There are, I'm sure, many astonishing things still to be said about the war in Iraq. They may, however, find it difficult to top this:

Should we never have watched at all? So Barbara Bush had instructed us in an interview the day before the Iraq war began. The president's mother said she would watch "none" of TV's war coverage because "90 percent" of it would be speculative. She continued: "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's gonna happen? … It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

Not relevant, hmm? That's a nice way of putting it. I'm sure all the dead people in Iraq indeed aren't really relevant, they're only foreigners after all so why should Mother Bush get her knickers in a knot over them... but what about the troops on Our Side? As right-leaning commentators tirelessly remind us, these people are fighting for our freedom, which includes your freedom too, Barbara, and they're fighting to help keep your son George Jr in the top job. I don't think the families of the soldiers who've fallen so far in Iraq would be too thrilled to hear the Presidential Mother doesn't want to hear about those deaths because they're "not relevant". I don't suppose the troops those fallen soldiers fought with in Iraq would be especially pleased either. No need to worry about wasting that beautiful mind of yours, Babs, the damage has already been done.