The price of 'success'...

"The Danish are better than us. They just published a cartoon while we Muslims kill each other."

Dismay rings in the words of Abu Rasoul as he stands beside his bomb-damaged mosque in Iraq. After the devastation of a particularly holy Shi'ite shrine in Samarra earlier this week revenge was swiftly meted out when more than 90 Sunni mosques were attacked. The death toll is already in treble figures.

So this is the brave new world that we imagined, is it? A scant few weeks after the 'success' of the elections Iraq seems on the verge of civil war, perhaps unsurprisingly considering the country has been pummeled into shape and manhandled by a Western 'Lord Protectorate' that knows too little about its diverse peoples - and cares about them even less. We didn't have a clue what we were getting into. The good amongst us may have been swayed by the black and white idea that a cruel dictator should be toppled. The less honourable were easily lured by the promise of black gold and lucrative re-building contracts. But regardless of motive the plan was never thought through, never tackled in a way that would provide genuine solutions for Iraq... not long term ones, for certain!

Of course there will be those who point at the Iraqi rock throwers with derision and disgust. "Look at those savages. It's a good job we're over there trying to keep control!". Those people will never see the whole forest whilst they pay so much attention to one tree, never understand the idea of cause and effect... that we are surely a large part to blame for the situation. I know that the Sunni / Shi'ite feuding goes back too far to remember, but we promised stability. We said to the people "Never fear - the West is here!". But how effective have we been? Well, I suppose that since Saddam is gone it's at least not so one-sided anymore...

Amidst the chaos and confusion sage words emerged from a most unusual source... "Violence will only contribute to what the terrorists sought to achieve" said a certain Mr George W. Bush. Wise words indeed... if only they'd come to you a few years earlier.

Cheers m'dears!