Only pressure to withdraw can stop this blood price      • The
Guardian,     • Jump to comments ()  Eight years ago, Tony
Blair's ­office issued a ­triumphant denunciation of the small
minority in the media who had ­challenged the war on terror and
the invasion of Afghanistan that launched it. Reported by the
Sun as "Blair shames war weasels", Downing Street named 10
miscreant writers, including several on the Guardian, for
suggesting that the war risked a ­Vietnam-style ­occupation,
would increase the threat of terrorism and ignore the interests
of Afghan women. They had "proved to be wrong", the spin machine
declared: kites were flying, women were throwing off their
burkas and the ­Taliban and al-Qaida had been swept from the
scene.  How preposterous such claims seem now. This week's
events in London are already offering a grim review of the
multiple crimes and disasters the war on terror has unleashed. A
succession of unrepentant ministers and buck-passing civil
servants have underlined the deceit and arro