Funny how ready I was to believe US abuses of power in Iraq. Naturally, I thought, the most powerful nation on earth would abuse and humiliate the citizens of other countries, even more so as an occupying force. And yet, one too many old heroic English movie characters and a rose-tinted history of British colonialism made me image that "our boys", meaning the British soldiery, would never do that kind of thing. I guess the Prime Minister was brought up on a similar set of myths to be so ready to undermine allegations of British inhumanity.