:00:00. > :00:07.Has a decade of Western attempts to bring order
:00:08. > :00:15.The Iraqi army we paid blood and treasure to build is falling
:00:16. > :00:26.Did the 2003 war achieve anything of lasting value at all?
:00:27. > :00:32.A decade on is the country on the way to a violent and bloody breakup?
:00:33. > :00:47.We're devoting tonight's Newsnight to the crisis in Iraq.
:00:48. > :00:49.Extremists swear to continue their journey of destruction
:00:50. > :00:53.across Iraq, taking their fight all the way to Baghdad.
:00:54. > :00:58.Anyone who gets in their way - soldiers or civilians - gets killed.
:00:59. > :01:00.But President Obama tells what is left of Iraq's Government,
:01:01. > :01:07.Today's chaos may have some of its roots in Western failures,
:01:08. > :01:11.but no Western boots will touch Iraqi ground to help now.
:01:12. > :01:17.Tonight we'll hear from Iraq and Washington, asking
:01:18. > :01:28.First with his analysis our diplomatic editor, Mark Urban.
:01:29. > :01:37.After the shock of this week's set backs, Nouri Al-Maliki's Government
:01:38. > :01:44.has started to fight back and he has done so in Samarra, where ISIS
:01:45. > :01:48.fighters arrived this week. It is home to important Shia shrines.
:01:49. > :01:56.Nouri Al-Maliki was in Samarra today. His visit to the city is
:01:57. > :01:59.significant, because it is in the Sunni heartland of Iraq and it is an
:02:00. > :02:05.attempt to show that the armed forces are in control of strategic
:02:06. > :02:12.cities, even to the north of Baghdad and it is a symbolic visit, because
:02:13. > :02:19.it is home to one of Iraq's most sacred Shia shrines and in 2006 an
:02:20. > :02:25.attack there started a sectarian war. There is a determination to
:02:26. > :02:34.prevent that from happening again. ISIS can advance rapidly, because it
:02:35. > :02:38.is a guerrilla army. It headed past Kirkuk, where Kurdish fighters are
:02:39. > :02:44.in control and then tried to take Samarra, where it has met fierce
:02:45. > :02:52.resistance. Some fighters have pushed to the south. But ISIS is
:02:53. > :02:56.probably overstretched and government forces regrouping. In the
:02:57. > :03:02.long-term, I think the odds favour the Iraqi state, which has plenty of
:03:03. > :03:06.resources and advanced weaponry and has some good special operations
:03:07. > :03:11.forces that they can deploy against the militants in the north. The
:03:12. > :03:16.problem is that with today's announcement by Ali al-Sistani we
:03:17. > :03:23.may be entering a new phase where it is not just the Iraqi military that
:03:24. > :03:28.is fighting, but Shia militant and we could enter a new phase of the
:03:29. > :03:35.war. But the military have a long way to go. One deserter who fled to
:03:36. > :03:41.Mosul told the BBC about the collapse of military leadership.
:03:42. > :03:50.Transour commanders did not fight in 2004 I used to see the American
:03:51. > :03:54.officers, all ranks fighting alongside them and leading them. The
:03:55. > :03:57.problem is not because of the soldiers. If they had support,
:03:58. > :04:05.physical and mental, they would fight. But they saw that their
:04:06. > :04:12.commanders didn't fight. And a religious fight back has started
:04:13. > :04:24.too. The Shia clerical leadership issued a call to arms in Karbala.
:04:25. > :04:30.From here we call on all citizens who can carry weapons who can defend
:04:31. > :04:35.the country to volunteer and join the security forces to fulfil this
:04:36. > :04:40.sacred goal. With that, the volunteers headed for the coaches,
:04:41. > :04:45.ready to take the fight to ISIS. Today's sermon carried instantly
:04:46. > :04:50.into action. But empowering sectarian forces may sharpen Iraq's
:04:51. > :04:54.divisions and show up the crumbling of state institutions. It is those
:04:55. > :05:01.that t United States by its initiative hopes to strengthen. The
:05:02. > :05:05.US said it is looking at options to support the Nouri Al-Maliki
:05:06. > :05:10.Government, but America's quid pro quo is that Iraq's leader behave in
:05:11. > :05:16.a less sectarian fashion. We are not going to be able to do it for them.
