The witch-hunt against Kofi Annan and the United Nations over the Iraq oil-for-food scandal is, quite simply, a scandal all on its own. The leaders of this lynch mob in the US Congress and the rightwing commentariat are not gunning for Mr Annan so much as aiming to destroy the UN as an institution. That would be a disaster - for all of us, including, especially, the US.

It is hard to know whether those conducting this campaign are being deliberately mendacious, or whether they cannot add up or understand which bits of what institutions policed the sanctions against Saddam Hussein.