There is a provocative piece in today's Daily Mail by Correlli Barnett under that title (sorry: no web link as I still buy hard copies of newspapers...).

His advice to Bush and Blair:

'They must therefore now announce a firm schedule for liquidating our entanglement. In other words, the US and the UK should cease to make withdrawal dependent on the wishes of a spectral Iraqi government and take their own decision in their own direct national interest...'

Sounded reasonable to me so far but then he continued:

'...just as a previous British Labour government did in the case of India in 1946-47 and Palestine in 1947-48'.

How many how many killed in the Partition of India and in a series of conflicts over Kasmir?
Palestine....where do you start?

Begs the question of whether a country should take a long- or short-term view of 'direct national interest' I suppose. Any comments?

As Iraq is at the leading edge of the US's grand strategy in fighting terrorism what message does unilateral withdrawal send?

Originally Posted by BoomShackerLacker

As Iraq is at the leading edge of the US's grand strategy in fighting terrorism what message does unilateral withdrawal send?

More to the question: what message does unilateral invasions of sovereign countries send?

In hindsight, Iraq and Indeed the world would be safer with Sadaam in charge of Iraq.Tough pill to swallow but nevertheless the truth.

Wasn't there an MoD 'continuous attitude survey' that revealed that a great many Iraqis wanted the Man in Black back?

How many how many killed in the Partition of India and in a series of conflicts over Kasmir?
Palestine....where do you start?

Thousands in partition , it was one of Dad's favourite stories... "So there we were son , me aged 19 with a shiny new pip, 30 or so soldiers the same age as me, and a million hindus down one end of the street and a million muslims down the other. All you could do was let them get on with it"

Now we are all well aquainted with the people who Saddam was trying to keep a lid on for so many years I can only say I admire his ability. Three years ago I thought his habit of feeding malcontents into treeshredders was rather uncouth, now however I regards it as inspired policing.

He really understood his own people.

I'm sure I said this the other day. Let's get him back, he'll sort it out!

Originally Posted by armchair_jihad

Now we are all well aquainted with the people who Saddam was trying to keep a lid on for so many years I can only say I admire his ability. Three years ago I thought his habit of feeding malcontents into treeshredders was rather uncouth, now however I regards it as inspired policing.

He really understood his own people.

oh yes, obviously this particular group of people has to be gassed, massacred and tortured to be kept under control, it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the complete false estimation and incompetence of the coalition.

Originally Posted by PartTimePongo

Wasn't there an MoD 'continuous attitude survey' that revealed that a great many Iraqis wanted the Man in Black back?

How many how many killed in the Partition of India and in a series of conflicts over Kasmir?
Palestine....where do you start?

Thousands in partition , it was one of Dad's favourite stories... "So there we were son , me aged 19 with a shiny new pip, 30 or so soldiers the same age as me, and a million hindus down one end of the street and a million muslims down the other. All you could do was let them get on with it"

Quite. My now 85 year old father recalls what he described as rabid hordes gathering in side streets looking for an opportunity to tear him and his compadres limb from limb as they supported the Indian police "...the police fired over their heads, but the kept coming on. Eventually they shot straight into the crowd. It was the only message they understood."

Originally Posted by Proper_Gander

Originally Posted by armchair_jihad

Now we are all well aquainted with the people who Saddam was trying to keep a lid on for so many years I can only say I admire his ability. Three years ago I thought his habit of feeding malcontents into treeshredders was rather uncouth, now however I regards it as inspired policing.

He really understood his own people.

oh yes, obviously this particular group of people has to be gassed, massacred and tortured to be kept under control, it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the complete false estimation and incompetence of the coalition.

I think you fail to see the irony in Armchair's comments. By last estimation, only 660,000 have died since the 'liberation' of Iraq. Not sure how many Saddam was killing per year but I am sure it wasn't quite that as high as the current average.

Originally Posted by Proper_Gander

oh yes, obviously this particular group of people has to be gassed, massacred and tortured to be kept under control, it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the complete false estimation and incompetence of the coalition.

Now now, the Liberal press has been calling for proactive intervention for over thirty years in various nasty places, finally this doctrine of liberal invervention gets implemented and the Guardian and Independant complain!

The Iraqis are not children Proper_Gander, they are actually very well educated by the standards of the region, a huge amount of the Chaos and vandalism over the past three year has been through self choice. Unless I am mistaken and it was the coalition looting away like good uns a couple of years ago. Or was that Haliburton - one gets confused.