Friday's comment from the papers in...

Today in Times Comment

• Mary Ann Sieghart: Tony Blair’s support for Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon was wrong. And we said so
• Ben Macintyre: Tony Blair is the only prime minister for more than 60 years to leave office at a time of his own choice
• Oliver Kamm: Why Tebbit is right not to forgive the ex-terrorist
• Gerard Baker: Ronald Reagan challenged diplomatic assumptions and took on the enemies of freedom
• Bronwen Maddox: The Iraqi government couldn’t stop the sectarian violence if it wanted to and it can’t run the oil industry
• Jane Shilling: It's clear those women MPs who have survived best over the past decade have adopted male tactics
• Ann Treneman: It was so deserted in the Commons that it made the Mary Celeste look like a rave

And in the rest of the papers…

• Dominic Lawson: (The Independent) - If more doctors are refusing to carry out abortions, it is for good moral reasons
• Joan Bakewell: (The Independent) - We age. We wrinkle. So get used to it...
• Matthew Norman: (The Independent) - Sackings, sycophants and Jack Straw
• Jeff Randall: (The Daily Telegraph) - It is 'the Cinderella asset' that's Lord Browne's greatest loss
• Karine Lisbonne de Vergeron: (The Daily Telegraph) - The electorate has decided gender is irrelevant and seems unlikely to be seduced by mere presentation and spin
• Con Coughlin: (The Daily Telegraph) - The generals, not the politicians, are true keepers of the Ataturk flame and they will not stand idly by if the Turks try to return to their old Islamic ways
• Polly Toynbee: (The Guardian) - Politicians are so afraid of tabloid censure that they are ready to ignore the real costs of a thriving black market economy
• Simon Jenkins: (The Guardian) - The wedding photo legal battle is a blatant case of one rule for the rich, one for the poor. The courts are left looking like fools
• Martin Jacques: (The Guardian) - The French presidential favourite's pandering to the far right is indulged because of his pro-US stance and neo-liberalism

And from the rest of the world…

• Rose Gottemoeller: (New York Times) - Relations between the United States and Russia are in a bad way, but we should not forget our long history of working through even the most sensitive problems
• Hoshyar Zebari: (Washington Post) - Iraqis, for all our determination and courage, cannot succeed alone
• Eugene Robinson: (Washington Post) Is George W. Bush even trying to make sense anymore?
• Peggy Noonan: (The Wall Street Journal) - An incomplete field: First impressions of the GOP's 2008 candidates
• Drew Forrest: (South Africa Mail & Guardian) - Will the self-righteous inherit the earth?
• Georgy Bovt: (Moscow Times) - What mutual understanding there might have been between Russia and the West is gradually being replaced by increasing mutual irritation, suspicion and even confrontation