How very shocking! Brendan Nelson, Australia's defence minister, has caused sharp intakes of breath by saying something that is obviously true. He remarked last week that the Middle East was "an important supplier of energy, oil in particular" and that - as a result - people "need to think what would happen if there were a premature withdrawalfrom Iraq".

Mr Nelson did not say that Iraq was a "war for oil". He merely noted that there was a lot of the stuff sitting under the ground there - and that this mattered.