The goodwill towards Americans is mingled with humour. An official went to see a Shia tribal leader, and as they sat down for the first of many cups of a hot sweet beverage, the lights in the majlis, the reception room, dimmed and went out. The American started to apologise, but was stopped short by his host: ‘No, I blame the French. If they hadn’t played around at the United Nations Security Council, you would have been here three months earlier.’

On an international level, the issue was never simply Saddam but rather Russia, France and Germany trying to use multilateralism to negate America’s unilateral tendencies. But George Bush decided that, post–9/11, being asked to provide both the big stick and the fat wallet allowed him to have a say on when to use them.