Well, there has been a failure in the UK miliary activities in Iraq- they should have taken on Al Sadr, arrested him and tried him for some of his many misdemeanours. Then they should have said to all the waverers around Mucktada, 'who's next?', and then (to the people) 'we want to involve ourselves in most of what goes on here in Basra, getting to know you and what's best for us to do before we go'. They should have done this a long time ago.

The BBC's Paul Reynolds is still bleating about an exit strategy. Yeah, well, ok- but in doing this almost solid for over a year- almost two years I think- he seems to have missed the point that the troops were there for real reasons, and had serious work to do. Perhaps the defensiveness of the whole UK endeavour, which the BBC has done more than most to promote, has contributed to the failure to exit?

The point is that the Brits had it relatively easy there, but naturally where you have hot-blooded Shia and the mullahs next door you have to move smartly to build on that position, rather than preening about being liked more than your colleagues further north. I don't really blame our troops for this as it's mainly media driven, but nevertheless there is a snobbery about, which I don't like, which may just have got our troops singed recently. I also don't think the situation in the South is desperate, unless one considers that this area was a real potential strength and dynamo to achieve our objectives, and now it isn't so clear that it is.

The Poosh is very clear about this, as on much else. Good stuff. If I understand correctly he's from an Asian background, which is why he sounds so refreshingly patriotic I suppose.