The seemingly unstoppable march towards war continues. In Britan, Tony Blair gained the backing of the house of commans for his position on Iraq. Unfortunately for him he had to rely on the support of the Tory opposition to overcome a major rebellion in his own party . How the lack of trust and the ill-feeling between the various factions within Labour, affects Blairs ability to govern in the future could proove to be very interesting...one to watch I think.

Meanwhile in America it looks like the Whitehouse is trying to scare the people who have choosen to be human shields in Iraq into packing up and going home (story here). No names of course, just an anonymous official saying that they may be considered "combatants" rather than "civilians." I don't know what that means in practice but somehow I don't think it is good news.

It also looks like a deal between Turkey and the US to open up a Northern Front in Iraq and coincidently sell out the Iraqi Kurds is all but done. (see story - U.S. Would Limit Action By Kurds in Postwar Iraq - The article also has a map showing the areas where the Kurds live, which gives a plenty clear indication of what is at stake here). I mentioned in my post a few days ago that America's allies in the region want to keep a lid on the idea of democracy and don't want a change in the status quo. This article gives a reasonable summary of what the status quo actually is in the Arab world.