Was this meant to be funny ironic, or funny ha ha? The Taipei Times reports:

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday that violence in Iraq would diminish with the return of power to Iraqis, as leaders of the Shiite Muslim majority criticized the pace of the transition.

Straw, whose visit to Baghdad was unannounced for security reasons, said he did not wish to play down the scale of the unrest that has plagued Iraq since the British and US spring invasion, and sharply increased during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that ended this week.

[Emphasis added]