See even the neo-cons are chorusing we should get out of Iraq. Just took 15,000 Iraqi dead, 2000 Americans and 200 (?) British to jog them along. Up til then, I was reluctant to join the general leftie slagging of Tony Blair, but from the minute Baghdad fell, I thought he can just fuck off, the pious, naive little prick.

I am NOT an all-purpose sceptic. When he supported the invasion initially, I hoped and prayed he was playing it the same way he did the 1997 election. For the two years between his election as Labour leader and then, his silence was deafening, but it was a Trojan horse. When the elction came around, he just suddenly produced a whole array of policies from his inside pocket and just blew the Tories away. Scoff all you like, Trots, but without him we would still have had Tories in power for at least another term. I hoped that once the invasion was over then there really would be WMD piled up behind the schools and hospitals, though my overwhelming suspicion was that there wouldn't. And of course there weren't, in fact.

So, reasons for his back ing it ? Could be

1) He believed whatever trumped-up evidence of WMD Shrub and Rummie showed him, and thought we had to avoid a Chamberlain appeasement situation. Verdict- naive little prick, resign now.
2) He doubted whatever they showed him, but still thought that it was worth deposing Saddam's dictatorship, if it was done for it's own sake, not oil. Verdict- naive little prick, resign now.
3) He somehow thought he could sneak nice, fluffy policies into the neocon agenda once Saddam had fallen- "Hey, guys, could you take your mind off the oil for a moment ? I want to send that nice Clare Short over to give them, y'know, electricity and running water." Verdict- naive little prick, resign now.