Getting Out of Iraq

Getting Out of Iraq

Could we withdraw with honor and without endangering Iraq’s future? Our biggest ally, Britain, seems to think so:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday announced that he will trim Britain's forces in Iraq nearly in half, withdrawing 2,500 troops by early 2008. "The next important stage in delivering our strategy is to hand over security to the Iraqis, and it is to move from a combat role in the rest of Basra province to overwatch," Brown said in a speech to Parliament. Politically, this move will be popular with the British public, which favors a U.K. troop withdrawal. It will also distance Brown from former Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose unwavering support for the Bush administration's Iraq policies led to domestic political defeats for his Labor Party. Strategically, it will likely help the security situation in southern Iraq. Since an early September withdrawal of British forces from Basra, attacks in the region have dramatically decreased. In his speech yesterday, Brown explained that since British forces "handed over our base in Basra City in early September, the present security situation has been calmer."


DWINDLING COALITION OF THE WILLING: Brown's announcement comes after a visit to Iraq last week, where he had initially announced that 1,000 British troops would withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2007. A senior British official told the AP yesterday that by the end of 2008, all the country's troops may be out of Iraq. After the United States, Britain has the largest force in Iraq. Approximately 170 British troops have died since the March 2003 invasion, and public support for the war continues to wane. A recent PIPA poll shows that 65 percent of Britons want troops out of Iraq within a year. Yesterday, "more than 2,000 people marched from London's Trafalgar Square to Parliament to demand a complete withdrawal of British troops." In another sign that Bush's infamous Coalition of the Willing continues to dwindle, the Czech Republic also yesterday announced that it would be withdrawing its 100 troops.

REMOVING A TARGET: When the British first announced in February that it would possibly withdraw its troops, the Bush administration tried to spin the news as progress. "I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well," said Vice President Cheney. But the Basra region, where Britain's troops are concentrated, has been the central front in a "turf war between rival Shi'ite groups." British troops were "frequent targets"; 41 soldiers were killed this year, the most since 2003. A Nov. 2006 Pentagon report to Congress contradicted Cheney's claims of success, listing "Basra as one of five cities outside Baghdad where violence remained 'significant.'" But since British troops have begun to leave the region, the security situation has improved. Yesterday, Brown noted, "In the last month, there have been five indirect fire attacks on Basra Air Station compared with 87 in July." Basra residents have "begun strolling riverfront streets again after four years of fear." "The situation these days is better. We were living in hell. ... [T]he area is calm since their [the British] withdrawal," said Iraqi housewife Khairiya Salman. The need to remove coalition forces in order to improve security in Iraq was underscored by a British think tank report released yesterday. The Oxford Research Group analysis concluded that the "'war on terror' is failing and instead fueling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements."

SMEARING THE BRITISH: Earlier in the year, the Bush administration had no shortage of praise for the Britain's work in Iraq. In February, Cheney said that British forces had "made progress in southern Iraq." In July, Bush said of Brown, "I found a person who shares [my] vision and who understands the call." But when word broke that Britain would begin withdrawing its forces, the White House lost no time in criticizing its ally. "There's concern about Brown," a senior White House foreign policy official told The Daily Telegraph, adding that there has been "'a lot of unhappiness' about how British forces had performed in Basra." In August, Ret. Gen. Jack Keane, who was vice chief of staff during the 2003 Iraq invasion and remains a key adviser to the Bush administration, accused the British of plans to "cut and run." He argued that instead of withdrawing, the British should escalate the number of troops in Basra, similar to Bush's failed "surge" in Baghdad. – “The Progress Report”, October 9, 2007. Center for American Progress Action Fund


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle