Robert Fisk in his characteristically brilliant 'Independent' report on Bush's latest plan, could not have anticipated the speech which Blair would deliver next day, appropriately, from a Devonport warship, nailing his own colour to the imperial mast, like the pathetic version of Salisbury that he aspires  to be.

'No', says Fisk, ' I would turn to another, less flamboyant, far more modern politician for prophecy, an American who understood, just before the 2003 launch of Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq, what would happen to the arrogance of power. For their relevance this morning, the words of the conservative politician Pat Buchanan deserve to be written in marble...', and he quotes: 

'We will soon launch an imperial war on Iraq with all the "On to Berlin" bravado with which French poilus and British tommies marched in August 1914. But this invasion will not be the cakewalk neoconservatives predict ... For a militant Islam that holds in thrall scores of millions of true believers will never accept George Bush dictating the destiny of the Islamic world ... The one endeavour at which Islamic peoples excel is expelling imperial powers by terror and guerrilla war. They drove the Brits out of Palestine and Aden, the French out of Algeria, the Russians out of Afghanistan, the Americans out of Somalia and Beirut, the Israelis out of Lebanon... We have started up the road to empire and over the next hill we will meet those who went before.'

Blair, following in his master's steps, believes that Britain's imperial mission remains as it was two centuries ago, to preserve the world for a clean, decent Anglo-Saxon inheritance. 'We have started up the road to empire'. What an alarming thought it is that America is governed by a psychopath, Britain by a fool and imposter.

HVF Winstone