The year since the first phase of the Iraq war ended, and the occupation by United States-led forces began, has seen a recurrent pattern of official optimism about the
The killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza on 22 March has dominated this weeks news from the Middle East. This incident does indeed have an importance that extends
A recent opinion survey among ordinary Iraqi people has produced significantly mixed results. The optimism of a majority of respondents about the countrys progress is combined with support for
Whoever was responsible for the atrocities on the Madrid railway system on Thursday 11 March, the implications will go far beyond the traumatic effects on the bereaved and injured.
If
A draft constitution for Iraq was belatedly approved on 8 March 2004 by the US-appointed Interim Governing Council (IGC), after last-minute disputes involving both Kurdish and Shia
The United States authorities in Iraq have given two conflicting responses to the 2 March attacks in Karbala and at the Kadhimiya mosque in Baghdad that killed over 180 people
An earlier column in this series (5 February 2004) reported that United States military planners were coming to recognise a point of vital strategic importance to them: that while current
The militant insurgency that followed the termination of Saddam Husseins regime has now lasted ten months. During this period, claims that the insurgency has been in decline have often
A roadside bomb that killed two soldiers in Baghdad on 11 February is the latest evidence that attacks against United States and other coalition troops continue without respite. But two
For a very short period in mid-January, some in the United States military were optimistic that the insurgency in Iraq was in retreat. The feeling was shattered by the
Around the time of Saddam Husseins detention in December 2003, there were positive signals from the Coalition Provisional Authority suggesting that the insurgency was beginning to diminish. It was
On Sunday 18 January, barely a day before Paul Bremer was due to meet Kofi Annan to seek greater United Nations involvement in the transition to Iraqi self-rule, a
