"Get thee hence Satan!" says Desmond Tutu

As a Christian, not a very good one, I have to question why in one of the most boring of debates the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who I quite like, recently shared a platform with Tony Blair? After nearly 30 minutes of viewing I tried to get somebody with more stamina than me to watch this tedium ad infinitum and precis it for me. She was bored out of her mind and could not rescue me by providing a more enthusiastic impression of the 'debate' than I had already formed. What I would really like to know about this event, and I think I can answer it, is would the Prince of Peace have shared a platform with the Prince of War? No. He would have said "Get thee hence Satan".

This is exactly, well not quite exactly, what Desmond Tutu said to Blair last week and what Rowan Williams ought to have told him previously. Yesterday Desmond Tutu wrote in the Observer that Blair and Bush should be tried at the Hague for war crimes. In response to Tutu's criticism Blair came out with the same old pathological lies. What 'independent analysis', I ask myself, can exonerate Blair from guilt for his crimes in Iraq? Is it the Hutton Inquiry he set up to prevent due process of coronial law taking place after Dr David Kelly was found dead in the countryside? Was it the 'dodgy dossier' that Blair fabricated to take us into an illegal war? I should like to know to what 'independent analysis' he alludes. Because if it does clear his name, and that of Jack Straw, believe me it will not be independent. It will be heavily biased.

You never know with Blair whether the lie is going to slip off the end of the right fork or the left fork of his duplicitous tongue! But you know it will slip out one way or the other.

Here is another piece of 'non-independent' news, that is real news, but you will not see it reported or broadcast anywhere in mainstream media outlets. In comments to The Guardian/Observer on the article linked above the sixth one down sorting by Oldest first was removed by moderators. Though I did not see it myself I have been reliably informed that it claimed Tony Blair should also be tried for not allowing an inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly. There was nothing as far as I can gather offensive about the comment. Before it was removed early yesterday it was taking a massive number of recommendations (more than 2000) in a matter of hours. Nobody at the Guardian has explained to its readers why this comment was removed. You have to ask yourself what kind of independence there is at the Guardian. About as much as one of Blair's independent analyses, I conjecture.