"People have the option not to become terrorists"

Well thank you, Mr Blair. I hadn't realised! I thought that certain people were always going to become terrorists, since nature wins over nurture, we're all subject to predestination, and the Lord God Made Us All (in his image, although we must suppose he ran out of crayons by the time he got to western Europe).

The problem isn't that people don't have the option not to become terrorists - of course they do. To trot this out with a heartfelt face as if everything will sort itself out now is either incredibly naive or incredibly optimistic.

What's needed is for people not only to have the option but to have a reason not to become terrorists. Potential terrorists aren't using Iraq as "an excuse" for what they do - he's right on that, at least - because Iraq is merely one more time we've gone stomping around the world causing havoc under the guise of kissing it better. (And before that, when we just considered it our God-given right. And before that, when we just considered it our Gods-given right.)

If we're going to "stand up and confront the ideology of this evil", then this means standing up and confronting what we've done, as well as bitching about what they've done - and we've done some evil things ourselves.