Straw punished for his disloyalty - to Bush

guardian: Jack Straw made two crucial mistakes in his dealings with Tony Blair: one involved the prime minister's relationship with Gordon Brown and the other Iran. Mr Straw has said repeatedly that it is "inconceivable" that there will be a military strike on Iran and last month dismissed as "nuts" a report that George Bush was keeping on the table the option of using tactical nuclear weapons against Tehran's nuclear plants.

But Mr Blair, who sees Iran as the world's biggest threat, does not agree with his former foreign secretary. The prime minister argues that, at the very least, nothing should be ruled out in order to keep Iran guessing. Downing Street phoned the Foreign Office several times to suggest Mr Straw stop going on the BBC Today programme and ruling it out so categorically.

His fate was sealed when the White House called Mr Blair and asked why the foreign secretary kept saying these things. In any case, Mr Straw had boxed himself in on Iran to the extent that he would have had to resign if a military strike became a reality. Read more

db: "Nothing should be ruled out - to keep them guessing". This logic is flawed. Straw was only half right - it's not just the use of nuclear weapons that's nuts - but the threat to use them. In order for them to carry any weight sooner or later Bush/Blair will have to act on their threats. Perhaps they won't unleash nukes against Iran. Maybe the situation will resolve itself before that is seen as necessary by the lawless ones. However when the next engineered crisis looms - N Korea, Syria, who knows where - they will no doubt make similar remarks and increasingly this 'keep them guessing' strategy will be seen as bluff. This may well lead the 'enemy' of the day to disregard such dark threats and make some sort of strategic miscalculation - leaving Bush - or someone like Bush - in a position where they see no alternative but to carry them out. 'Keeping them guessing' is highly dangerous for us all.