What would Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, the coolest of heads, have made of poor William Shawcross’s overwrought emotional plea that we must stay on in Iraq as a kind of act of faith (‘Britain must stay in Iraq’, 25 August)?
A menace of our making
Sir: What would Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, the coolest of heads, have made of poor William Shawcross’s overwrought emotional plea that we must stay on in Iraq as a kind of act of faith (‘Britain must stay in Iraq’, 25 August)? Well, the Duke once opined: ‘The real test of a general is to know when to retreat and dare to do it.’
Surely we have reached that point in Iraq, although a retreat needs to be well prepared and deliberate. Even American generals are now acknowledging that George W. Bush’s original purpose in attacking Iraq, that of creating a viable Iraqi democratic regime, is now beyond reach.
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