Roll up, roll up – the Karadzic circus is in town

Archetypal war criminal Radovan Karadzic, perpetrator of the West's favourite modern slaughter episode, Srebrenica, is finally in the clink. And don't we just love it.

Watch out for a media/establishment avalanche of terms like "massacre", "genocide", "war crimes", "cronies" and "evil" over the coming days, along with breathtaking phrases such as "worst war crimes since the Second World War".

One news report alone on Radio 4 (AKA "Good news"), aired this morning, contained all of the above.

Incredibly, it followed a lengthy discussion of troop levels in Iraq, which contained nothing other than phrases such as "the lessons learned since 2003" and "safeguarding reconstruction and development", in response to Gordon Brown's latest announcement of a gradual reduction in Britain's "interventionist" presence on Basra's streets.

Perhaps most eye-watering was the inclusion, in the strident Karadzic item, of the words of the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal: "This arrest sends out a message that the international community will not tolerate war crimes, and that all fugitives will be brought to justice."

The first half of the sentence is so laughable as to warrant almost no attention; the second half - while almost as devoid of meaning - pricks the ear because it reminds us of those to whom law does not apply. Officially-sanctioned "fugitives" will be brought to justice, of course, but presumably not those persons who are now forging lucrative careers on the international speaking circuit and/or as "peace envoys" to the Middle East?

The volume and nature of the reporting splashed across this morning’s mainstream media could not be clearer: no amount of opprobrium is enough for certain crimes - such as the murder of 8,000 Muslims in a Bosnian town. Other acts of violence, both brazen, systemic and genuinely catastrophic in scope, however, are apparently not worthy of such keen critique.

This while Iraq lies in ruins, more than a million of its people dead, tortured, abused, starved; while Afghan wedding parties perish under cascades of 2000lb bombs as their country is strategically raped; while the US violates the UN Charter at will, rendition flights touch down at UK-operated bases and the outrage of Guantanamo remains; and while a Western monopoly on nuclear weapons is underwritten by acts of unspeakable international aggression.