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 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.
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.
British forces have never been hunkered down in Iraq. Please, read wider articles posted on this very website before you judge men who have fought with great distinction.
Before I started properly reading into the Iraq conflict, my only knowledge of US forces in the War on Terror was that the US Army 10th Mountain Division ‘didn’t do mountains’ in Afghanistan so had to be replaced by British Royal Marines and that an entire US unit panicked and refused to go on convoy duty in Iraq. US forces have, as we all know, been gallant in the WoT. A judgement of them based on the two incidents I mentioned would not be fair.
As for US Marines replacing British troops. During operations in Fallujah a US marine unit moving to that city was replaced by a British group that held their operational area down with much fewer men. British and US armed forces are as good as each other. Both groups deserve respect.