That pretty soldier's hat

Steve Bell (via) anticipated Blair's reaction to the hundredth death of a British soldier in Iraq since 2003: the deskbound patriotism of Kipling's jelly-bellied flag-flapper, in a low-key, robo-managerialist form. But Blair's actual reaction was quite different:

Mr Blair said the country had to understand why it mattered that "we see this through". It was important, he told the BBC, "because what is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq is that the people of those countries want to leave behind terrorism and extremism, and they want to embrace democracy".

Asked earlier whether the government was worried by the 100th death of a British soldier in Iraq, Mr Blair's spokesman replied: "I do not think we should do the terrorists' job for them by in some way hyping this kind of incident".

100 is just a number, it's true, but it's a number that suggests a pause for reflection, on those deaths and what caused them. That would still be true even if you ignored all the other deaths, and even if you were convinced that a hundred British soldiers had died in a good cause. Even then, those deaths and the loss they represent would deserve acknowledgment. As Chris argues, sunk (human) costs have their due. But:

I do not think we should do the terrorists' job for them by in some way hyping this kind of incident

This is monstrous.

I think the key term here is 'terrorist'. A terrorist is, essentially, a political opponent who attempts to influence you (a democratic government) through fear. Terrorists have, by definition, abandoned rational argument: there is nothing you can learn from a terrorist and nothing you can usefully say to a terrorist, except "No". Terrorism cannot be engaged with, it can only be resisted. Moreover, since terrorists have no arguments to offer, it follows that any sympathy towards them - and any wavering from your firm opposition to them - can only be explained by confusion or fear. You can afford to disregard anything the terrorists say; if people believe the terrorists, that simply shows that the terrorists have frightened them into submission, or confused them with their lies:

After Amnesty International compared American treatment of Afghan and Iraqi prisoners to the Gulag, I heard the President say: ‘It’s an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world. It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of, and the allegations by, people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble – that means not tell the truth.’

It follows that your duty is to downplay any information which might add to the confusion by encouraging people to believe the terrorists or sympathising with their cause. They're bad (because they're terrorists); you're good (because you're fighting terrorists); and the people you govern are weak and confused and liable to forget what the difference is, so you can't afford to let in too many shades of grey when you're talking to them.

Even if it means a British Prime Minister refusing to honour British war dead.