Readers, your correspondent must confess to becoming increasingly irritated with anti-war journalists wining on about the United States “empire” and that Iraq was all about oil. I would therefore like to share the following little tale with you. It relates to a conversation that took place at a conference in the UK recently.

Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if plans for Iraq were just an example of empire-building by George Bush. He answered by saying the following:
"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those who did not return."

By all accounts, at this point the room became really quiet.