Bloody Uprisings That Expose Self-Delusion of British Policy ; Commentary

Summary

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AT ROUGHLY fortnightly intervals for most of the past year, Tony Blair and his ministers have been telling us that Iraq is heading in the right direction, overcoming its difficulties. There might be many problems still to resolve, but there was no doubt the country was gradually becoming a better place. As recently as 13 July, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw proclaimed that reconstruction was "accelerating" and the new Iraqi administration was "cracking down" on crime and terrorism.

After Mr Blair survived his not-very-close encounter with Michael Howard over the Butler report, the spin doctors were out in force, claiming he had finally "moved on" from Iraq, strengthened, renewed, steeled by adversity, shooting up in the opinion polls from 31 per cent to a dazzling 32 per cent.

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Extract

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Bloody Uprisings That Expose Self-Delusion of British Policy ; Commentary

But with the renewed uprisings in Najaf, Sadr City and elsewhere, it is now clear - if it was ever unclear - that all this is simply t...

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