We Can Do It If We Work Together.

That ought to be the motto for Iraq, but as we know 'united' is not a word we associate -or are allowed to associate- with GWB's administration. It's far more noticeable that the anti-war forces, who have remained bitterly united, believe in the value of togetherness.

To an unprepared spectator there seems an unbroken stream of military men and administration figures coming forward to express unhappiness with one aspect or another of the WoT. That's not to mention the non-governmental side of things.

One of the reasons for the revelatory effect in these cases is that the media manage sources with an eye on the political agenda (and of course for the sources there is often a similar interest). To tell us much about these sources and their motivations would spoil the political effect. I was fascinated in January when Gavyn Davies, chairman of the BBC (until Hutton!) talked of the need to 'manage the news'.

Thus, due to the Media's overwhelming desire to 'make a difference' by 'managing the news', even when we are switched on things slip past.

Reading happily through the entries at David'sMedienKritik I saw a name I recognised:

Gen. Joseph Hoare, who is readily Googled using the terms 'absolutely brink failure abyss', finally made his way into the German media as a 'source' for their latest bout of quagmire editorialising.

What you don't read, and what you didn't read when the BBC used him as a source in a recent article in which they reported more Abu Ghraib piccies as part of mounting bad news for the Coalition, is that Gen. Hoare was a considerable supporter of Dr. Howard Dean, back when the not-yet-screaming Vermonster stood roughly at Ketchup Kerry's shoulder in the Democratic Nomination race. The connotations for Hoare's long-term views on the Iraq war are fairly clear.

I am sure the BBC's Justin Webb, Washington Correspondent, just has a poor memory for that sort of thing.