Going back over what happened a century and a half ago is useful if it makes sense of what happened afewards, and helps us avoid some of the same mistakes today. If it turns into a game of pointing fingers at the faults of other people and ignoring our own faults, it's not just a waste of time, it's dangerous.

There are hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq who have died because of sanctions which have done no harm whatsoever to Saddam. Future generations are going to see what we are colluding in is in no way less shameful no better than anything the politicians and businesmen of England and Ireland did in the Irish Famine. In fact they'll see us as far worse, necause we have no excuse about not being able to see what is going on.

Motes and beams.