Who is really to blame?

The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called on the international community "to help restore law and order in both Iraq and Afghanistan by ending occupation".

Iraq is in in the midst of a civil war that is fast spiraling out of control and in Afghanistan the Pashtun tribesmen in the South are rebelling against the occupation. They are not, as is widely reported, the Taliban or al-Qaeda, they are the majority ethnic population in Afghanistan.

The Occupation is central to the violence in both countries. The Occupation forces are not bringing stability, they are roundly despised. Every time a soldier from the occupying forces is killed it is met at home as a tragedy, yet in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is one less occupier. It could not be clearer: the Occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan are an abject failure and always were going to be.