smoking guns and wild geese

As John Rentoul says, the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war is - entirely predictably but entirely misleadingly - being reported by the British press as a search for a "smoking gun" (the cliche du jour). As if, after all the previous inquiries, FOI requests and torrid memoirs, this inquiry will turn up a hitherto unknown memo or conversation which finally proves that Tony Blair hypnotised the intelligence services and took the country to war because of his lust for blood and oil.

Rarely can a war have been debated so openly and thoroughly before, during and after. Yet the media persist in suggesting that there's some giant secret that "explains" everything. They're only setting up themselves up for disappointment, the little darlings.