:05:17. > :05:24.And given the very difficult history that we have seen in Iraq, I think
:05:25. > :05:30.that any objective observer would recognise that in the absence of
:05:31. > :05:37.accommodation among the factions in Iraq, various military actions by
:05:38. > :05:41.the United States, by any outside nation, are not going to solve those
:05:42. > :05:47.problems over the long-term and deliver the stability we need. So is
:05:48. > :05:52.America about to mount air strikes in support of a Government that has
:05:53. > :05:58.been backed by Iran? Well we are not there yet. But the US will step up
:05:59. > :06:03.deliveries of weapons, more intelligence too and try to
:06:04. > :06:07.co-ordinate the actions of Iraqi forces better. But if the position
:06:08. > :06:11.of Nouri Al-Maliki's Government continues to slide, it is possible
:06:12. > :06:19.that American air attacks could go ahead. ISIS has not been stopped,
:06:20. > :06:27.but a fight back has started. It extended to the Government blocking
:06:28. > :06:34.some Jihadist twirt -- Twitter accounts. But what could follow is
:06:35. > :06:39.prolonged civil strife. Paul Wood has been on the front line and he is
:06:40. > :06:48.in Iraq for us. You were in Kirkuk today what, did you witness? Well
:06:49. > :06:54.until yesterday, Kirkuk was shared between the Kurdish and the Iraqi
:06:55. > :06:59.army. But the Iraqi army simply melted away and the Kurds assumed
:07:00. > :07:06.control and that means that the front line now, the last line of
:07:07. > :07:10.defence against ISIS is the Kurdish peshmerga and two people were killed
:07:11. > :07:17.yesterday. What struck me yesterday was the commander there, a colonel,
:07:18. > :07:24.showing me a car park full of armoured vehicles and tanks
:07:25. > :07:29.abandoned by the Iraqi army. There was a huge pile of helmets. The
:07:30. > :07:34.army, which has been funded by the Americans to the tune of $15
:07:35. > :07:42.billion, simply did not stand andifies in places like Mosul. --
:07:43. > :07:47.stand and fight. Nouri Al-Maliki said this is where the fight back
:07:48. > :07:53.begins. But we spoke to a Sunni tribal sheik who, leads a militia,
:07:54. > :08:00.this is a man who two months ago had his son, wife and two members of his
:08:01. > :08:04.family murdered by ISIS. He is not going to cut and run. But he said,
:08:05. > :08:11.unless the British and Americans help us with air strikes, I don't
:08:12. > :08:16.know how long we can hold out. What is ISIS trying to achieve? Take over
:08:17. > :08:22.the whole country or just create chaos. Not just the whole country,
:08:23. > :08:29.they want to reshape the Middle East and dissolving the borders created
:08:30. > :08:34.after the World Wars and create a new state. But these the shock
:08:35. > :08:39.troops of a wider Sunni uprising targeting a Government that many
:08:40. > :08:51.feel is sectarian and dominated by Shi'ites. The terrorist that ISIS
:08:52. > :09:02.inspires means many Shi'ites are grouping around sectarian ground.
:09:03. > :09:10.With us now is Liam Fox and PJ Crowley, a former US sectarian of
:09:11. > :09:19.state and And I'm joined by the international relations direct for
:09:20. > :09:24.Iraq's ruling party. Liam Fox, isn't it an abdication of the UK and the
:09:25. > :09:28.United States to stand back and think about what to do when this is
:09:29. > :09:32.up fold something First, I think the Nouri Al-Maliki Government is
:09:33. > :09:35.suffering from the fact that it didn't agree a status of forces
:09:36. > :09:40.agreement with the United States, which would have led to the Iraqi
:09:41. > :09:44.officers continuing to be mentored and trained and there is a price for
:09:45. > :09:48.that. There is a price for the armaments that have gone into Syria
:09:49. > :09:54.to support rebels there. It is not clear what the Government of Iraq
:09:55. > :10:00.wants. It is vital however that ISIS are stopped, because the
:10:01. > :10:05.consequences of them achieving their objective would be catastrophic.
:10:06. > :10:10.Although Barack Obama has said that America wants s to stand back, were
:10:11. > :10:13.Nouri Al-Maliki to ask the United States for something like air power,
:10:14. > :10:19.it would be difficult for the president to resist that, given the
:10:20. > :10:23.consequences of what ISIS's success could be. The west must stop them.
