From me this will sound like apostacy, but there is something about Rumsfeld to which I actually warm. Whenever I hear him speak, which admittedly is not often, he actually says something - making him almost unique among present-day politicians. I'm inclined to admire his refusal to sit on the fence, and in fact some of his points do make sense. Again this is more than can be said for many other politicians, on both sides of the argument.

By comparison I just can't see any brainpower at all in Colin Powell, even though he's supposed to be the less hawkish, and hence a step nearer my own view.

All of which aside, I certainly picked up a dramatic change in tone yesterday (Thursday) and was astonished at today's mad scramble to evade blame. Obviously the poor Iraqi conscripts, denied access to night vision and blundering round in museum-piece tanks, are ultimately doomed, but you wouldn't have guessed it from the behaviour or the coalition leadership today. In fact rats and sinking ships came to mind. And on the BBC just now, Gen Sir Michael Jackson could not have been more blatant about declining to support Blair's claim that two Brits were "executed." (The MoD had told relatives they were killed in action.)