One Day They'll Thank Us

International do-gooding has its little ironies, as few can know better than the Ascended Incarnation of the Reverend Blair. Just think: you invade a country, destroy its infrastructure, kill tens of thousands of people, ruin the lives of millions more, purge everyone who might know anything about running the place, impose a gang of corrupt sectarians as proxy rulers, toddle off with the cash and then, for no apparent reason at all, the process of democratisation suddenly stalls. The UN, whatever its delusions about human rights being compatible with Britishness, can produce fairly reliable information about the transgressions of the more uppity wogs; and a report into the activities of the Fighting Sons of Tony includes claims of rape, slavery, executions in various styles including those of NRA (shooting), the House of Saud (beheading), the old-time Christian witch-hunter (burning alive) and à la Rachel Corrie. Indeed, things are looking so bad that even should the Fighting Sons of Tony start buying their weapons from British suppliers, it is conceivable that Whitehall would find their behaviour a little disappointing.