:10:24. > :10:31.If they do not, then someone else could step in, Iran? You point to
:10:32. > :10:38.one of the potential consequences of the success of ISIS, in drawing
:10:39. > :10:45.other powers into the struggle in a catastrophic sectarian war. What
:10:46. > :10:48.does -- What does stopping them look like? Boots on the ground? The
:10:49. > :10:53.Iraqis must use the military forces they have and we have seen them in
:10:54. > :10:57.the past being able to take on insurgents and they should be able
:10:58. > :11:01.to do so again. But there is not that much sign of that, the Iraqi
:11:02. > :11:07.army has been melting away at this stage would you rule out putting
:11:08. > :11:12.western boots on the ground to stop ISIS, if that is the priority? I
:11:13. > :11:15.think there will be extreme reluctance by any western
:11:16. > :11:18.governments to do so. But I don't think at the moment given the
:11:19. > :11:22.potential consequences think at the moment given the
:11:23. > :11:26.success that anything can be ruled out. Although I do agree that
:11:27. > :11:30.success that anything can be ruled does look as though the Iraqi
:11:31. > :11:33.Government are starting some sort of fight back, not withstanding the
:11:34. > :11:43.pathetic efforts of their forces so far. PJ Crowley, your president
:11:44. > :11:49.pulled out troops too quickly and is now sitting in the White House
:11:50. > :11:55.thinking about the consequence and not prepare d to do anything? Well,
:11:56. > :11:59.first Iraq is a sovereign country and made its own decision not to
:12:00. > :12:04.meet the US conditions for a follow on mission. Obviously if we had
:12:05. > :12:09.10,000 US or British forces in Iraq, there would be useful. However, this
:12:10. > :12:15.was a decision that made in Iraq and there was no basis for the US to
:12:16. > :12:22.stay. That said, a lot will depend on first as Liam Fox said what the
:12:23. > :12:28.do the Iraqis do and what does ISIL do? Air I power could be an option,
:12:29. > :12:34.but you have to have a clear battle line and actually targets to hit. If
:12:35. > :12:40.ISIL melts back into cities, you could attack them but you woil
:12:41. > :12:46.probably injure or kill a lot of civilians. Your party was elected,
:12:47. > :12:51.but they did not want the west to stay and now Nouri Al-Maliki has
:12:52. > :13:01.failed entirely to bring the country together? What we have now is a
:13:02. > :13:10.situation where there is a militant terrorist group terroristising the
:13:11. > :13:15.-- terrorising the population. The cry from Ali al-Sistani goes to all
:13:16. > :13:21.the Iraqi community, Shias, Sunnis and Kurds to fight and defend
:13:22. > :13:26.themselves against this scourge. But President Obama and many, are they
:13:27. > :13:31.wrong too characterise like that as Nouri Al-Maliki's failure to bring
:13:32. > :13:37.together the two factions in the country? He has ruled as a
:13:38. > :13:42.sectarian, do you deny that? Yes, absolutely I deny that. Nouri
:13:43. > :13:47.Al-Maliki has tried to bring all sides together. He formed the state
:13:48. > :13:51.of law coalition which is a nonsectarian identity to bring all
:13:52. > :13:56.sides together. But the extremists Sunnis have been putting pressure on
:13:57. > :14:05.the moderates to try and derail that. Well, President Obama is
:14:06. > :14:11.wrong, Nouri Al-Maliki has not been sectarian? Well I think, Nouri
:14:12. > :14:14.Al-Maliki is behaving like a statesman this week, it is eight
:14:15. > :14:21.years too late in my opinion. He spent a lot of time attacking his
:14:22. > :14:27.Sunni political rivals. But most importantly, he has not taken the
:14:28. > :14:32.necessary steps as leader of Iraq to integrate the security forces, Kurd,
:14:33. > :14:37.Shia and Sunni, into an effective force that can be a model for the
:14:38. > :14:44.way governments have to function if Iraq is going to get stronger. There
:14:45. > :14:49.is no denying that, we have seen in just three days the army, fall away
:14:50. > :15:01.and people now say there is no such thing as the Iraqi government.
