As the Coalition Crumbles

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A leaked internal British Foreign Office memo warns: "Heavy-handed U.S. military tactics in Fallujah and Najaf ... have fuelled both Sunni and [Shia] opposition to the coalition and lost us much public support outside Iraq." Moreover, "the scandal of the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib has sapped the moral authority of the coalition inside Iraq and internationally." News of the memo comes as Members of Parliament are "calling on Tony Blair to distance London from Washington" and just after Newsweek reported on the "military friction" from the "'doctrinally' different approaches" of British and U.S. forces in Iraq. One thing's clear: "the UK will boycott the upcoming trial of Saddam [Hussein] if there is any risk of the former dictator being put to death."