British ministers landing in Aden in the 1960s were told always
to make a reassuring speech. In view of the Arab insurrection,
they should give a ringing pledge, "Britain will never, ever
leave Aden". Britain promptly left Aden, in 1967 and a year
earlier than planned. The last governor walked backwards up the
steps to his plane, his pistol drawn against any last-minute
assassin. Locals who had trusted him and worked with the British
were massacred in their hundreds by the fedayeen.  Iraq's deputy
prime minister, Barham Salih, was welcomed to London by the BBC
on Monday with two documentaries recalling past British
humiliations at the hands of Arabs, in Aden and Suez. It was not
a message Salih wanted to hear. His government is retreating
from its position in May, when it said that foreign forces
should withdraw from 16 out of 18 provinces, including the
south, by the end of this year. Tony Blair rejected this
invitation to go and said he would "stay until the job is done".
Salih would do well to remember wha