Whilst not wanting to detract from Tone's fine speech. He really is an international statesman of some authority now and his internationalist ideals did have vision and humanity. However I am worried that the current situation will serve as an excuse to stifle debate on a whole raft of issues. For example notice how the public services/private initiative debate has been side lined with the 'it's going to happen hard luck'. The trouble with wars/conflict is that it gives someone like Blair an excuse to deflect the debate by crying out about 'our boys making sacrifices' so therefore one is not allowed to comment.