BBC News - Assessing America's 'imperial adventure' in Iraq

BBC News - Assessing America's 'imperial adventure' in Iraq: "By John Simpson
BBC World Affairs Editor, Baghdad

US troops have been packing up as their combat operation in Iraq officially ends
'This,' a leading American supporter of President George W Bush wrote in a British newspaper back in February 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq, 'is our imperial moment'.

He went on to argue that the British had no right to criticise America for doing what they themselves had done so enthusiastically a century before.

But America's imperial moment did not last long. And now, seven years later, the US is criticised for just about everything that happens here.

Opinion is evenly divided between those who are glad to see the Americans go, and those who criticise them for leaving too soon and potentially laying Iraq open to fresh sectarian violence."