IN THE 12 months since President George W. Bush made his Top Gun arrival on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare, “Mission accomplished”, more than 600 Americans have been killed in fighting, with more than 100 dying in April alone. Over that same period, many thousands of Iraqis have been killed, with many more yet to die as the United States pursues an Israeli-style communal-punishment strategy to obliterate resistance. In short, Iraq has become the nightmare all those who opposed this war said it would be and we are now watching the military humiliation of the most technologically advanced nation on earth by people with minimal armaments.

The implications of this disaster will roll out over the next months and years, but the first and most obvious consequence is that the US and all who sided with it in this conflict have succeeded in turning the entire Arab world into a seething mass of fury, praying and working for our downfall. If the point of this exercise was to stop terrorism, it has succeeded in recruiting an entirely new generation of suicide bombers longing for the day they can bring their brand of justice to our doorsteps. If it was intended to promote democracy or bring stability to the Middle East, it has succeeded in turning a powder keg into a burning fireball whose exploding pieces are yet to settle. On every count, the Iraqi adventure has been a total disaster.