BBC Analysis: US dream for Iraq in doubt

Already the American neo-conservative dream of a model Iraqi democracy in the Middle East is vanishing.

In the Arab world and beyond, the occupiers can no longer boast the moral credentials to guide it.

One senior Western diplomat illustrated their sharply reduced ambitions by saying that he did not despair of getting an Iraq that was better than Saddam Hussein's.

The supposed transfer of sovereignty at the end of June, with the Americans still in military charge, looks increasingly hollow after the pictures of maltreated and humiliated Iraqi prisoners.

If Mr Bush could think of a convincing way out of Iraq, he would be tempted to take it.

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