Humiliation? - The Independent claims

Humiliation? - The Independent claims the EU is declaring victory, and that the US has agreed to international control of its troops in Iraq:

"The United States accepts that to avoid humiliating failure in Iraq it needs to bring its forces quickly under international control and speed the handover of power, Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, has said. Decisions along these lines will be made in the 'coming days', Mr Solana told The Independent.

The comments, signalling a major policy shift by the US, precede President George Bush's state visit this week to London, during which he and Tony Blair will discuss an exit strategy for forces in Iraq."

Note the curious wording; "Humiliating" failure injects a level of emotion into the story that would be considered rank spin in the US (for anyone this side of Paul Krugman, anyway) - and even for a British tabloid, it injects a pretty intense voice into the story.

As other bloggers have noted, I have doubts about this story; if true, it'd be a vastly more humiliating turn of events than anything that's happened so far, or shows any rational sign of being possible, in Iraq today.

Developing.

Posted by Mitch at November 17, 2003 07:58 AM