Britain and the US are maintaining positive illusions about the situation in Iraq, but the unvarnished truth is less comfortable
By Simon Tisdall
The Guardian
"Iraq's politics, as opposed to Iraq's grim daily ground-floor reality, increasingly resembles a game of illusions which those involved conspire to maintain or prolong. It is an Alice in Wonderland world - except there are no white rabbits disappearing down holes, let alone being pulled from hats.
In Washington, or at least in the White House, the official illusion, stoutly maintained, is that things are moving (if not surging) forward, that a process of achieving stability and benchmarks is in place, and that a military progress report - nothing more dramatic or cathartic - will be delivered to Congress next month......
In both cases - the US and Britain - the unvarnished truth, vaguely perceived through mists of doublespeak, is somewhat less comfortable. US commander General David Petraeus, guardian of the Baghdad security plan, was asked to do the impossible - and no surprise (or disgrace), has found it impossible to do.
Nineteen coalition troops have died in the first week of August, a sign of strengthening insurgent opposition. Showcase city Tal Afar, described as a success story for US forces, was blown up again on Monday; 28 people, including 19 children, were killed. Too often, improved security lasts as long as it takes for the Humvee to disappear round the corner......
Iraq's parliament, the much-trumpeted achievement of George Bush's "forward march of freedom", has mostly kept marching right out of Baghdad this summer, to Amman, Cairo, Dubai or London - a month-long holiday break that was the only thing on which the MPs could actually agree......."
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