Things Fall Apart

Further to the story about US soldiers being ordered to ignore abuse (see below - it's now getting press), a US Senator has called for answers, saying the incident suggested that 'the policy of the US is that we will no longer engage in torture, but we will turn a blind eye as it is committed by others'."

Rumsfeld and others should explain who gave the order to ignore the abuse, and why. And do they still support this order as a policy in Iraq? Will the USA and its coalition partners now deliberately ignore human rights abuses in all other countries as well? Well, that's one easy way to solve human rights issues!

Tony Blair is another step closer to losing the Labour Party leadership, with former friends publicly turning on him, "saying he is endangering the viability of the party, eroding trust in politics and embracing a market ideology largely indistinguishable from the Conservatives'."

And please don't bother rushing to defend my honour at Tim Blair's spleenville blog (below) - they have now disabled all comments:

I've removed last gandhi's comment from the previous post like I said I would, and since I simply don't have time to deflect all the stupid babies that think they are owed a soapbox I am closing all current posts to comments until I get the new system started.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at August 9, 2004 at 08:11 PM

Is that a victory of sorts? Doesn't feel like it - call me old-fashioned, but I would prefer to see free speech tolerated.

I wonder if that is the same "Andrea" that used to flame me at the Fadhil brothers' blog? Just check and I am still banned there too, but please give them my love if you feel like dropping by to check out their insanely (and suspisciously) pro-US stance on all Iraq issues.