Given Mr Blair's desire to wind down Britain's presence in Iraq before he leaves office, he has probably struck a reasonable balance between the politically desirable and the militarily sensible.
Other tornadoes -- one that went though parts of Choctaw County, Alabama, and ones than struck Stone, Lawrence and Jones counties in Mississippi -- also were EF2's, which have wind speeds (for three-second bursts) between 111 and 135 miles per hour.