An extract from the Independent, showing how the Coalition Occupation Force is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article622738.ece
April 2003: Tony Blair at a press conference with President George Bush
“I think anyone who has seen the joy on the faces of people in Basra, as they realise that the regime that they detest is finally collapsing, knows… this was indeed a war of liberation and not of conquest.”
December 2003: Tony Blair on the capture of Saddam Hussein
“The celebrations on the streets of Baghdad, Basra and all over Iraq show once and for all how delighted the Iraqi people are that Saddam’s rule is now history.”
July 2004: Captain Richard Sernberg, Cheshire Regiment, in Basra
“The situation is very different from the way it was in Northern Ireland or the Balkans. There is nowhere where we feel direct hostility towards us. In one of the poorer areas, stones get thrown at the vehicles but it is just kids.”
July 2004: Hussain Abid, whose two-year-old son was injured in a Basra bomb attack
“I am angry the British came here, near civilian homes. I want the government to ask the British to move out of the city. We are in danger here. We have been hit 10 or 11 times in one month.”
September 2005: Tony Blair 's party conference speech
“Yes, several hundred people stoned British troops in Basra. Yes, several thousand run the terrorist insurgency around Baghdad and, yes, as a result of the fighting, innocent people tragically die. But 8.5 million Iraqis showed which future they wanted when they voted in January’s elections.”
December 2005: Tony Blair to British troops in Basra
“I know how dangerous it is sometimes, because… we have lost two colleagues here. But… when you look back on this time, I think and hope you can feel very proud of what you have done.”
Yesterday: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, declaring a state of emergency in Basra
“We shall use an iron fist against the leaders of the gangs or those who threaten security.”