British combat operations in Iraq came to a formal end today. “Iraq is a success story”, proclaimed Gordon Brown, our prime minister.

But is it? There is an ominous increase in terrorism in Baghdad. I was shocked to read in this morning’s paper that three car bombs had gone off in Baghdad, killing 41 people (the death toll is now over 50). This was shocking both because of the news itself, and because it merited no more than a “news in brief”. That reminded me of the dark days when violence in Iraq was so widespread that it barely merited comment. Are we getting back to that? Earlier this week, there was another spate of car bombings that killed over 80 people. Read more