understand that the problem was not training or equipment but legitimacy and loyalty."

Moqtada al-Sadr is the first biography of the leading Shiite opponent of American occupation. In it, Cockburn explains why Sunni and Shia Muslims split over armed resistance to the Americans: "Moqtada had repeatedly demanded that Sunni political and religious leaders unequivocally condemn the horrific attacks by al-Qaeda in Iraq on Shia civilians if he was to cooperate with them against the occupation. That they did not do so was a short-sighted failure on their part..."

It meant a Shia-Sunni divide from which Iraq will not recover, even when the last helicopter has left the American embassy roof and the textbooks are set in type with lies for the next generation. To understand this - and to understand why the Shia parties are fighting one another - don't read the papers or wait for the textbooks. Read Cockburn.