The mess in Iraq

It was only a few days ago that Tony Blair was in Washington with Bush, talking about drawing down the troops in Iraq. It's strange how clueless these two are. Just days later, events in Iraq force a rethink of that plan:

In a blow to British hopes for an early pullout of troops from Basra, the Iraqi Prime Minister has declared a month-long state of emergency during a trip to Iraq's British-controlled second city, in an attempt to quell increasing violence...

Yesterday's announcement of a state of emergency is the first in Iraq and a sign of how serious the unrest has become in the British-controlled southeastern region, which had previously been relatively calm compared with Sunni areas of the country. In other troubled areas, including Baghdad and Ramadi, a curfew is in force.

In fact, from what I can tell from reading Juan Cole's analyses, the whole country is in utter chaos. Nobody knows who to trust or where to hide. There's a mass exodus of the middle class to Jordan and other nearby countries. It's just a mess.

And, just to make matters worse, it looks as though there's a meltdown going on in Afghanistan too.