Spare us Blair Miles to the Middle East

THE grim litany of death from the Middle East has accelerated over the past few days as troops and civilians pay the price for the folly of the West's military adventure in Iraq.

The headlines on Press Association stories yesterday made grim reading: "35 bullet-riddled bodies dumped in Iraq"; "Two British soldiers killed in Iraq"; "British tourist killed in Amman gun attack."

Add to this: "RAF base remembers Afghan airmen" referring to the 14 UK service personnel killed in the Nimrod downing, and "Nato soldiers killed in friendly fire incident" which relates to an incident in Afghanistan today and the slaughter goes on and on.

Of course, plane accidents and friendly fire casualties are all part of the risks of sending troops in foriegn theatres of conflict. And Afghanistan is a more reasonable mission for our troops to be participating, but the misery of Iraq was wholly avoidable.

Yes, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein. But the US-UK gung-ho attitude of "don't mind the collateral damage - civilian men, women and children are expendable" has, directly or indirectly, led to the London transport bombings, the Madrid bombings, the Israel-Hezbollah clash, and the plot of bring down transatlantic flights.

This country's international credibility lies in absolute tatters - and no matter how much Downing Street gloss is put on it, what real good does lame duck Tony Blair think he will achieve by announcing he is ready to visit the Middle East if a trip would help re-invigorate the region's stalled peace process?

Golly gosh - hold the front page!!

Says No 10: "A visit is not an end in itself. A visit would be to try to get people to start the process of re-engagement.

"The ambition is no higher than that."

Stay at home Prime Minister and don't clock up any more Blair Miles when you are the head of a Government distrusted throughout the Arab and Moslem world from Morocco to Indonesia.

Your actions in Iraq have made it impossible for this country to deal with the greater threat - Iran. And that could be written on your tombstone.