Basra

Toby Dodge, on C4 News the other day, said something like, 'We may not be doing any good there, but at least we're preventing a collapse into total chaos in Iraq.' I would have thought that was a quite considerable good. I suppose we have to translate it as 'We may not be ensuring perfect order, but at least...'

The issue that has been brought into prominence by the recent events in Basra, that of the infiltration of the police force by politically motivated groups, was already evident from the Steven Vincent story six weeks ago, which was not big news in the British media. What still baffles me about that is why Juan Cole went off at such a tangent, when the story fitted so well with the view that 'Iraq is in chaos', in the South as well as elsewhere.