No easy answers in Iraq

The Guardian leader examines the arguments over the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and says that It is true that an immediate pullout might please the very many people, in Britain and elsewhere, who so adamantly opposed the war in the first place and would like to be vindicated by a implicit admission of failure. But it is hard to argue with the proposition that a precipitate withdrawal would make a bad situation even worse, in that the Iraqi security forces would find it harder to tackle an increasingly sophisticated and brutal insurgency. It is entirely right to be angry in the face of daily horrors and privations in an Iraq that is now a deadly laboratory for jihadi terror. But that does not help anyone provide easy answers.