Little the West can do to stop civil war in Iraq

UNTIL this week's outbreak of intra-Shia fighting in Basra, the official British and American "narrative" about Iraq was that a political corner had finally been turned, five years after the invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

The story runs as follows: the surge in US troop numbers last year has defeated the al-Qaeda wing of the insurgency and significantly reduced the degree of violence on the streets of Iraq.

As a result, the Americans and British are now able to re...