International

Five years ago the United States and Britain launched an illegal invasion of Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction. These turned out not to be there. The world must now draw up a balance sheet of the results of this action. The conclusions are damning

• The war was based on lies. There were no weapons of mass destruction and the Americans knew this.
• The Iraqis are now worse off than before the war. More than a million people have fled, at least a hundred thousand civilians have died, the country is devastated.
• Outside the Kurdish region there is security nowhere. Every day brings attacks.
• The future of the country is uncertain. Iraq threatens to fall apart.
• Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorism.

These conclusions mean that the war has become a fiasco. The Dutch government must simply acknowledge this and not carry on, as it has done up to now, standing behind the US President Bush. Bush said this week that things were going well in Iraq. That's how it is with lies. You begin with one lie and you're forced as a consequence to carry on lying in order to stick to the first lie. The truth about Iraq is painfully obvious. You can easily win a war and at the same time lose the peace.

Harry van Bommel