I heard this piece on Radio 4's Today programme too, and felt the same way . I found myself wanting to do an impression of Pamela Stephenson on Not The Nine O Clock News from 20 years or so ago, when she played a social worker saying "I know these people, I understand what they have been through and I think we should.... cut their goolies off". I think empathy is important and all too often lacking, but as Josie Appleton says, it can be so narcissistic and ultimately sterile to keep going on about how empathetic one is.

Naomi Klein says in The Grauniad that those who supported the Iraq invasion should recant, because the civilian body count has just topped 10,0000 according to Iraq Body Count. She thinks the Iraq Body Count lot are authoritative - a description disputed by Oliver Kamm and Iain Murray in the past.

She also gets indignant about "the US actively and openly rewarding itself with huge reconstruction contracts". Umm, presumably as in paid for by US taxpayers' money, and also not in anyway likely to recompense the US for the cost of the invasion in the first place (the U.S. Congress appropriated around $160 billion for the conflict as far as I can ascertain - reconstruction contracts awarded this year and next year total $24bn so far). Oh but of course, the US is coining it from Iraq's oil reserves isn't it? Er no - "On an annualized basis, [Iraq] oil exports are running $1.5 billion ahead of projections by U.S. authorities and Iraqi technocrats, who forecast 2004 revenue at $12 billion". Oh I suppose if the US somehow manages to grab all Iraq oil export revenues for the next twenty or thirty years the "Iraq invasion project" might have a positive net present value. No doubt that's the real reason the US invaded - the kind of calculation that is guaranteed to please American voters - not.