Comment & Analysis

Iraq's slide to Iranian theocracy

IF all goes according to plan, we will know this week what kind of Iraq coalition troops and their Iraqi allies have fought and died to create: Iraq's Sunni, Kurdish and Shi'ite leaders are about to release their inaugural constitution to the world. With inadequate numbers of American troops worn down by two years of a losing battle against a strengthening insurgency (and with British troops also increasingly war weary), Washington and London are hoping that the document will not be so imperfect as to prevent them from hailing it a success, declaring victory and packing up to go home. That is certainly how the Bush and Blair governments intend to spin it. But the terrible truth, plain for all to see, is that Iraq is far from being a success, much less a victory.
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