Back to reality: the beginning of the end to top-down measures in Iraq

First published March 5 2009

A small selection of the most distinguished British and American writers, such as Christopher Hitchens and David Aaronovitch, felt tremendously betrayed at the time of George W. Bush’s decision to surge Iraq and get rid of Saddam Hussein.

Why, they asked, were portions of the left, to which they once bestowed so much trust, so blind to see that UK and US forces in Iraq could curb sectarian violence, install democracy in significantly undemocratic regions of the Middle East, and, most vitally, save the progressive and trade unionist comrades who suffer enormous persecution under Hussein? (continue)