Climbdowns

Last week the chief of staff of the British Army dared to state that the British Army's presence in Iraq was part of the problem and that it was time to get out soon. The next day he was doing the rounds of television studios trying to back pedal but the genie was out of the bottle. A couple of days ago a senior State Department official in the US, Alberto Gonzalez, said the US had been stupid and arrogant when it came to Iraq. Apparently this morning he's withdrawn his comments too. Hell I'll stick them back in the ring. It was like Donald Rumsfled was almost determined to mess it up. An incredible lack of competence, driven largely by the fact that the Pentagon was determined to take full control from the State Department, despite State having done a lot of work on post invasion planning. Rummy ignored them at every turn, the idiot. Check this out.