ONE MAY BE PERMITTED TO HOPE FOR THE BEST

Belated post, I know. Jonathan Freedland wrote in The Guardian that it's an indictment of our entire political system that Blair was not impeached over Iraq. One might add that it's an indictment of our elected representatives that any of them supported the invasion in the first place, a far more significant intelligence failure than any coming from the security services. But after all that has been revealed, for the House of Commons to give Blair a standing ovation at his last PM's questions...

And they wonder why the SNP won in Scotland.

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One of the Glasgow car bombers qualified and worked as a doctor in Iraq. Which would be enough to turn anyone into an extremist - having to deal with the results of sanctions, radiation poisoning, invasion, civil war.

That doesn't mean that it's acceptable to attack civilians, of course. However, it must be noted that someone whom many might well consider to be an entirely legitimate target will shortly be starting work in the Middle East as, incredibly, a peace envoy. The Eumenides may yet have their day.