Storywatch

The Independent's story on American plans to use banned chemical weapons in Iraq is slowly percolating through the media. It's been picked up by the NZ Herald, Common Dreams, and by various newspapers in Pakistan. But thanks to the Associated Press, the American media is putting a decidedly different spin on things.

Unlike the Americans, I'm actually quite keen on "straitjackets" such as the Chemical Weapons Convention. Sure, war is an inherantly messy business, but mutual restraint from the worst barbarities can save us from horrors such as this or this.