What’s up in Basra?
An AFP reporter who visited British forces in Basra and at the airbase last month found both under almost daily mortar attack from militias in the city.
Dick Cheney’s friend says it’s all flowers and candy.
But in fact, I talked to a friend just the other day, a guy who knows the region very well, has spent a lot of years in that part of the world who had driven from Baghdad down to Basra in seven hours, found the situation dramatically improved compared to where it was a year or so ago, sort of validated the British view that they have made progress in southern Iraq, and that they can therefore afford to reduce their force posture.