“Obviously there will be people who have never been convinced about the original decision. But the fundamentals of the situation in Iraq are absolutely clear. You have a government supported by the United Nations. You have got massive reconstruction. You’ve got an attempt to bring democracy to the country and you’ve got these people trying to stop it. I can understand why people still have a powerful disagreement about the original decision to go to war, but what ever that disagreement, surely now it is absolutely clear we have to stay and see it through. Because the consequences of not doing so is that global terrorism will get a tremendous boost. By contrast, if we succeed and defeat these people and help the Iraqis to get what the Iraqis want, then global terrorism will suffer a defeat… So my point to people is: which side should we be on now? You might have disagreed about the conflict, but there is only one side to be on now, and that’s the side of people who are trying to bring democracy and hope to the country, not trying to plunge it into terror and chaos.” – Tony Blair, yesterday. The most recent polls show the (increasingly anti-war) Tories with a minuscule lead.
ATTENTION STEYN: Here’s more troubling data on the tenacity of the Iraq insurgency, as compiled by a private security firm:
Reports covering seven days in a recent 10-day period depict a nation racked by all manner of insurgent violence, from complex ambushes involving 30 guerrillas north of Baghdad on Monday to children tossing molotov cocktails at a U.S. Army patrol in the capital’s Sadr City slum on Wednesday. On maps included in the reports, red circles denoting attacks surround nearly every major city in central, western and northern Iraq, except for Kurdish-controlled areas in the far north. Cities in the Shiite Muslim-dominated south, including several that had undergone a period of relative calm in recent months, also have been hit with near-daily attacks… On Wednesday, there were 28 separate hostile incidents in Baghdad, including five rocket-propelled grenade attacks, six roadside bombings and a suicide bombing in which a car exploded at a National Guard recruiting station, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 50… [A]ccording to the Kroll reports, recent violence appears to have been widespread rather than limited. On Wednesday, for instance, attacks in Salahuddin province occurred in Taji, Balad, Tikrit, Samarra, Baiji, Thuliyah and Dujayl — the seven largest population centers in the area.
Not quite Mark Steyn’s view that in most of Iraq, “life is as jolly as it has been in living memory.” I’m not saying that this a reason to give up on what we are currently doing – attempting to build up Iraqi defense forces, police, and trying to hold elections at the end of January. I am saying that the president is either dissembling to the American people about the scope of the problem there, or dangerously uninformed. Under the circumstances, I’d be more reassured if he were dissembling.
The Dish 