Yesterday's British withdrawal of troops from Basra Palace to a base at the airport has been defended as "not a defeat" by most of the UK government and anyone who's been asked from the Ministry Of Defence.
But for many, the very action of removing these troops shows that the pull-out of the vast majority of UK forces is in "all but word" a defeat.
A former Foreign Office offical said there has been no coalition control over Southern Iraq for two and a half years.
Tell The Truthiness ; Mr Bush, are your shoulders slightly colder now that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is standing some distance away?
