The only other defence our Cabinet might attempt is that the best advice they received was that Milosevic would back down and step down so fast that it was unnecessary to plan for any other contingency. But I cannot believe that was the advice Blair was offered. Except by William Hague and Michael Howard, of course. The Tories may get off lightly for their abject failure to subject this war to intelligent scrutiny. They deserve to be roasted alive.
Patriotism is no excuse.
Hague and his team have known all along that this war was crazy and they just didn't have the guts or the unity to say so. If the Tories have been craven, the Liberal Democrats have been bizarre. Paddy Ashdown did know that on the basis on which the Cabinet were insisting it be fought, this war was foolish. Mr Ashdown understands war. He has always believed that in the Balkans it must in the end be land force or nothing.