If geoff hoon thought it was business as usual, he was wrong. The sullen faces on the labour benches that greeted the defence secretary's statement on October 18th were as telling as the almost pleading interventions. It was hard to find a single backbench Labour MP who supported the planned deployment of British troops near Baghdad under American command. Even the normally super-fluent foreign secretary, Jack Straw, was reduced to stammering confusion when asked in a radio interview to explain why the deployment was necessary. There are plenty of reasons for the MPS' unhappiness. Some are genuinely concerned about exposing British soldiers to new dangers. Others worry about linking Britain too closely with what many fear will be an indiscriminate and bloody American onslaught on Fallujah. But what troubles them most is the suspicion that the British army has been enlisted by Karl Rove, George Bush's political strategist, to give a last-minute boost to the president's faltering campaign-and that, worse still, Tony Blair is only too happy to oblige.
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