Interesting developments from Iraq.. with the Prime Minister insisting that regardless of the appeals process launched by Saddam, he will be executed before Christmas..
This reflects comments from the present Iraqi Oil Minister, a scientist who spent 12 years in Abu Grabe under Saddam's regeme, for refusing to work on the country's nuclear program. These comments amounted to a statement that American and coalition forces have harboured a 'fear' of the Iraqi people in general, perhaps prompted by the fact there was no recognizable enemy.. that combatants dressed and acted as any normal citizen would, until weapons were produced and a firefight ensued. This has alienated occupation troops from the population in general, and indeed the Iraqi Prime Minister has said he wants occupation troops out of his country in a matter of months, not, as coalition plans have previously intimated, a withdrawal over a couple of years.
Stability is going to be the central problem in Iraq once the US and Britain withdraw.. and the prospect of a civil war, or continuing terrorist attacks on those native to the country who will be left in charge, seems to be of secondary importance..
Indeed, it seems that even those who've been given the right to form a government, are now increasingly hostile to Western Forces.. a development which does not bode well for future relations with Iraq, or indeed with the entire Middle East..
We created the government of Saddam, and it would now appear we have created a democracy which is going to be equally thorny to deal with..
There is a lesson to be learned here, one which should have been absorbed with the inconclusive end to the VietNam war.. That while we might be resented equaly by the survivors of such a conflict, as we were by those we were in direct conflict..
Time to retract, to put our own societies on alert, while dealing with our various homegrown problems.
This polarisation, based on conflicting ideologies, will inevidably continue, and the battleground will certainly be increasingly on our own soil..
But as one has said repeatedly, we hold a vast economic weapon which has yet to be deployed..
Even if China takes the place of the West in pouring money into the Levant for their oil reserves, the transition in the markets will remind those in the Middle East just how much they have to lose if we follow a 'green' trend..

More to come, as the American mid-term election results come in this evening.. It would appear that the sentiment in the US is that many of the votes cast, will be based on the American position in Iraq..
With the news that Saddam will be dead before Christmas, and that American troops will be coming home sooner than later, might swing some of those undecided voters, many of whom have said they'll decide on the day who'll they'll support..