In the middle of my last entry I made a rather stupid error that some readers may have noticed. Writing about pre-invasion Iraq, I mentioned that the relative secularism in the country was reflected in the fact that women could vote and wear whatever they liked, in contrast with many predominantly Muslim societies.

Technically, what I wrote was true. Women were indeed able to vote in “elections” in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Unfortunately, regardless of whether they voted for Hussein or not, he always managed to get 100 percent of the vote. Iraq was a dictatorship with sham elections.

I’m willing to admit to rhetorical blunders of this sort, if only to be as un-Blairlike as possible. Imagine a world in which that man showed a grain of humility or contrition. The Prophet Mohammed flying to up heaven on a winged horse is more likely.

What I meant to write, and what I should have written, is that women were able to obtain an education and a career under Saddam Hussein’s rein, as well as choose their style of dress. Such things we take for granted, but much of the Islamic world is characterized by women shuffling around wrapped in black cloth, deprived of education.

I’ve now corrected my error.

I won’t defend the record of a tyrant like Saddam Hussein. He wasn’t a nice man. I will say, however, that his rule was nowhere near as insanely violent as what we have put in his place.

Shia death-squads regularly torture and murder members of the Sunni minority they manage to kidnap. The kidnappings and killings occur at a rate that Saddam Hussein would’ve been jealous of. The Shia militias trying to kill U.S. and British troops are supplied with weapons smuggled across the border from Iran. The Iranians have an interest in furthering the Shia cause and bringing about a Shia theocracy like their own.

On the other side, we have Sunni terrorists letting off numerous car-bombs every day, either in reprisal for the excesses of the Shia death-squads, or because they too are vying for power as they see the spectre of Shia theocracy looming.

Al Qaeda are also active in the country, killing as many U.S. troops as they can, and mostly siding with Sunni terrorists (Al Qaeda is a Sunni group itself).

There are also ex-Ba’thists trying to stir things up, though it is unlikely they will ever regain any power in Iraq.

What does the future have in store for Iraq, now that we've unleashed the genie of extreme religious fervour in that troubled country? If the violence can be brought under control, Iraq may end up splitting into two halves, as we have with Ireland. In Ireland we have Protestants in the north and Catholics in the south. In Iraq we’ll likely have a Shia theocracy in the east and a Sunni theocracy in the west.

By the way, the only difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims is what each faction believes about the succession of Islamic rule since the death of Mohammed. A trifling matter, you may think, but many people are willing to commit mass-murder due these slight differences in the interpretation of Islam.

As the probability of eventual theocracy looms, the wisest of the educated civilians are trying to flee Iraq, well aware that life under the rule of Islamic clerics is no kind of future, particularly for women and girls. Good luck to them, I say. I don’t blame them for wanting out of the situation we’ve handed to thousands of sensible and peaceable Iraqis.

Once the clerics have all the power, decadent things like music and dancing are likely to be banned. Perhaps, as in the Iranian model, we’ll see religious morality-police (something like modern-day Inquisitors) forcing people to pray at the mosques, carrying out random virginity-tests on unmarried women, putting women to death for adultery, and all the rest. The economy will stagnate, as we’ve seen in Iran, but piety will rein supreme. Young men will leave Islamic universities, where they’ll learn about Islam and Mohammed all day, and enter the infidel lands of Europe to spread God’s revolution.

Perhaps this vision of the future is too pessimistic, and some sanity will remain. I wouldn’t be too sure about that, though. We’re all likely to live with direct and indirect consequences of Bush’s and Blair’s wonderful legacy for decades to come.

Yes, lining the pockets of Western oil-barons does come at a high cost for the rest of humanity.