"Iraq can be deadly, but, more often, it's just dreary."

The Independent tells us every day that Iraq has descended into civil war (to its barely concealed glee). Not so, according to Ralph Peters, an ex-soldier just back from the war zone. He seeks to dispel the 'media myths' about the country's current situation.

It is so difficult to read this situation aright, though I suppose it could not be otherwise given the confusion inherent in re-founding a nation and the discord on the Home Front. You could read the British withdrawal of 800 soldiers as a good sign if you didn't know the political (and military) pressure here for such a move. The attack on the mosque of Samara could be a fatal blow, or a desperate one. The politics of Iraq, daily getting-on-with-it does not have the inertia to keep normalcy in front, at least to judge from the news (which itself seems to be part of the problem).

(via Melanie Philips)