Brown's first job must be to break free of US shackles [View All]

A new prime minister has the opportunity to do what Blair never could - leave Iraq and face the consequences

Gordon Brown's first hundred days as prime minister have already prompted more speculation than Santa Claus. We assume that there will be showy initiatives and sweeteners for all, not least because he will be tempted to call an early election, in 2008.

Today, no issue can be exercising Brown's imagination more than Iraq. The most dramatic achievement the nation's new leader could offer the electorate ahead of a poll is to get us out. Brown knows nothing of foreign policy, and always seems uncomfortable with it. Yet how he must crave a coup.

Most people believe that horrible things will happen after American and British troops leave Iraq, whenever that may be. This is why Bush and Blair are alike desperate that there should be no explicit admission of defeat on their watch. Yet there is little evidence to make us suppose that the prospects can be improved by military means.

The only plausible path to a less bloody outcome lies through diplomacy. If the Washington administration was willing to talk to the Iranians and Syrians, and work actively towards improving the Israel-Palestine situation, there might be a slender chance of averting a regional war. George Bush, however, remains unwilling to parley with people he regards as implacable foes of western interests, and Blair cannot make him.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1976578,00.html