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I can't believe I'm doing this... but Andrew Sullivan gets himself a little mixed up today. He provides us with two quotes in which he can detect no substantive difference.

The first comes from British PM, Tony Blair: "our troops are [not] going to be ordered to do something that our troops don't want to do".

Sullivan disputes that this contrasts with Powell's comment on a similar topic (post-sovereignty structures of command): "U.S. forces remain under U.S. command and will do what is necessary to protect themselves."

The difference that eludes Mr. Sullivan is that in Blair's comments the Iraqis have the ability to constrain British actions, whereas in Powell's formulation, they do not. Neither Blair nor Powell give the Iraqis the power of command, but the two men differ in that Blair DOES grant them the power to countermand.