:15:02. > :15:07.Firstly, this extremist militant group, ISIS, has been working
:15:08. > :15:11.because it's an irregular army, has been working away and there are
:15:12. > :15:15.failures of the Iraqi army, there is no denying that. However, this
:15:16. > :15:20.terrorist group will not get any further. This is not failures of an
:15:21. > :15:24.army that you admit. We have seen pictures, the army has dissolved,
:15:25. > :15:28.people have escaped, they've ran away. The civilian population is
:15:29. > :15:35.left with no protection from these people. You talk as if it's a small
:15:36. > :15:39.group. This is an extremist, almost looks like an extremist army
:15:40. > :15:44.rampaging across the country. The point is this is - Maliki said this
:15:45. > :15:49.is a conspiracy and it's a conspiracy that's been - these
:15:50. > :15:52.people, these terrorists have been given material support, weapons,
:15:53. > :15:55.there is a vacuum which was created in Syria which allowed them to move
:15:56. > :16:02.across borders. There are no borders any more between Syria and Iraq.
:16:03. > :16:08.They are opportunists using this. They have shown their true face,
:16:09. > :16:12.which is an ugly face with executions of civilians today and
:16:13. > :16:15.yesterday. It is certainly an ugly and appalling face as we have all
:16:16. > :16:20.seen. Liam Fox, should it not be the case, if you care as you do, you
:16:21. > :16:24.will not rule out military action but actually if you care as
:16:25. > :16:27.passionately as you do about stopping these people, military
:16:28. > :16:32.intervention from the West is really the only way to do this? I don't
:16:33. > :16:35.think it's the only way to do it but I think it would be wrong to rule
:16:36. > :16:38.anything completely out at this point. I think there's been a
:16:39. > :16:43.failure of the Government. The point you made was correct, there's been a
:16:44. > :16:46.failure of the Government in Iraq. They failed to integrate their
:16:47. > :16:50.population sufficiently. They failed to engender ideas of Iraqi
:16:51. > :16:54.nationalism that would trump sectarian divide. Has there been a
:16:55. > :16:58.failure by the US and the UK, are you disappointed the British and
:16:59. > :17:02.American governments so far have ruled out military intervention and
:17:03. > :17:07.that's not what you suggest? Well, of course it was the Iraqis who
:17:08. > :17:11.actually didn't want to continue the military relationship. As of now...
:17:12. > :17:17.They're paying a price for that now. The question in the coming days will
:17:18. > :17:19.be whether Maliki can rise up as a statesman at this late stage,
:17:20. > :17:22.whether the military given the investment that's been made in their
:17:23. > :17:26.equipment and training can fight back and that remains to be seen and
:17:27. > :17:31.then I think the situation will have to be watched closely by the
:17:32. > :17:36.international community because the price of failure and the failure to
:17:37. > :17:44.confront and defeat ISIS could be catastrophic and could be felt well
:17:45. > :17:57.beyond that region. OK. Thank you all very much for joining us.
:17:58. > :17:59.The appalling violence is driven, at least in part,
:18:00. > :18:02.by grievance between Sunni and Shia Muslims - that's been built up
:18:03. > :18:05.over 14 centuries, and has not been contained by borders that have been
:18:06. > :18:07.Understanding the religious patchwork is crucial
:18:08. > :18:20.The Iraqi city of Karbala, here a dispute over the succession to the
:18:21. > :18:28.prophet Mohammed led to a battle in the 7th century that divided the
:18:29. > :18:38.Islamic world. Pilgrims still come here.
:18:39. > :18:49.From the 16th century to the 20th, the Ottoman empire was three
:18:50. > :18:53.separate Provinces. In the north with a Kurdish population, Sunni
:18:54. > :18:58.Baghdad and Basra in the south. A historic division to which Iraq now
:18:59. > :19:03.seems to be returning. The British invaded in 1914.en when
:19:04. > :19:07.The Empire collapsed, Britain and France carved the region up between
:19:08. > :19:13.them, drawing lines in the sand that fixed the international borders we
:19:14. > :19:17.know today. Britain bound the three old Provinces together to form the
:19:18. > :19:22.kingdom of Iraq, installing a new pro-British monarch from the Sunni
:19:23. > :19:28.dynasty whose cousins still rule neighbouring Jordan. The King was
:19:29. > :19:32.killed in a coup in 1958. A second coup five years later brought the
:19:33. > :19:39.Ba'ath Party to power and eventually Saddam Hussein.
