Iraq gives up

The Iraq prime minister has had enough. His comments that he wants out of the job is a reflection of how little faith he has in Bush and Blair’s plans to save his country from destruction.

The cock-up of Saddam’s execution was probably the final straw. What should have been dignified justice became a racist lynching that was broadcast around the world.

He must surely have lost confidence in his colleagues who lack the sense to do things the right way. In fact, he’s probably lucky they didn’t play football with Saddam's head while Al-jazeera filmed them.

So, what now for Iraq?

The best new strategy the Baker-Hamilton Commission could come up with was to work with the Iranians and Syrians.

That's how bad things are.

Firstly, the Iranians and Syrians aren’t really behind what's going on in Iraq.

Even if they were, they wouldn’t just stop because the Americans asked them, particularly as that would allow a stable pro-US government on their own doorsteps.

So, the only "idea" on the table is a non-starter.

Can we pull out and allow the oil supply to be disrupted ... or to be sold to the Chinese?

Nope. We need Iraq’s oil for our economy.

I thought the idea of a war was a bad one when it was first suggested but, looking back, it was even more stupid than I thought.

The idea that, having failed for decades to export democracy to Northern Ireland, we'd create democracy in Iraq in a couple of years was staggeringly naive.