According to the latest estimates, the mass graves in Iraq contain the remains of at least 300,000 people, but we’re still arguing about whether the war was “justified”. The pacifism – or, more accurately, passivism – of Europe does not seem especially moral.
But even the British, according to Max Hastings in The Spectator, are “furious” with America. “British soldiers and diplomats anticipated almost every misfortune that has occurred,” Sir Max assures us, and proceeds to recite a long list of things the shrewd Brits told their cocky Yank cousins: the Americans don’t have enough troops on the ground, and they’re the wrong kind of troops anyway, ill-suited to peacekeeping, lacking the cultural sensitivity of the wise old British, etc.
If “British soldiers and diplomats” really said all this to the Americans, the answer would seem to be obvious – You don’t think there are enough troops? Send some more yourself. You think Americans are lousy at peacekeeping? Fine, we’ll do the dirty work, you guys can do all the community-liaison foot patrols.