Nothing to do

Patrick Cockburn

Nothing to do is the verdict of Patrick Cockburn on the British and American occupation of Iraq. I’ve admired Cockburn’s reporting in the LRB for some time, as he appears to report from among the Iraqi people rather than living in the Green Zone. The best information about the state of Iraq outside Baghdad comes not, he says, from intelligence professionals, but from lorry drivers, whose lives and livelihoods depend on it.

After the failure of all other excuses, the remaining justification for remaining is to prevent a civil war. Forget it, says Cockburn, it’s already in progress. And there isn’t anything our troops can do about it.