They Give it a Word and the Word is, Moribund

Stop the War managed 10,000/100,000 (you pays your money you takes your choice)marchers at the weekend and Harry had a virtual counter demo.

There's no sense to be had at the moment on the left about Iraq. Stop the War have such shaky coalition of no marks like SWP and CND, backed up by some Moslems who may or may not share our ideals of secular democracy, that they can't offer anything more constructive than slogans and a clumsy attempt at linking Iraq and Palestine together. Go to their web site and there is not a shred of analysis or argument, not to mention the total lack of ideas as to what they would like to see if the scales suddenly fell from Bush's eyes and he said, "Okay guys, you were right all along, we are outa here."

And the pro war left are equally moribund. There's hardly one of them who doesn't sound disturbingly similar to the most rabid right winger . You can almost hear them say, "If you aren't with us you're against us."

Us being, of course, the angels. Those angels like Chalabi and friends - commanding such support and loyalty that some Iraqis believe he was behind the killing of Aqila Al-Hashimi. Or the corporate angels benefiting from the sale of the century and the squeaky clean politicians on both sides of the pond, spinning their ideas of WMDs and terrorist links and pushing their various agendas for all they were worth.

How they must laugh at the bleeding heart liberals and lefties who have joined with them in their common cause. Laugh at those who think for a second that this was a war of liberation.

What the pro war left, and maybe Tony Blair, too, have not grasped or choose to ignore, is that what is so dear to them: freedom, justice, the fight against tyranny, was never more than a sideshow.