Remarkable. Umm, well, not surprising really. This post goes some way to explaining what this blog is for. Its function is to record those things which might appear unremarkable but which I'd rather not let slip into the vast generality of 'whatever'. Things like this. Kofi Annan's call for a enquiry into the Oil-for-Food programme is one of those nasty consequences, those confrontational moments, those domino occurrences, brought on by the war in Iraq. It reminds me of pouring boiling water on an ants' nest- the confusion, the scattering and the instant attempt to reorder things to cope with new circumstances. Everything following the war in Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein has to be seen in the context of a salvaging operation. It's an ironic fact that Saddam was a more important part of the international community because of the UN sanctions designed to isolate and weaken him, and the special arrangements for him created a kind of industry in regulating an industry (oil) which could potentially have made Saddam the master of the Middle East.

But it's funny too that George Galloway should win libel damages of £50, 000 against the CSM on the same day that Kofi Annan made his call. You have to think again about the boilng water, the ants and the salvage operation. The CSM accused Galloway of accepting massive bribes from Saddam's oil cash cache, but their documents were found to be forged within weeks of the accusation, and they retracted their comments. That was coming up to one year ago now, yet of course it took Galloway all these months to get his £50 000 paltry pounds. Meanwhile G. faces the Telegraph in a separate libel case, concerning similar allegations on a smaller scale, and different sets of documents that appear to have significantly more credibility. With one oddly protracted win behind him, but more and more documents in the public domain hanging over his 'gorgeous' head threatening death by a thousand tiny Damoclean cuts, it's Galloway's biggest game yet. I wonder what Kofi Annan and George Galloway think of each other? Or is it more instinctive than that- ants from the same nest?