As regular readers will know I haven't always agreed with Jonathan Freedland. But today he writes a piece on the current, hopeful developments across the Middle East, and in it he's willing to allow that George Bush and Tony Blair may be able to take some credit for them. This is unlike many other opponents of the war, so credit to him too. All the same, I note two significant omissions from Freedland's article.
First, in summarizing some of the ways in which, he thinks, 'the US-led invasion of Iraq has changed the calculus in the region', he doesn't mention any possible ripple effect of the January 30 election in Iraq. It's purely speculative on my part, I'll admit, but I reckon January 30 played some role in Beirut in recent days.
Second, Freedland says that the 'most important gain [of the war], the removal of Saddam, could have been achieved by other means'; but he makes no attempt whatever to fill that out. It's the hand-waving of the anti-war left. Watch this space.