The U.S. and Iran

All the informed commentaries on the Iraq elections say more or less the same thing: Religious fundamentalism is the winner and any hopes of building a secular democracy are futile. Do we have any admission from George W. Bush and Tony Blair that this is what their policies wrought? Of course, not. Do we have any admission that the Shia religious bloc is an effective tool of Iran? Again, no.

Nobody should be surprised. Before the invasion, one member of the pro-U.S. Iraqi National Council told The Independent's Patrick Cockburn that he had met Bush and that the President was amazed to learn from him there were two types of Muslims in Iraq with a long history of enmity. That was the extent of Bush's appalling ignorance about what he was getting us into. This reflects particularly badly in my view of Tony Blair. Heaven help us if they do take on Iran, a far more serious nut to crack in any case.

DAVID JARDINE, Jakarta