Lying, conniving political 'leaders' cannot keep their jobs following Iraq

Clinton was impeached for a boyish fiddle with a girl which he then denied - as most men in his position - or any position - would have done.

Compared with the monstrous lies of which his successor seems guilty, his "offence" was trivial.

It is difficult now to believe that lies and deceptions have not been practised by Bush and Blair - lies and deceptions that have cost some hundreds of American and British lives as well as the lives of thousands of Iraqis.

The cost of a war entered into on the basis of deceit has been heavy in many respects and the full cost in strategic, political, economic and social terms has yet to be fully calculated - and endured.

There is continuing evidence, too, that the corruption of a war justified by deceit has been followed by a "peace" and reconstruction based on a whole complex of further deceits and corruptions. A culture seems to exist in which corporate and political corruptions are intertwined.

If what we now so strongly suspect is true, Bush and Blair must go - and go quickly.

Whether even that will be enough to rescue the integrity of our national and international political environments must be doubted.Some more fundamental cleansing of our Augean democracies seems to be called for - urgently.

What of Bush's willing little buddy, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia?

He must have known - or, if he did not make a reasonably well-informed guess, he must be the most ingenuous nonentity ever to occupy the top political spot in a democracy of significance.

If what we now strongly suspect is true, he must be unceremoniously removed from office too - and quickly.