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Back in Iraq

Entry 99, on 2004-12-08 at 14:49:21 (Rating 3, Politics)

I haven't commented on the situation in Iraq for a while so I will make a few quick comments here, just to show that I haven't yet forgiven Bush and Blair for their incompetence and dishonesty regarding Iraq. The Americans continue to suffer casualties and things don't appear to be improving to the extent we would expect after all the effort put in by the US military.

In fact the attack in Falluja has probably made things worse. It has just generated a lot of resentment towards the occupying forces, but the majority of the insurgents have just moved on to somewhere else.

There were some interesting comments on the performance of the media in Iraq during an interview I heard this morning. Apparently the news channels are running stories which are basically fed to them by the military. For example, there might be a story describing a day in the life of a US military unit, at the same time as Iraqi police are killed in a bomb attack. Its clear that the old adage that "the first casualty of war is the truth" is as true in Iraq today as it has ever been.

So what should be done? I think the US should hand over control to the UN and provide whatever funding is necessary to establish a reasonably stable government and economy in Iraq. Currently, not only is the situation in Iraq not getting a lot better, but the US economy is declining, mainly due to the huge drain the war is having. The Americans should note that the last great world power, the British Empire, was lost after being drained by two world wars.

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