:19:40. > :19:42.After the Gulf War of 19191 Iraqi Shias in the south rose against a
:19:43. > :19:47.weakened Saddam Hussein with US and British encouragement. The rebellion
:19:48. > :19:57.was brutally suppressed. Thousands were killed. The entire Shia
:19:58. > :20:00.population cowed. Minority Sunni hoity was restored. The overthrow of
:20:01. > :20:05.Saddam Hussein brought Shia majority rule to Iraq for the first time. It
:20:06. > :20:09.sent shockwaves around the Sunni Arab world, prompting fears of a
:20:10. > :20:21.so-called Shia crescent spreading through the region, bringing the
:20:22. > :20:27.influence of an old enemy, Iran. With us now is Roula Khalaf, foreign
:20:28. > :20:33.editor at the Financial Times. Despite the appalling violence is
:20:34. > :20:42.there a logic to Iraq breaking up? Not necessarily a logic. I think
:20:43. > :20:48.there might be enough ability - what I have noticed, is that not only in
:20:49. > :20:51.this crisis, but particularly in this crisis, every ethnic and
:20:52. > :20:55.religious group in Iraq is thinking a lot more about its own survival,
:20:56. > :21:01.its own existence and not about the existence of the state. If you see
:21:02. > :21:07.the reaction of the Shia, the real resistance is taking place where
:21:08. > :21:15.there is a Shia shrine. Nobody's tried to fight for Mosul. The Kurds
:21:16. > :21:21.did not push down from Kurdistan to try to retake Mosul. They went for
:21:22. > :21:25.Kirkuk. The logic is developing within the various groups in Iraq
:21:26. > :21:30.that perhaps we need to secure our own territory. Safety is leading
:21:31. > :21:34.people to turn inwards, but the country was an artificial construct
:21:35. > :21:38.in the first place. That's true but in the mooegs a lot of countries --
:21:39. > :21:41.in the Middle East a lot of countries, we can say dreamt up by
:21:42. > :21:47.foreign powers, the borders were dreamt up by foreign powers. We must
:21:48. > :21:51.not underestimate the extent to which national identity does develop
:21:52. > :21:56.and I find that people in the Middle East are actually attached to
:21:57. > :22:00.borders. A lot more attached to borders than western analysts tend
:22:01. > :22:04.to think. Isn't one of the really dangerous curiosities about this
:22:05. > :22:07.situation is we are seeing very unusual, surprising alliances
:22:08. > :22:13.developing, enemies becoming friends. The US and Assad being on
:22:14. > :22:17.the same side. Absolutely. This is the complexity of the Middle East
:22:18. > :22:24.today, of shifting alliances, shifting sands. In this crisis, for
:22:25. > :22:29.example, the US and Iran today find themselves on the same side. But do
:22:30. > :22:35.they really want to work together? Not necessarily. Iran's priority is
:22:36. > :22:42.the Shia in Iraq. The US's priority is the Iraqi state and the
:22:43. > :22:47.territorial integrity of Iraq. And a power-sharing arrangement between
:22:48. > :22:53.Iraq's various communities. Briefly, with your insights, are you pretty
:22:54. > :23:00.convinced there will be a split? I think that what you could see is for
:23:01. > :23:05.a while a sort of defacto partition, and perhaps then a political deal on
:23:06. > :23:19.a federal state. Thank you so much for coming in tonight.
:23:20. > :23:21.Wherever the pieces fall, there is little sign that the West
:23:22. > :23:24.has any intention of spilling its own blood on Iraqi soil again but
:23:25. > :23:27.the stain from the political fight from more than ten years ago still
:23:28. > :23:35.Iraq has weapons that could be activated within 45 minutes. We have
:23:36. > :23:38.never marched before. The numbers were huge, filling the wide streets
:23:39. > :23:42.of central London and stretching for several miles. We will stay on task
:23:43. > :23:50.until we have achieved our objective. Saddam Hussein, your days
:23:51. > :23:53.are numbered is the catchy refrain. Shock and awe was what the Americans
:23:54. > :23:58.promised, that's what they're delivering. This is how regime
:23:59. > :24:06.change was going to be defined today. It was a breathtaking image.
