Posted on 07/13/2007 2:11:26 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LONDON (AFP) - Multi-national troops in Iraq are "making a difference" towards building a secure and successful country despite the enormous challenges, Britain's top military officer there said Friday.
"This is difficult, it is damned dangerous, but I have no question in my mind that we are making a difference," Lieutenant General Graham Lamb, deputy commander of the multi-national force, told BBC radio from Baghdad.
He denied the US-led troops were engaged in a lost cause.
"Are we moving towards a better life for Iraq and an opportunity for this nation to succeed? I believe so and have never doubted that," Lamb said.
The Iraqi authorities "are now actively engaged in a way that senses we are in the point of transition," he added.
"We have been responsible and accountable. They are now moving on to that position which we have historically held for the last four years and I see them positively taking that engagement very seriously," he said.
"I look across the whole of Iraq and I see a whole range of encouraging signs," he said.
He added that he saw Iraqi troops preparing to assume a greater security role in the southern city of Basra, where most of the British troops are based.
The Iraqis are "creating the forces that are going to take over and therefore move that point of transition."
"I do sense that we are seeing this transition and change, and that responsibility and accountability being moved from us across to the Iraqis who are, across this country, taking ownership of the problems they face and their future," he added.
His remarks came as US President George W. Bush highlighted rebuilding efforts in Iraq as he fought to buy time for his unpopular strategy after a grim progress report and renewed attacks from the US Congress.
The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to withdraw most US combat troops by April.
Democratic leaders see votes for troop withdrawals as a way of keeping up pressure on the president and his Republican allies, who are increasingly nervous about a voter backlash over the war.
Go GET 'EM, guys!!!
Hi Allegra! Good to hear from you. We are trying to hold the fort down over here...Yeesh, these libs are soooo nauseating. I feel like I am watching a TV show with a countdown clock with the Dems!
It’s in the French papers. What are the chances it make sit to USA Today or the NY Times?
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