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Iraq in Dire Straits

Just today it is reported that an attack on a Shiite mosque in Baghdad has killed at least 70 people and injured some 140 people. Blood donors are being called for, etc.

So this statement is timely...

"A cruel and bloody civil war has started in Iraq, a country which Bush and Blair promised to free from fear and establish democracy. I have been visiting Iraq since 1978, but for the first time, I am becoming convinced that the country will not survive".

That's a dire prediction! However the writer, published here in The Independent, lends more than weight and gravitas to what he says by quoting chapter and verse on various aspects of the mess, what the politicians said would happen, and concludes with some startling statistics. Sobering reading.

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