So a brief calm between the policy-fest of the conference season and the fluster of the Commons being back in session. The findings of the Iraqi Survey Group. Blair, predictably, has said that war was still justified and – much as I hate to say it – I agree with him. To an extent.

Ultimately Hussein had no intent of acceding to demands to give up pursuit of WMD, hoping to lie low until the heat was off. He did have intent to resume research and production when the opportunity presented itself. He was an evil man and a danger to his people and the countries around him.

However, to rush into conflict with such unseemly haste, espousing certainty when their claims were based on nothing more than reasonable suspicion and bringing a nation to its knees without any real plan to help it get back up again, all the while justifying their actions with wheedling arguments based on threadbare technicalities. This is not the way to go about defending one’s nation (via the Bush Doctrine of preeemptive action) or ‘liberating’ a people.

The anti-war lobby need to recognize that the removal of Saddam Hussein was a good thing (albeit done in the worst way). The pro-Bush/Blair lobby need to appreciate what Colin Powell said in the run up to the Iraqi invasion – ‘You broke it, you bought it.’ In other words you got yourself a Saddam-less Iraq. Now sort it out.