Crikey! The Independent, Britain's most virulently anti-war paper, splashes today with:

'Iraq: is the tide turning?'

and cautiously it answers that yes, it just might:

'Attacks on US forces are down from 140 a day to 30 a day. Casualty figures are down. So are assassination attempts. US commanders believe they can reduce forces by up to 40,000. An upbeat General Richard Myers, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week: "We're on track." Yesterday, an American civilian contractor was kidnapped in Baghdad. The dying is not over but, in Baghdad and Washington, the feeling is growing that the worst might just be over.'

So if even the Independent now concedes this, it might not be a mirage after all. The paper's leading article, however, says hastily that even if this is the case the war was still wrong. Phew. For a bad moment, I thought the Indie was connecting to reality.

Posted by melanie at April 12, 2005