Recently, a US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report was created by the intelligence services regarding the present and future situation in Iraq. The Washington Post, and the New York Times both published accounts of the main points from the report and as a person from the United Kingdom, the main ally with the US in this conflict, I was interested in this statement and wanted to learn more.

However, it appeared that there were enough contradictory statements to satisfy people from both sides of the war/no war lobby so if the US wanted to find a way out of the mess it presently finds itself in this document could help, but if they wanted to stay in Iraq the document would also give them the wherewithal to stay. I realised I needed to find out another opinion about this report.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) for Public Policy Research gave a more understandable account although at first it appears to be biased in favour of the US leaving its troops there. Yet, as you read on the AEI admit that the NIE report is basically weak in its conclusions and says, "The NIE is at best a snapshot of the current situation in Iraq. It should be a surprise to no one that significant problems remain."

Well, the second article was more helpful in understanding what is going on but didn't really give a definite answer either.

Perhaps it would be better if I looked at this as a personal viewpoint from a purely British perspective.

It should be noted that the Sunnis and the Shiites have always been at odds with each other, and like it or not Sadam Hussein did find a way to keep the lid on the violence that could occur through a civil and religious war. Until someone actually finds a solution to this particular problem peace will be hard to achieve.

I don't think any country or coalition can control this purely on a military basis. This has been the mistake for some time. It doesn't help when a lot of the people out there are not professional service personnel but privately run company security people, the best known being Blackwater USA, with little accountability and what appears to be a lot of freedom to act as they wish. Personally, I think they actually do more harm than good - but that is a personal opinion and based only on what information I have been given via the media and the internet. It could all be wrong of course, and if so I will apologise here and now, but what exactly is the role of these private security personnel?

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