'The situation is much worse now'

Film-maker Ali Fadhil writes about his return to Iraq, and he has some strong views on the pullout issue:

I can't agree with Simon Jenkins, who wrote in yesterday's Guardian that it is now time for British troops to be pulled out of Iraq. You cannot go immediately because the country will collapse - and it is you, after all, who brought the chaos. You destroyed Saddam, but you also destroyed a system that had worked for 50 years. You didn't just take Saddam, you took the whole order: the police force, the way the police worked, the way security was kept and managed.

Withdrawal right now will mean the complete collapse of our society; if the British and US forces stay, the collapse will just be more gradual. I don't want to be too pessimistic - I've thought about this for a long time - but I can't see the answer. I've been all over Iraq in the past year, and been asked by many, many people what the best solution is. I don't know.

What I do know is that the violence will increase before the constitution is voted on in December, and ultimately I believe my country will divide: the Shias in the south turning towards Iran; the Kurds turning to themselves in their northern homeland, and in the middle - my broken country.