On UK Channel 4, Jon Snow asked their middle-east correspondent Lindsay Hilsum to sum up the mood in Baghdad. "It's terribly sad, Jon," she said. "I have spent time in Baghdad over several years and the people have always been friendly and welcoming. Now that's all gone. There is a real sense of danger, and no-one trusts anyone."

US troops in Baghdad are so inept at the task they've been given that they're now being trained by the Brits, who were never needed in the first place. In northern Iraq, the US tactic is to destroy any remaining relationship with one-time NATO buddy Turkey, just as I and many others predicted even in the immediate aftermath of 9-11.

It isn't hindsight to say that the post-victory aftermath was always going to be harder than the war. Most of the world was saying it beforehand, and the administration even paid lip-service to this view. Yet not a thought was given to the issues involved.

In Afghanistan, less than three per cent of the land area is under ISAF stewardship. The rest is left to warlords, and in many communities life is as bad as ever it was with the Taliban. Attempts at sowing the seeds of a US trained army in Kabul are not helped when its soldiers get shot by their American friends.

Having learnt nothing whatsoever in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration now runs round threatening Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, you name it, but always standing shoulder to shoulder with the criminal Sharon.

US morality Bush-style is now seen for what it is - victor's justice, at any price. Guantanamo prisoners will be convicted even if they have to be convicted in secret, without their own lawyers, and no opportunity to cross-examine their accusers. No wonder the US will not condemn Sharia law in Saudi Arabia.

As for the Camp Delta motto, "Honorbound to defend freedom," which apparently marines parrot at each other when saluting - what sickening hypocrisy. It would have taken real imagination for a comedian to have written that slogan into a parody.

There has been one tiny bit of progress though. The lynchmob element at Mudcat, so vociferous with messages of revenge and retribution after 9-11, has been shamed to silence. At least until the Holywood blockbuster "Saving Private Lynch" allows them to glow with pride again.