TONY Blair would have us believe that government agreement to a formal inquiry by senior backbenchers into how Britain became involved in the Iraq invasion would send a message of "weakness" to resistance forces there.
His spokesman echoed the suggestion of "doubt and weakness" and suggested that newspaper headlines would read: "Government forced to concede."
More likely would be headlines proclaiming that the Prime Minister's lies and obfuscation would be up for rigorous scrutiny rather than the timid whitewashes served up by previous "independent" inquiries set up by the PM.
The idea that anti-occupation forces in Iraq sit round reading Hansard or British newspapers waiting to see if the government has been forced to concede before deciding on their tactics is laughable.
They know, like the rest of the world, that Mr Blair took this country to war on the basis of a pack of lies about weapons of mass destruction.
They know, like the rest of the world, that he had promised George W Bush in spring 2002 to subject British troops to involvement in this illegal and bloody escapade.
And they know, like the rest of the world, that, at the very time that he was striving might and main to twist UN security council members into backing the second UN resolution that he had admitted beforehand was necessary to secure UN approval, the decision to invade and the timing of the invasion were set in stone.
Those Iraqis - the vast majority of the people - who wish to see the imperialist armies leave their country don't decide their action priorities on the basis of what is happening in a Parliament, the majority of whose MPs have already dismissed facts, reason and international law in order to back their duplicitous leader.
The basis for an honest inquiry into what lay behind the war and its disastrous aftermath is entirely home-grown.
Three-and-a-half years after an invasion, of which the US vice-president said that the occupying troops would be welcomed with flowers as liberators, the consequent death toll, overwhelmingly civilian and non-combatant, is in the hundreds of thousands.
And despite propaganda from pro-war sirens, the vast majority of casualties are caused by the actions of the invaders.
Supporters of government policy attempt to merge in the public consciousness both those who take up arms against the occupation and those who exacerbate division by wreaking religious sectarian slaughter.
They seek to persuade us that the role of the US and British forces is to hold the ring, defeat "terrorism" and to help the Iraqi government to build a democratic, inclusive and, coincidentally, pro-NATO society.
That's why the Bush-Blair two-headed dog howls the same demented chorus of seeing the job through.
It's not happening. It won't happen. The invasion of Iraq has been an utter disaster - most notably, for the Iraqi people.
While an unrestricted debate may enable lessons to be learnt and prevent future Prime Ministers from repeating the crimes of the present incumbent, most important is to push for an immediate end to the imperialist occupation of Iraq.
