Posted on 10/28/2007 5:12:17 AM PDT by Flavius
Gethin Chamberlain in Basra is given a simple and stark message from a senior British officer in Iraq: 'We have got it wrong'
It was as astonishing an admission as any that has emerged from the lips of a British officer in the four and a half years since the tanks rolled over the Iraqi border. The British Army, said the man sitting in a prefab hut in Britain's last base in the country, were tired of fighting.
Not only that: their very presence in Basra was now the problem.
"We would go down there [Basra], dressed as Robocop, shooting at people if they shot at us, and innocent people were getting hurt," he said. "We don't speak Arabic to explain and our translators were too scared to work for us any more. What benefit were we bringing to these people?"
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
” By Gethin Chamberlain “
Oddly appropriate last name for the author of this snivelling drivel...
Wonder if he’s any relation.........
Baghdad is calm these days. I think it’s time for our troops to head south and get rid of the remainings of Mahdi Army and get Al Sadr killed or captured for this mess. If UK can’t, then US will have to do it.
‘Not only that: their very presence in Basra was now the problem.’
“was now”? What a writer.
Stopped reading right here.
The Brits gave up in Basra months ago. They just sat in the former palace and took daily rockets and motars rounds. Now they are only at the airport and have left the field. Send these wimps home and send in the marines.
I hope that it is, for it would certainly show that the British fighting forces are incapable of achieving victory anywhere.
and the descendents of this man will not return to Deopham Green to fight and fly for them ever again.
728th Squadron, 452nd Heavy Bombardment Group
I am so disappointed in the Brits. After what they did to fight off the Nazi’s in WW2 it is sad to see how they have morphed into a bunch of wimps more concerned with their image then saving the lives of their own citizens.
LOL! snivelling drivel BUMP!
It is clearly related to Harold Brown’s campaign pledges to remove British troops. All of this coincides with the new British Administration.
We should all look at the effects of this withdrawal as an instruction on what not to do. It would be better now, if the US would send in troops to the area and send the Brits to help in Afganistan, where they would be quite useful.
..If UK can’t, then US will have to do it...
Again !!!
...send the Brits to help in Afganistan, where they would be quite useful...
Doing what?.... promising to stay out in return for assurances that they will not be attacked....
Wow ! That’s Chamberlain all right.
“I am so disappointed in the Brits. After what they did to fight off the Nazi’s in WW2 it is sad to see how they have morphed into a bunch of wimps more concerned with their image then saving the lives of their own citizens.”
American dims and half of the Republicans in America (and about 25% of those that call themselves FReepers) today are just like them!
LLS
My own easy guess is that Basra and that region are now semi-Iranian territory. That Iran gave so much help to Shiite guerrillas they were able to drive the Brits out. So......
Brits out, Iran in
british weakness ping
Stopped reading right here.
A relative in and out of Basra in the period 2006-2007 had nothing good to say about British troops. With lightly armed vehicles they preferred to hunker down rather than hit the road. Their miserable performance did nothing to help the economy of the region — one that the Japanese had been ready and willing to support. There were great parts of Basra city they would not enter, and it was only thanks to South African mercs that any meetings could be arranged for consortium folks. If it hadn’t been for the coalition that Bush cobbled they would have been sent home and replaced by Eastern Europeans, or a company of National Guard, all of which were more dependable.
“...send the Brits to help in Afganistan, where they would be quite useful...
Doing what?.... promising to stay out in return for assurances that they will not be attacked....
Wow ! That’s Chamberlain all right.”
Perhaps you are not familiar with British operations in Afgahnistan where we have over seven and a half thousand troops committed to the ISAF as well as a substantial RAF, and where 77 have been killed in the past 18 months in some of the most intense combat the British Army has experienced since the Second World War. You should look into it.
“It is clearly related to Harold Brown’s campaign pledges to remove British troops.”
Who is Harold Brown and what is he campaigning for?
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