I absoltely do not trust a word any goverments,the Guardian, the BBC,Al Quaida or any other bodies tell me. I am familiar with the standarsds of honesty of those people. But I do tend to place more weight on slowly built up impressions over periods of time from people I know well: because you then get into a position where you can weigh the evidence a little more carefully. What my Afghan friends told me turned out to much more right han anything the BBC or the government said about the situation there. I have the feeling that the same will go for what I hear from iraq. I may, of course, be totally wrong, and events can always take unexpected turns.