So consider the original Coalition of the Willing, and how many of the leaders of those countries who went along with Bush’s war are now out of government. Spain, Poland, Italy, soon Japan, and so on; at this point, I think the only Bush friends still holding onto power are Howard in Australia and Blair in Britain. Blair’s struggling mightily to hold on, but his poodling over the war has cost him dearly.

Now the question is, can we hold our leaders to account when they lie and steal and murder? Well, the Italians seem to be making an effort. After the recent arrest of the current and previous heads of military intelligence the other day comes this item:

A judge on Friday ordered Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial over alleged fraud at his family’s broadcaster Mediaset.

Preliminary hearings began in October after a four year investigation by Milan magistrates into claims of embezzlement, false accounting, tax fraud and money laundering in television rights deals between 1994 and 1999.

Of course I’d rather see BushCo prosecuted for their war crimes than for their corruption. But I’d settle for any successful prosecution.