Misunderstimation

Bit busy today so I'll be brief. This looks like it's probably the work of the al Qaida types. Najaf is one of the holy places of Shia Islam and this looks like another attempt to stir things up.

I've been meaning to blog something Jack Straw said the other day. It was a pitiful attempt to absolve the government of blame for completely misunderstanding what would happen in Iraq after the invasion. I've not got round to it yet but I think his own words probably get the point across pretty well.

If you ask me... what mistake that we made, I underestimated the scale of the viciousness of the terrorism against ordinary Iraqis.

Got that? The government underestimated the scale of the viciousness of al Qaida.

There's a lot more going on in Iraq than just al Qaida terrorism. They are only one part of the problem. Most people could see, though, that the invasion would attract al Qaida types to Iraq from near and far. Jack doesn't seem to dispute that. He just underestimated them.

Tags: News, Politics, Iraq