Iraq remains a mess

After four-and-a-half years, the endgame in the Iraq War is unfolding. It is not a pretty sight. The Prime Minister's attempt to convey some sense of "mission accomplished", with his talk yesterday of political reconciliation, security and economic reconstruction, convinced nobody. Last week his crudely timed announcement of "1000 troops home for Christmas" looked like clumsy political opportunism designed to upstage the Tories in advance of a snap General Election. That impression was reinforced by the revelation that half of them had already left or never arrived. There is something particularly morally repugnant about trying to make political capital from a subject where the lives of service personnel are at stake. The mishandling of the announcement contributed to the political bruising sustained by Gordon Brown over the late cancellation of plans for an early General Election.