British Troops to Leave Iraq-Nam Mid-2009

The British government has decided to pull out all of its troops from Iraq-Nam, save those training Iraq-Namese and some special forces. The target for this is the middle of 2009. It appears Prime Minister Gordon Brown doesn’t want to embarrass President Bush by getting the lads home before the end of the president’s term. However, as soon as Mr. Bush is back in Crawford, Texas, the plug will get pulled.

Michael Smith of The Times reports, “In an indication of Britain’s keenness to withdraw, Des Browne, the defence secretary, emphasised last week that Iraqi troops were better able to keep southern Iraq peaceful than British soldiers. The Iraqi military had broken the grip of militias controlling the southern city of Basra, he said on a visit to the United States. If British troops had tried to oust the militias, ‘we would still be fighting’, Browne told the Brookings Institution in Washington.”

Mr. Smith also says that a Royal Army report has been leaked that slams the Exchequer for under-funding Iraq-Namese reconstruction in the south of that country. “The paper, written in 2006 and overseen by Lieutenant-General Bill Rollo, now deputy coalition commander, said 'too few resources, both human and financial, were allocated',” Mr. Smith says.

In short, the Brits are leaving the coalition of the willing, and the marks for the Blair-Brown governments are pretty low in winning the hearts and minds of the Iraq-Namese. This misadventure has been a disaster for Britain’s foreign policy and for Britain’s reputation in the world. It was fought against the wishes of most of the people of the UK, and it undermined the entire idea of New Labour.

Meanwhile, it looks as though the UK can’t redeploy those troops to Afghanistan as originally intended. The Times’ Defense Editor, Michael Evans, writes of an interview with a military source who said, “The original design was to draw down in Iraq in order to build up in Afghanistan. This was at the heart of the strategy but it simply hasn't happened, which is why the Forces are overstretched, not so much on the bayonets [combat troops] side but in all the support areas, such as engineers and signals and logistics.” It appears Her Majesty’s army is broken, just like Mr. Bush’s. A sarcastic “well done” appears to be in order.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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