Blair Blah Blah

Just managed to catch some of Tony Blair's speech to the Labour Party conference (The Guardian has the full text at Blair's conference speech). The most interesting bit was probably the point where he addressed the Iraq war. As far as I could tell he was very sorry that no WMD's had been found, presumably on the basis that this has left him looking either a fool or a liar. He went on to seek to justify the invasion of Iraq on the basis that - though the country may now be a haven for terrorists - an evil dictator has been deposed. Of course, this line of reasoning always come up against the difficulty that there are rather a lot of pretty evil dictators around the world, most of whom we in "the West" have never tried to depose (many of whom, in fact, we have tried to cosy up to). Having looked carefully at the PM's speech, and presuming always that I have understood its logic, I think I have finally found the solution for all those around the world currently being oppressed, whether in Korea, Sudan, Burma or anywhere else: all these oppressees have to do is launch terrorist attacks against the USA and we'll be in there quick as a flash (unless of course you happen to be from Saudi Arabia, in which case we'll have a go at some other country, completely unconnected with terrorism). So there you have it, don't try and get our attention by letting your rulers lock you up, attach, electrodes to your genitals or send squads round to ethnically cleanse you - simply pop on a plane to New York armed with whatever you can smuggle past your country's lax airport security checks. And just remember, you won't even have to bother with that lengthy wait to get through US immigration.