At the time, the incumbents' British allies were in the opposition and therefore more free than the Thatcherites to speak out against Saddam's British-backed crimes. Their names are noteworthy by their absence from the parliamentary record of protests against these crimes, including Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Geoff Hoon, and other leading figures of New Labour.

When Straw was home secretary in 2001, an Iraqi who fled to England after detention and torture requested asylum. Straw denied his request. The Home Office explained that Straw "is aware that Iraq, and in particular the Iraqi security forces, would only convict and sentence a person in the courts with the provision of proper jurisdiction," so that "you could expect to receive a fair trial under an independent and properly constituted judiciary."

Imagine being horribly attacked by some group and then going after an ugly guy in a country that has no relevance to the real attackers. That would be crazy or, quite literally, treachery, or even treason, it would be such a failure to properly defend ourselves.

The reality is that condoms no more cause sex than umbrellas cause rain.
"Certainly, God does not want us to kill each other," responded Marlene Condon, who works with AIDS patients. "You've got to do something."
"There is no contradiction between Christianity and a piece of rubber."

We're talking about the tragic flaw of hubris here, the feeling that you
can get away with anything because you're so powerful and nasty and scary. But you can almost feel the inexorable convergence of scandals into one big, huge mass at the top of a steep hill, with the White House at the bottom. Critical mass has just about been reached. When that huge boulder of scandal and incompetency and hubris begins to roll -- and a run-up to the election is the perfect launch ramp -- you know that the smashing and destruction at the bottom of the hill is going to be swift and ugly. Impeachment and resignation are the best they can hope for, to try to stave off criminal prosecution.