:24:07. > :24:09.John McTernan is a former special adviser to Tony Blair and previously
:24:10. > :24:19.And Clare Short is the former International Development
:24:20. > :24:22.Secretary who resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet back in May 2003 in
:24:23. > :24:41.Surely you must deep down in your heart of hearts now have some
:24:42. > :24:48.doubts? Why should I have any doubts at all? We create a democracy in
:24:49. > :24:52.Iraq, there's a general election recently when people queued to vote,
:24:53. > :24:56.even though they knew, at the threat of their own lives from the
:24:57. > :25:02.terrorists, our job now is to go back in to support the Democrats, to
:25:03. > :25:08.support the Maliki Government and the Kurds in the autonomous region
:25:09. > :25:12.in the north. When you see terrorists executing civilians, you
:25:13. > :25:17.have no doubts, not a single shred, not even pausing for thought that
:25:18. > :25:23.maybe Britain was wrong? So what you are saying is we should have left a
:25:24. > :25:28.fascist dictator in place, a dictator who was committing genocide
:25:29. > :25:32.in his own country, gassing Arabs, and Kurds in the north and that
:25:33. > :25:35.would be better because then ISIS wouldn't be around now? That's
:25:36. > :25:39.immoral. I think that's completely immoral, that position. You would
:25:40. > :25:42.even argue we go back in to protect the scraps of what we tried to
:25:43. > :25:45.create? It's not scraps. This is a country with millions of people who
:25:46. > :25:50.just voted in a general election. People who wanted to vote in a
:25:51. > :25:53.general election. They're human beings there whose democracy we
:25:54. > :25:58.helped create, we need to help sustain it. If we don't do it now,
:25:59. > :26:04.this is a region-wide conflict now, the reason Iran is sending the
:26:05. > :26:09.Revolutionary Guard to the border is they understand the danger for the
:26:10. > :26:14.region. If we stand back this keeps on going. We got rid of a dictator
:26:15. > :26:16.and established democracy, the terrorists are attacking democracy.
:26:17. > :26:23.We have an interest there. Democracy. Clare Short, what do you
:26:24. > :26:27.make of that? I think that's not worth listening to. The truth of the
:26:28. > :26:32.matter is, I mean, this isn't the only cause, but because of all the
:26:33. > :26:36.deceit about getting to war, the preparations for the post-conflict
:26:37. > :26:43.phase were not properly made, or at least those that were made in the
:26:44. > :26:49.UN, in the State Department were thrown away and a well-organised
:26:50. > :26:55.stable state was never created and sectarianism was unleashed in the
:26:56. > :27:02.Maliki Government, and ISIS is partly succeeding because the Sunni
:27:03. > :27:06.people are so ailianated. So there were -- alienated, so were grave
:27:07. > :27:11.errors in the route to war and the lies led to a failure to prepare for
:27:12. > :27:16.afterwards, a properly organised procedure to try and help the people
:27:17. > :27:19.of Iraq, get rid of Saddam Hussein could have got international support
:27:20. > :27:23.for the reconstruction of Iraq which would have been a totally different
:27:24. > :27:28.operation. But isn't part of the problem that people like you who
:27:29. > :27:34.disagreed so much after the fact of the invasion made it politically
:27:35. > :27:38.impossible for politicians like Barack Obama and the Government here
:27:39. > :27:44.to stay the course? You were urging them to cut and run, they weren't
:27:45. > :27:48.able to stay and create a stable and secure democracy? No, that's
:27:49. > :27:52.complete nonsense too. I didn't have any influence about Obama's
:27:53. > :27:59.decision, that was - he was elected on a commitment to get out of Iraq
:28:00. > :28:04.and kept to that commitment. That was partly because it was a sort of
:28:05. > :28:10.fruitless exercise with endless killing and dying. No, that doesn't
:28:11. > :28:17.stack up at all. John? What? Well, what do you make of that suggestion?
