Mr Blair says that the the two dead Brirtish sevicemen were executed, Luke Allsop's CO told his parents that he died (instantly) when his vehicle was attacked. One of them is not telling the truth.
If it is Mr Blair - then this kind of scaremongering is unforgiveable - if it was Luke's CO then he was trying to spare the anguish of the parents, anguish which Mr Blair then dumped upon them anyway. Pity we can't leave the bl**dy politicians out all together - given a chance I think that the two armies would settle it with a football match (as in WW1 at christmas).
I trust our lot not to torture and execute people - but but I don't trust our politicians as far as I could throw an Al Samoud 2 missile.
We expect dirty tricks from the Iraqis - dressing as civvies, pretending to surrender then launching an ambush, human shields and all that - but where are all those "weapons of mass destruction" that were going to be found all over Iraq? General Myers (US Chief of Staff) says "we will find them" - did he mean to add "even if we have to plant them"?
Mind you, I do worry about what may happen if it looks like Baghdad is going to be over run - if there are any dirty tricks up the sleeve, I would not be surprised to see them deployed.
If 1 week of intense warfare has only produced 350 Iraqi dead then that is a pretty good show on our part - and having seen footage of British and American medics treating Iraqi military and civilian casualties, I think this is our best hope of winning "hearts and minds".
Final analysis, in my opinion, is that Bush, Blair and Saddam are all equally to blame for any deaths that occur - there was no need to go in when they did - half-cocked, understrength and hopelessly optimistic on time frame. Thursday last week, Tony Blair said "we will be in Baghdad in 3-4 days", General Franks wanted 400,000 troops and Donald Rumsfeld told him he only needed 250,000 (now 100,000 more are on the way).
Politicians - please keep noses out, gobs shut and let the military clear up the mess you have created in the last week or so.
solotk:
try this link for number 10 website:
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/page3.asp
gives you a number to phone or fax your thoughts (and the address, but I guess MOST of us can work out that it's "Number 10 Downing Street"!)
Apparently, you will soon be able to e-mail him!
maybe we could hack and delete him - Danny, you tracked those hackers down yet!