Stillborn

And so it has eventually come to this: the Iraqi interim regime is hinting that elections will be "delayed" due to the security situation. But can you really imagine things getting any better at this stage...?

Iraq's future is dark. Elections will be delayed, and delayed, and delayed, allowing an unelected regime of torturers to entrench themselves. And in the end, after at least 14,000 civilian casualties (and between 8,000 and 194,000 total deaths), Iraqi democracy will be stillborn, and Iraq will be no better off than when it started.

Those who supported the war can claim that they acted in good faith to depose a monstrous dictator - but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And the US's failure to plan for the occupation, its resistance to holding free elections at the earliest stage, and its brutal tactics and racist attitude towards the Iraqi people more or less ensured that that road would not lead to a brighter future for Iraq, but only to a compliant despotism keeping its people subjugated with Saddam's people and Saddam's methods.

I have said before that the war was not worth it. There was however some small hope that if the Iraqi people got a real democracy offering real choice between candidates, then something worthwhile could have been salvaged from it. Now even that small hope is dead.