Iraq Follow

The mainstream media is usually keen on opinion polls, yet it curiously overlooked the results of a survey by the ORB agency last week.They asked 1,461 Iraqis how many household members had died as a result of the conflict since the 2003 invasion.

George Bush is trying to sell his "surge" of US troops in Iraq as a success. General David Petraeus, the US commander tasked with assessing the occupation, this week painted a glowing picture of the situation to the US Congress’s house committee on foreign affairs.

The British army has been resoundingly defeated in Iraq – and the only person who doesn't know it is prime minister Gordon Brown.

In his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention last week, president George Bush urged Americans to "resist the allure of retreat".

Refugees surge from Iraq The US military "surge" in Iraq has fuelled a further rise in the number of refugees and of civilians detained by occupation forces.

The game is pretty well up for the British presence in Iraq. Opinions as diverse as Menzies Campbell, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, and rebel leader Moqtada al-Sadr, whose base is among Shia in Baghdad’s Sadr City and in the south of the country centred on Basra, agree.

The cat is finally out of the bag. Military commanders, politicians and newspaper headlines all now admit that Britain has lost the war in the south of Iraq.

While the British and US governments may admit to "difficulties" in Iraq, they continue to try and sell the invasion of Afghanistan as "the good war".

Why is Gordon Brown still backing an occupation that has failed at every level, missed every target and brought misery to millions of people?

Another week, and another six young British soldiers lie dead in the mire of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The pro-US Iraqi government has outlawed the country’s oil workers’ union under a law passed during the regime of Saddam Hussein.