Yes, the economic "bribing" model might work in Iraq as it helped in Northern Ireland (a la Brown's own allusion during Brighton Q&A session). But: 1. Fortunately for us, because of the huge US Irish population, most cash for Northern Ireland came from the US. Brown should try to persuade the US that instead of spending their half-a-trillion dollars on war, they should use it for the peace (and thus also save their own soldiers' lives). 2. However, very likely the cost in Iraq (for the above model to be effective) will be much more than that in Northern Ireland because, being an oil exporting country, Iraq's erstwhile financial/social condition (albeit under a dictatorship) was already much more affluent than Northern Ireland's, and it may take a while to make the Iraqi people feel good again; particularly since its devastation is also more thorough than in Northern Ireland. 3. Surely the British government can't afford to pay for all this; and it's highly questionable whether morally we should divert our funds to rebuild Iraq when we're withdrawing money from NHS provisions like nursing or family planning! 4. But since we're party (with the US) to breaking Iraq, we do have the responsibility now to fix it. So Brown should apologise to the British people for our engagement in this unnecessary and illegal war, and just say that we now HAVE TO pay the price for our mistakes (by spending more social/war money in Iraq). 5. Fortunately for the Labour Party, even this open admission may not be fatal because the Tories also voted for the war and the LibDems are still not strong enough to form a government.

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'candidates are being asked'

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