Ever since Tony Blair pledge to stand 'shoulder-to-shoulder' with the Bush administration, there have been a lot of centre-left apologists and so-called 'moderates' claiming that Blair's intentions were good, that he was playing a clever game of cosying up to Bush in order that he might influence the US President's decisions in the direction of caution, diplomacy, and international law.

I would honestly have preferred them to have been right about that one.