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How Predictions for Iraq Came True
By John Simpson
BBC World Affairs Editor, 9 April 2006
It was a few weeks before the invasion of Iraq, three years ago (Feb/Mar 2003). I was interviewing the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, in the ballroom of a big hotel in Cairo.
Shrewd, amusing, bulky in his superb white robes, he described to me all the disasters he was certain would follow the invasion.
The US and British troops would be bogged down in Iraq for years. There would be civil war between Sunnis and Shias. The real beneficiary would be the government in Iran.
"And what do the Americans say when you tell them this," I asked? "They don't even listen," he said.
Over the last three years, from a ringside seat here in Baghdad, I have watched his predictions come true, stage by stage.
And we’ve all got ringside seats here in UK, so do we all think the above predictions are comparable to the likely future for Afghanistan and will the applicable elements come true, stage by stage? To paraphrase
Private Eye – Yes, Ed. Do we also think that Dubya and Bliar are listening - No, Ed.