Spare a thought this week for General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq to whom the job of judging the success of a policy so bungled as to be irretrievable has been subcontracted by the bunglers-in-chief in the Bush administration.

His report on the “surge” of US troops is likely to be non-committal, and overshadowed by 9/11 anniversary stagecraft designed to eclipse any suggestion of failure in a surge of patriotism as Americans recall the atrocity visited upon them by the al-Qaeda attacks six years ago.