Kofi Annan on Iraq

Kofi Annan concludes Iraq is worse now than under Saddam. I know it's the kind of heresy that gets you burned at the stake in this country, but not only do I agree with him, I think it's been worse for a long while.

Life for ordinary Iraqis is now worse than under Saddam Hussein as the country descends into violence "much worse" than civil war, Kofi Annan has said.

The Secretary General of the United Nations gave his hardest-hitting assessment yet of the present situation as he prepared to leave office.

"If I was an average Iraqi, I would make the same comparison," he told the BBC.

"They had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets: they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back without a mother or father worrying 'Am I going to see my child again?'.

"A society needs minimum security and a secure environment for it to get on. Without security, not much can be done."

I suppose most of the Iraqi government wouldn't feel that way, but then again, I gather most of them are living in London. It's a good time to be an absentee government, I'd say.