Basra

From the Guardian Unlimited: UK has left behind murder and chaos, says Basra police chief

The full scale of the chaos left behind by British forces in Basra was revealed yesterday as the city's police chief described a province in the grip of well-armed militias strong enough to overpower security forces and brutal enough to behead women considered not sufficiently Islamic.

As British forces finally handed over security in Basra province, marking the end of 4½ years of control in southern Iraq, Major General Jalil Khalaf, the new police commander, said the occupation had left him with a situation close to mayhem. "They left me militia, they left me gangsters, and they left me all the troubles in the world,"...

Hey wait a minute! This doesn't conform to all the good news coming out of Iraq - you know, stability, peace, democracy, increased oil production.

Not to worry, the Guardian Unlimited is a British paper. This news will never make it past page 45 of the local paper.