:28:18. > :28:20.You worked in the early formation of the Iraqi Government, what Clare
:28:21. > :28:23.Short suggests is there was never any proper attempt to secure a
:28:24. > :28:26.decent, stable functioning Government that could have been able
:28:27. > :28:33.to cope with what it would have to withstand? No, there has always been
:28:34. > :28:39.a complex set of coalitions there. For example, there's been a Kurdish,
:28:40. > :28:43.socialist President of Iraq working with the Maliki Government and the
:28:44. > :28:50.other parties. There is undoubtedly true the Prime Minister of Iraq made
:28:51. > :28:54.a disastrous decision when he refused to sign a agreement with the
:28:55. > :28:58.Americans, the situation would be different if there were 10,000
:28:59. > :29:04.American troops in Iraq who would be available to mobilise. That was the
:29:05. > :29:08.strategic error by Maliki. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be
:29:09. > :29:11.supporting him now. It doesn't mean that we should be abandoning... How
:29:12. > :29:16.can we trust him now, if as you say and as many people have suggested,
:29:17. > :29:21.that he has become a sectarian leader, he has been divisive, how
:29:22. > :29:23.could we trust him now? He didn't get rewarded at the general
:29:24. > :29:26.election. There is a democracy there. The public voted for
:29:27. > :29:31.different parties. A Government has to be created that brings together
:29:32. > :29:35.all the parties in Iraq and we see what's happened in the Kurdish
:29:36. > :29:40.region. They've taken control of Kirkuk. The army that represents
:29:41. > :29:43.both the main parties there, who have had in the past a big civil
:29:44. > :29:48.war, they united after the civil war, they've had democracy for over
:29:49. > :29:55.20 years. They can defend and retake territory from the terrorists. There
:29:56. > :29:59.is a model there in Iraq... We are short on time. Clare Short, what
:30:00. > :30:04.would you want to see now? John wants us to go back in, what would
:30:05. > :30:08.you do, leave it? No, but I don't see any military intervention that
:30:09. > :30:12.is going to solve anything. By the way, President Obama has said no
:30:13. > :30:18.troops on the ground but they're looking at drones or bombing, but
:30:19. > :30:22.who do you bomb? As one of your previous people said, moss system a
:30:23. > :30:25.city of two million -- Mosul is a city of two million people, you
:30:26. > :30:30.can't go bombing people, that doesn't rescue the situation. We are
:30:31. > :30:35.in an incredibly complex situation. ISIS isn't doing it alone. It's got
:30:36. > :30:39.support from the Sunni community because they're so alienated. The
:30:40. > :30:44.thing flows over to Syria. You have to start... We must leave it there.
:30:45. > :30:48.Thank you both. It's a complicated situation.
:30:49. > :30:50.Now, on 7th March the 10.00pm news and Newsnight broadcast
:30:51. > :30:54.a report alleging a possible police cover-up over an allegedly corrupt
:30:55. > :30:58.The claims should have been put to the Met,
:30:59. > :31:03.The Met, in fact, says it did not claim in its evidence to the Ellison
:31:04. > :31:07.Review that there were no records of the officer's links to a separate
:31:08. > :31:10.investigation into the murder of Daniel Morgan and it does not accept
:31:11. > :31:12.that the BBC produced evidence of a possible cover-up.
:31:13. > :31:14.We were wrong to suggest the document we showed demonstrated
:31:15. > :31:29.such a cover-up and we apologise for this. Up with
:31:30. > :31:33.thing this World Cup doesn't have is the voice of football. We thought
:31:34. > :31:46.John Motson should have a chance to be heard. Here he is with his latest
:31:47. > :31:51.extraordinary World Cup story. Age 42 the Columbian keeper suspect just
:31:52. > :31:58.the older player u he is a link to the tournament darkest moment. He
:31:59. > :32:02.was a back up player in the 19 94 World Cup squad that the Columbian
:32:03. > :32:09.nation believed was destined for greatness. But the country's drug
:32:10. > :32:14.cartels had pumped money into the league and allowed a talented crop
:32:15. > :32:19.of players to thrive. But they didn't just bring money. The players
:32:20. > :32:24.were surrounded by violence, intimidation and what was an
:32:25. > :32:36.intolerable pressure to succeed. Two straight defeats saw Columbia
:32:37. > :32:43.eliminated and an own goal by the captain Escabar led to the defeat.
:32:44. > :32:51.Ten days later he was shot dead in his home down. A - town. A
:32:52. > :32:56.disastrous campaign ended with the player losing his life. The current
:32:57. > :33:06.squad is the country's most fans Yipped since that time -- fancied
:33:07. > :33:07.since that time. But Columbia is a country much changed from one pr