadn't said 'wanted dead or alive' or hadn't challenged the resistance to 'bring it on'.

This attempt to assuage some criticism over the war only reveals how weak the two chief warmongers are. Even a usually supine Washington press has commented on how the two are locked together into a spiral of decline. They are both really finished now but are still acting out a charade of being in control of foreign policy and even of acting for the benefit of the Iraqis.

Blair's speech today apparently says that there is no justification for not supporting the new government in Iraq. He would say that, wouldn't he, since his and Bush's governments dug their heels in for 6 months, refusing to allow a government to be formed until those who lost the election were included in it. Democracy's an odd thing in the Middle East: everyone's a winner under American rules _unless it gets really bad and then they play the final card of civil war.

I heard a bit of Blairite spin the other day that the Iraqis have only taken the same time to form their government as the Germans did to achieve their Grand Coalition last year. One or two differences I think: Jack Straw and Condoleezza Rice didn't drop into Berlin to twist arms over the choice, the US ambassador wasn't the power broker, the German government only took a month, not six, to be formed, and Germany was not losing dozens of its citizens every day.

Moral and political bankruptcy ooze all around them. Cherie Blair signs a copy of the Hutton Report for a Labour Party fundraising auction. Just think about that for a minute. Arrogance and sickness in equal measure. Meanwhile 78 police were used to remove placards from Brian Haw's anti war protest in Parliament Square. That little raid cost £7,200 including £4,200 on transport, catering and the erection of road signs.

I'm fascinated by the catering element. How many cups of tea and bacon rolls are needed for the dismantling of one peace protest organised by one protester?