In the U.S, after a slow start by a media suffering from post-9/11 stress, a great debate about Iraq is going on. Every administration initiative is evaluated, wonks have made careers out of tracking Iraq policy and the press are full of analysis. The future of Iraq’s leader is a source of constant editorialising. Every month, politicians and analysts are flown to Baghdad by the U.S government for briefings. In fact, the surge was not even invented by the White House, but by the American Enterprise Institute, an independent, albeit government-affiliated think tank.
The contrast to Britain could not be starker. Here there is little debate and what exists is decidedly stale. On the left and parts of the isolationist right, there is a constant clamour to get out. The Tories talk about an Iraq inquiry, but like most of the mainstream centre-right, confine themselves to troop-supporting statements.
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